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Appendix 4 -- Examples of the Involvement and Funding of Right-Wing Organizations That Advocate Tort Reform

Heritage Foundation

Heartland Institute

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)

Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

Federalist Society

National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)

Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy

Cato Institute

Citizens For a Sound Economy (CSE)

George Mason University School of Law Law and Economics Center

George MasonUniversity Foundation, Inc.

George Mason University

Heritage Foundation

Website: http://www.heritage.org/

Statements from the Heritage Foundation website:

"Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute ö a think tank ö whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." [108]

"We believe that ideas have consequences, but that those ideas must be promoted aggressively. So, we constantly try innovative ways to market our ideas." [109]

Example of Heritage Foundation tort-reform product:

"The Urgent Need for Civil Justice Reform" by Edwin Meese III and Paul Rosenzweig. [110] A sample from this commentary:

"These lawyers, with the complicity of creative judges in a few states, routinely create new rights and obligations where none had existed before. The tobacco cases are merely the blueprint for a strategy of systematically transferring political power to a select few. [. . .] The next set of targets for predatory lawsuits has been identified: With the assistance of state courts, tort lawyers next intend to reform the health-care system in America. And beyond the health-care system looms the specter of other "creative" suits. [. . .] In short, if the trial lawyers can't change America through the courts, they are seeking to buy the Congress they need to enact the agendas they support.

And every American, conservative or liberal, should fear the prospect. Because if we don't fix the civil justice system, we risk all that is precious in the American system -- democracy and self-government most of all." 

Heritage Foundation: Examples of recent major right-wing foundation funding: [111]

Heartland Institute

Website: http://www.heartland.org/

Example tort-reform product:

Publication "Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly," available at website. [112]

Example of corporate funding source, according to Friends of the Earth: [113]

Funding from ExxonMobil $90,000 in 2001

Example of interconnectedness:

From Heartland's Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly:

"Information on lawsuit abuse can be found on these Web sites:

• www.heartland.org -- Heartland Institute
• www.alec.org -- American Legislative Exchange Council
• www.atra.org -- American Tort Reform Association
• www.fed-soc.org -- Federalist Society
• www.halt.org - HALT
• www.manhattan-institute.org -- Manhattan Institute
• www.overlawyered.com - OverLawyered
• www.wlf.org -- Washington Legal Foundation"

Heartland Institute: Examples of recent foundation funding: [114]

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)

ATR is not directly tied to the tort-reform movement, but is included here because it funds Grover Norquist, who leads the weekly right-wing coordination meetings, and who has written that the real goal of tort reform is to "defund" trial lawyers as a step toward defunding "the left."

Web address: http://www.atr.org

Some examples of recent foundation funding: [115]

Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

Website: http://www.wlf.org/

Statements from the WLF website:

"WLF's broad-based communications outreach program disseminates our free enterprise message through print and electronic media, public education advertising campaigns, and on-site seminars and briefings. WLF also publishes its opinion editorials "In All Fairness" in The New York Times, which reaches seventy major media markets and is read by ninety percent of America's major newspaper editors.

WLF publishes timely legal studies in seven highly regarded formats written by expert authors. Through target marketing, our publications reach judges, federal and state legislators, executive branch officials, business leaders, the media, students, professors, and national decision-makers. To date, we have produced 1,470 publications." [116]

"WLF is a unique institution with three essential cornerstone programs:

• shaping public policy through aggressive litigation and advocacy
• publishing timely legal studies
• educating policy-makers and the public through extensive communications outreach" [117]

Example tort reform product:

Civil Justice Reform, Online Journal. [118]

WLF Publishes the Legal Opinion Letter, a pro- tort reform publication.

Washington Legal Foundation: Examples of recent foundation funding: [119]

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

Civil Justice Task Force

Website: http://www.alec.org/viewpage.cfm?pgname=5.03

"Established in 1973 by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, among others, ALEC's purpose is to reach out to state office holders. In the words of ALEC's executive director, Sam Brunelli,

ÎALEC's goal is to ensure that these state legislators are so well informed, so well armed, that they can set the terms of the public policy debate, that they can change the agenda, that they can lead. This is the infrastructure that will reclaim the states for our movement.'

ALEC has the financial support of more than 200 corporations including Coors, Amway, IBM, Ford, Philip Morris, Exxon, Texaco and Shell Oil." [120]

- Media Transparency description of ALEC

ALEC: Examples of recent foundation funding: [121]

FederalistSociety

Website: http://www.fed-soc.org/

Example tort reform product:

Publishes Class Action Watch. [122]

Federalist Society: Examples of recent foundation funding: [123]

National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)

Website: http://www.ncpa.org

Statement from NCPA's website:

"The NCPA's goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. Topics include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, criminal justice, education and environmental regulation."

From National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's study, "The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations":

"The NCPA's goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. Topics include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, criminal justice, education and environmental regulation."

"The National Center for Policy Analysis prides itself on aggressively marketing its products for maximum impact by "targeting key political leaders and special interest groups, establishing on-going ties with members of the print and electronic media, and testifying before Congress, federal agencies, state lawmakers, and national associations." [124]

Example tort-reform product:

"Doctors Face Soaring Malpractice Premiums" [125]

Examples of corporate funding sources, from Science in the Public Interest: [126]

National Center for Policy Analysis Board of Directors

• Thomas W. Smith, Managing Partner of Prescott Investors, Inc.
• John C. Goodman, President, NCPA
• Pete du Pont, Richards, Layton and Finger
• James Cleo Thompson, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Thompson Petroleum Corp.
• Jere W. Thompson, President, The Williamsburg Corporation
• Dan W. Cook III, Senior Director of Goldman Sachs & Co.
• Robert H. Dedman, Chairman of the Board, ClubCorp International
• Virginia Manheimer, Trustee, The Hickory Foundation
• Henry J. "Bud" Smith, Chairman Emeritus, Clark/Bardes, Inc.

Supporting Foundations include:

• DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund
• El Paso Energy Foundation
• ExxonMobil Foundation
• Eli Lilly and Company Foundation
• Lilly Endowment Inc.
• Procter & Gamble Fund" [127]