Leonard Leo had a vision for his alma mater, and he had the money to back it up. With a donation of as much as $25 million, he wanted Cornell Law to establish the Center for the Study of the Structural Constitution — the biggest effort yet by the conservative megadonor to reshape academia in his right-wing image.
After months of courtship, the proposal — which has before never been disclosed — hit a snag in the fall of 2021.
Cornell professors worried a center sponsored by Leo, one of the architects of the conservative legal movement, would establish a beachhead for far-right scholarship. Unable to convince the school that gave him both his undergraduate and law degrees to build his research center, Leo walked away, or so he claims.
But he didn’t abandon his law school campaign.
Snubbed by the Ivy League, Leo found a new home for his pet project. The Intercept followed the money trail to reveal how the man known primarily as the Trump administration’s “court whisperer” has secretly funneled part of his billion-dollar war chest to the law school at Texas A&M University. Money has also flowed to several other law schools through one of Leo’s favorite dark-money funds, with many donations bearing the hallmarks of his broader aim to overhaul the legal academy.
Professors at the law schools Leo targeted for shadow philanthropy — more than a dozen of whom spoke with The Intercept, most on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions — are worried Leo is trying to incubate fringe conservative scholarship at top programs.
And many think he’s just getting started.
Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Double Cornellian
Leo is a Cornell man twice over, having finished his undergrad in 1987 and his J.D. from Cornell Law in 1989. After founding Cornell’s student chapter of the Federalist Society, he went on to become the national organization’s executive vice president and now co-chair. In the decades that followed, Leo advised on every conservative nomination to the Supreme Court since Chief Justice John Roberts.
On top of handpicking judges, Leo made himself a dominant fundraiser for conservative legal causes, especially efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade. During the Obama administration, groups linked to Leo spent millions to stonewall the nomination of then-Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. In 2018, Justice Clarence Thomas, a longtime friend, quipped Leo had made himself “the Number Three most powerful person in the world.”
In 2021, Leo orchestrated a historic $1.6 billion windfall for his primary dark-money vehicle, the Marble Freedom Trust, which he controls as chair. It was likely the largest donation to a political nonprofit ever.
Along the way to becoming one of the conservative legal movement’s chief architects and piggybanks, Leo honed his academic philanthropy chops too.
In 2016, Leo helped broker a $20 million anonymous gift to George Mason University in exchange for renaming its law school after the late Justice Antonin Scalia. This donation is widely suspected to be from the same donor who later gave Leo more than $1 billion.
An Intercept investigation reveals:
- Right-wing megadonor Leonard Leo considered donating $25 million to Cornell Law School to establish a research center; the deal fell apart amid faculty opposition.
- Instead he secretly donated $15 million for a research center with a nearly identical name at Texas A&M School of Law, the university’s former president confirmed.
- Leo’s preferred donor-advised fund distributed millions to other law schools across the country to fund research centers and endowed professorships.
Leo maintained a close relationship with Cornell over the decades, including during his time advising the Trump administration on judicial nominations, when he gave two talks at Cornell Law discussing his views on the “structural Constitution.” Cleverly bland and amorphous — much like “originalism” or “textualism” — a “structuralist” analysis of the Constitution can mean many things, including basic principles like separation of powers and federalism.
To many Cornell Law professors, however, a Leo-sponsored center devoted to the “structural Constitution” registered as a potential launchpad for right-wing legal theories at an elite, generally liberal institution. They saw it as an attempt to buy credibility for Leo’s broader, arch-conservative views, many of which have extraordinarily low support among legal scholars nationwide.
Leo first discussed a donation of up to $25 million with Cornell Law’s then-dean, Eduardo Peñalver, who stepped down in late 2020, according to a source close to Leo. The donation would have been among the largest in Cornell Law’s history. (Peñalver, now the president of Seattle University, did not respond to The Intercept’s inquiries.)
By fall 2021, the plan was put in writing. The source shared a copy of an undated proposal, which he said Cornell sent to Leo in October 2021.
Cornell declined to answer The Intercept’s questions about its discussions with Leo, including why the deal ultimately stalled.
