A3P: Article III Project

[2019-05-23]:  Wellspring Committee: An influential 'dark money' group turns off the lights for the last time

At least one new group has already risen from Wellspring's ashes: the Article III Project (A3P).

Formed to "fight to confirm President Trump's judicial nominees" and defend sitting judges, A3P was launched as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit May 18 2019, indicating it will not disclose its donors. Any money funneled to A3P through another nonprofit organization is not required to be disclosed until tax returns are due months after the end of the fiscal year when that payment took place, and other funding from individuals or opaque entities like limited-liability companies may remain hidden from the public.

A3P was sculpted in the mold of its predecessors and plans to work closely with the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN). "Excited to work hand-in-glove with @JCNSeverino, my other longtime friends at JCN, and many others on the outside who understand the critical importance of the judicial fight," A3P president Mike Davis tweeted.

Davis was chief counsel for Senate Judiciary Committee during the most recent Supreme Court of the United States confirmation battles and Justice Neil Gorsuch's former law clerk. His talks at Federalist Society events have earned the distinction of being included in the congressional record at the request of his former employer, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). During Davis' time at the Senate, he played a pivotal role in securing votes for Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Dubbed the Kavanaugh confirmation fight's "warrior" and the "general" of the Gorsuch confirmation battle, Davis has differentiated A3P from other groups with a more militant approach, promising to "punch back" with a "brass knuckles approach."

According to Davis, these punches are warranted. A3P was launched partly in response to Demand Justice, a liberal dark money group launched in 2018 as the left's counterweight to Wellspring Committee and JCN. Demand Justice's arrival on the scene brought with it a significant shift to the judicial money race, which has traditionally been one-sided with the vast majority of funds from the right, most of which can be traced to JCN and Wellspring.

[2020-05-26]  Judicial machine chugs along in Senate amid coronavirus pandemic

While the coronavirus crisis has brought most congressional action to glacial creep, the Senate machine churning out President Trump's judicial nominations is still humming. Since February 11 2020, the Senate has confirmed nine federal judges, bringing the total number of judges on the federal bench appointed by President Trump to 196. ... Once they're confirmed, all of the vacancies on the 12 U.S. circuit courts of appeals will be filled. Mike Davis, head of the Article III Project, a judicial advocacy group, said he cannot recall a past president filling all vacancies on the regional circuit courts.

[2020-04-03]  Conservative dark money groups gear up for battle over DC Circuit Court that once included Brett Kavanaugh

[2019-05-18] Conservative Group Wants to Bring 'Brass Knuckles' Approach to Judicial Fray

In the latest escalation of partisanship surrounding federal judicial nominations, an advocacy group is being created on the right to maintain momentum behind the Republican judicial juggernaut and prepare for the inevitable next Supreme Court fight.

Named the Article III Project for the section of the Constitution that established the judiciary, the organization will be led by Mike Davis, a former Republican Senate and White House aide who was a central figure in the confirmations of Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Mr. Davis, 41, is known as a take-no-prisoners conservative eager to challenge the left with hardball tactics. He now intends to apply those techniques to judicial confirmations from the outside after his inside work on behalf of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and scores of federal judicial nominees seated on the bench since the start of the Trump administration.

"What I want to do with the Article III Project is take off the gloves, put on the brass knuckles and fight back," said Mr. Davis, an Iowa native who was the chief nominations counsel for Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee until this year.

...

Mr. Davis said he had already banked significant seed money for his organization from donors he chooses not to disclose. He hopes to raise at least $1 million a year to bring on board a small staff of lawyers and communications professionals. He said his plan was not only to push for conservative judicial nominees, but also to come to the defense of sitting justices and judges facing attacks and calls for impeachment from the left. He pointed to the furor over the plan for Justice Kavanaugh to teach an overseas summer law school program for George Mason University, ridiculing "cupcake undergraduates" for raising a fuss.

...

The new group [Article III Project], abbreviated A3P, is partly a response to the creation of Demand Justice, a progressive organization trying to raise Democratic intensity over judicial conflicts. It was formed after Mr. McConnell stonewalled President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court of the United States in 2016 and Mr. Trump's subsequent election.

Mr. Davis said he saw his emerging organization as a complement to -- not a competitor of -- other conservative judicial advocacy groups such as the Judicial Crisis Network and said they would work in concert.

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