The head of a left-wing dark money group that the GOP has taken aim at in recent years over its efforts to pack the Supreme Court is slated to step down this fall, he announced on Thursday.
Demand Justice, which as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization does not have to disclose its donors, has established itself as an influential Democratic-linked activist hub trying to radically upend the federal judiciary. Brian Fallon, its executive director who was national press secretary for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, informed Demand Justice's board of directors in a letter this week that he will help the group "identify a successor and ensure a seamless transition."
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"And as we have discussed, I intend to remain close to the organization on an ongoing basis through my service on the boards of both entities, and via my role as President of the PAC," Fallon wrote in the letter to Demand Justice and its charity arm, Demand Justice Initiative. The super PAC affiliated with Demand Justice, which supports Democratic candidates, launched in 2020.
Demand Justice formed in 2018 as a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, another 501(c)(4) nonprofit group managed by Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consultancy overseeing the largest liberal dark money network in the United States. Shortly after getting off the ground, Demand Justice initiated a campaign to fight then-President Donald Trump's nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, organizing protests, paid advertisements, and pressuring Congress to investigate his anti-abortion positions.
The pro-court packing entity, which in 2021 took $4.5 million from the George Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center, spent seven figures on ads taking aim at then-nominee Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. It also supports ending the filibuster and passing the Democratic-led Judiciary Act to add four more seats to the Supreme Court.
Carrie Severino, a lawyer who heads Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group, told the Washington Examiner she doesn't "expect much to change at Demand Justice," since Fallon is staying on the board of directors.
Aside from backing an expansion of the court, Demand Justice is now one of several organizations calling for proposed ethics reforms to the judiciary after reports on Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito not disclosing certain financial matters — despite there not being laws requiring doing so. Still, reports have surfaced on liberal justices failing to report items that ethics experts say amount to a lack of transparency. It's unclear who Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020, steered a $1 million prize she received in 2019 from the Berggruen Institute, a group founded by billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
"Brian Fallon was very effective in radicalizing Democrats into politicizing the federal judiciary," Mike Davis, ex-chief counsel for nominations to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) between 2017 and 2019, and president of the Article III Project, a conservative courts group, told the Washington Examiner.
Demand Justice was notably incorporated in Washington, D.C., by Ezra Reese, political law chairman for Elias Law Group, the major Democratic-aligned firm headed by lawyer Marc Elias, according to records. Fallon, a former spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder in President Barack Obama's Justice Department and aide for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), touted Demand Justice's influence in his letter about stepping down.
"On judicial nominations, Demand Justice has helped propel a historic shift in the approach taken by Democratic administrations," Fallon wrote. "In 2019, our call for the next Democratic president to prioritize civil rights lawyers and public defenders for judicial vacancies over corporate lawyers and prosecutors was considered edgy."
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"Finally, I am grateful to all of you, our Board members, for agreeing to perform this role two years ago when Demand Justice spun off from our fiscal parent and became independent. You have shared your time and knowledge so generously, and been an important resource and sounding board for me," he continued.
Demand Justice and Fallon did not reply to requests for comment. It's unclear what other role Fallon is accepting.