In an email statement, the current Cornell Law dean, Jens David Ohlin, mentioned that they have confidential conversations with alumni and others regarding potential philanthropic gifts.
The proposal outlined the creation of the “Charles Evans Hughes Center for the Study of the Structural Constitution,” named after the former Supreme Court chief justice. Initially funded by Leo with $15 million over five years, including $5 million for an endowed chair, the center aimed to become a hub for the structuralist movement.
However, when presented to the faculty, concerns were raised about potential political bias and constraints on the center’s scope. Following faculty feedback, Cornell revised the proposal to offer a $10 million endowment for the “Charles Evans Hughes Professorship in Constitutional Law,” leading Leo to walk away in early 2022.
Despite the setback at Cornell, Leo found a new home for his vision at Texas A&M University Law School. Texas A&M received $5 million from DonorsTrust earmarked for the “Center on the Structural Constitution,” ultimately striking a $15 million deal to establish the center.
While Leo’s involvement was not widely publicized at Texas A&M, the agreement prohibited the public acknowledgment of the donor without prior approval. Leo’s connection to the university stemmed from his involvement with the former president, Michael K. Young, who appointed Leo as an external reviewer for a research institute in 2020. Young later confirmed Leo’s funding for the Center on the Structural Constitution at Texas A&M. He informed The Intercept that he had knowledge of the donation. Starting in 2020, Stanford’s student chapter of the Federalist Society began receiving $25,000 annually. Stanford directed inquiries about the funding to the Federalist Society and DonorsTrust.
George Mason University’s Scalia Law School also received significant funding, with at least $4 million per year since 2017 from DonorsTrust. This money was intended for its Law & Economics Center, which organizes events for judges, including luxury doctrinal bootcamps in locations like Leonard Leo’s backyard.
After a deal with Cornell fell through in 2022, new donations were made to law schools without the resources of Ivy League universities or the conservative reputation of George Mason. These donations, like the funding for Leo’s center at Texas A&M, had specific instructions on how the money should be used, reflecting Leo’s priorities.
One of the schools that received funding in 2022 was Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Leonard Leo and the Knights of Columbus were involved in the establishment of a new endowed professorship and research center at the law school, focusing on the intersection of the U.S. Constitution and the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Leo’s contributions to Catholic University were initially anonymous, but later revealed to be part of a $8.25 million funding package for the new professorship and center. DonorsTrust’s filings for 2022 show a $4.1 million contribution earmarked for the Knights of Columbus Professor of Law at the university.
Leo, a devout Catholic, has been recognized for his fundraising efforts at the intersection of faith and law. The new research center at Catholic University has hosted talks by Supreme Court justices and attracted conservative judges as visiting jurists.
Other law schools, such as South Texas College of Law Houston, also received earmarked donations from DonorsTrust in 2022. For instance, South Texas College of Law received $1 million for an endowed chair for Professor Josh Blackman. Blackman, a constitutional law expert, is known for his commentary on legal issues and his association with the Federalist Society. In March, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump without addressing Blackman’s argument.
Blackman has criticized recent investigative reporting about conservative Supreme Court justices Alito and Thomas — including coverage of Alito’s apparent interest in mixed-message flags.
Questions about Blackman’s funding were directed to South Texas College of Law, which did not respond to The Intercept.
According to tax records, South Texas College of Law receives very few large donations. The school never raised more than $10 million in a single year, compared to the $1 million earmarked for Blackman in 2022. In its most recent filing, the school raised just $3.7 million total, with only $1 million excluding government grants.
The contribution to Blackman’s endowment is the largest to South Texas College of Law since its alumni foundation folded and transferred $1.5 million in cash to the school in 2014.
Despite the significant gift, South Texas College of Law did not publicly announce it. In March 2023, Blackman became the “Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law,” as stated in his CV.
In 2022, donations via DonorsTrust were also made to lesser-known schools. Ave Maria School of Law received $600,000, with the donor remaining anonymous due to the school’s policy. Leonard Leo previously served on Ave Maria’s board.
Additionally, $40,000 was allocated to the University of San Diego for a law school center named “the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism,” which is slightly different from the one mentioned earlier. Please rewrite the sentence.
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