Judicial Watch

Logo of Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch is an organization which describes itself as "a conservative, non-partisan American educational foundation that promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law."^[1] According to its mission statement, Judicial Watch "advocates high standards of ethics and morality in America's public life and seeks to ensure that political and [[judicial officials do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people."^[2]

History

Founded by conservative attorney Larry Klayman in 1994^[3], Judicial Watch came to public attention after filing 18 lawsuits against the administration of Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton and figures in the Clinton administration. The organization received considerable financial support from prominent Clinton critics, including $7.74 million from conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.^[4] This led Clinton administration officials to accuse Judicial Watch of "abusing the judicial system for partisan ends."^[5]

However, in July, 2003 Judicial Watch joined the environmental organization the Sierra Club in suing the George W. Bush administration for access to minutes of Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force.^[6]After several years of legal wrangling, in May, 2005 an appeals court permitted the Energy Task Force's records to remain secret.^[7][8]

In September 2003, Klayman left the organization to run for the United States Senate from Florida.^[9] In 2006 Klayman sued Judicial Watch and its president Tom Fitton. The lawsuit charged Fitton misrepresented his academic and professional credentials upon hiring, and upon assuming his position engaged in false and misleading fund raising, misuse of donor money, failure to appoint an attorney as Chairman, failure to comply with a promised severance package to Klayman, and other actions which damaged Judicial Watch, the donors and Klayman. The lawsuit is ongoing.^[10][11]

In 2006 Judicial Watch sued the Secret Service to force the release of logs detailing corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House. This resulted in the release of a number of documents.^[12][13]

In 2007 former donor Peter F. Paul sued Judicial Watch, accusing it of using his name to raise more than $15 million to support his lawsuit against Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton while doing little to advance his case.^[14][15][16]

Positions

The motto of Judicial Watch is "because no one is above the law."^[2] The bulk of Judicial Watch's cases involve transparency in government and government integrity, and the organization has taken positions on a wide range of issues.^[17] Judicial Watch supports:

• "High standards of ethics and morality in our nation's public life";^[2]
• "Conservative goals of accountability and openness in government" through freedom of information legislation;^[2] and
• Increasing public awareness of corruption and misconduct by government officials;^[2]

Activities

According to David Corn, Judicial Watch uses litigation as its primary tool, ^[3] and its web page contains detailed information on current litigation matters.^[17] A sample of Judicial Watch activities include:

• Suing the town of Herndon, Virginia to stop a "day laborer" program on the grounds that it may provide employment for illegal aliens.
• Suing the U.S. Senate to disallow the filibuster in their debates over confirmation of judicial nominees, coinciding with proposed efforts by Republican Senate leaders to internally do the same thing.
• Criticizing the Bush administration for their guest worker program, obtaining evidence of a spike in illegal immigration denied by the administration.
• Initiating a request to the Naval Inspector General for an investigation into the "legitimacy and propriety" of the awards John Kerry received for his service in Vietnam.^[18] The inspector general's office subsequently determined that Kerry's awards "were properly approved" and declined to take further action in the matter^[19]; the office also responded to Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act request with documentation of its review.^[20]
• Criticizing the U.S. Navy for securing a public relations firm to encourage Puerto Ricans to vote to keep a Naval testing range at Vieques, Puerto Rico.
• Investigating fund-raising activities relating to the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy.^[21]
• Rejecting the adjudicated innocence of David Rosen, who served as campaign finance director for Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign for the U.S. Senate and had been indicted for filing false reports.
• Condemning as "murder" the death of Terri Schiavo, who lived for 15 years in a diagnosed persistent vegetative state and whose husband wished to allow to die. Her parents wished that she be kept on life support, and were joined in their pursuits by prominent Republicans.
• Calling for Republican Tom DeLay to step down as House Majority Leader calling his actions on Medicare "inappropriate" and "unacceptable".^[22]
• Filing a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton for alleged fraudulent accounting practices.^[23]
• Judicial Watch gained media attention when a judge in a separate lawsuit ordered the Department of Justice to release live video taken from relevant security cameras at The Pentagon on September 11, 2001. On May 16, 2006 the group released the videos from the two cameras on their website with hopes to "...put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77..."^[24]
• On June 20, 2007 the group released FBI documents related to the “expeditious departure” of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, from the United States following the 9/11 attacks. According to one of the documents, dated September 21, 2001, Osama bin Laden himself may have chartered one of the Saudi flights.^[25]

Funding

In 2002, Judicial Watch received $1.1 million from The Carthage Foundation^[26] and a further $400,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Both foundations are managed by Richard Mellon Scaife. ^[26] The year before the Scaife Foundation gave $1.35 million and Carthage $500,000.^[26]

In all, between 1997 and 2002 Judicial Watch received $7,069,500 (unadjusted for inflation) in 19 grants from a handful of foundations. The bulk of this funding came from just three foundations – the Sarah Scaife Foundation, The Carthage Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.^[26] According to MediaTransparency, "Judicial Watch is essentially a tool of Richard Mellon Scaife, who provides almost all its funding."^[26]

See also

• Judicial activism

Notes

External links

• Judicial Watch
• JudicialWatch.org - Official website showing the two videos released on May 16, 2006
• Statement By Tom Fitton On Proposed Changes To House Ethics Process Rules, Public Citizen web site, undated.