The Yale Law Journal

Sheldon Whitehouse

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A Flood of Judicial Lobbying: Amicus Influence and Funding Transparency

Sheldon Whitehouse

This Essay explores how amicus briefs became a tool for coordinated judicial lobbying by dark-money interests. I show how current funding-disclosure rules for amici fail to provide genuine transparency—undermining fairness—and discuss reforms that could improve the judiciary’s amicus-disclosure regi…