We Need to Have a Talk About Leonard Leo’s Version of Catholicism

A new book investigates a secretive Catholic sect that appears to have an outsized influence on U.S. courts and the law. On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss a key player in this battle, Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo; his efforts to silence critics who point out the authoritarian scope of his vision; and the real-world impact of his assault on personal freedoms. Perhaps we should start with a quote from Leonard Leo, speaking in 2022, as he accepted the John Paul II New Evangelization Award at an event held by the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C.: Current-day bigots, the progressive Ku Klux Klan, spread false and slanderous rhetoric about Catholic apostolates, and institutions like the one represented here tonight. Leo’s speech at the Catholic Information Center is worth listening to in its entirety, but I was particularly struck by the line about nonbelievers: “the unchurched” and how they can’t be reasoned with. Here’s one of his observations, delivered from hospice and published in a book: “What we call feminism is the attempt to flee both of the punishments handed to Eve: the pain of procreation and the pain of turning to men for approval and self-esteem.” I can’t help but recoil at every single part of that, especially following last week’s ProPublica reporting on the deaths of two women in Georgia who died as a direct result of the Dobbs decision.