The Powell Memo [TEASER]

that my good butter?

Can't discuss that now, Marge.

I have to write another delicious memo.

Mmm, memo.

Hey, everyone, this is Leon from Prologue Projects.

On this subscriber-only episode of 5-4, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are talking about the Powell memo.

Lewis Powell was a conservative Supreme Court justice who sat on the bench from 1972 until 1987.

But before joining the court, Powell wrote an influential memo laying out a strategy for corporations to build political power in the courts, the academy, and the media, and to mount a counterattack against the social movements of the 1960s.

As you'll hear, the Powell memo can now be seen as an opening salvo in the conservative legal movement's organized campaign to transform American politics.

I think we're seeing the culmination of the Powell doctrine, so to speak, which is that corporations should not be checked, should not be fettered, and that they have free reign of the land.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court and corporations suck.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have stretched our patience like an Adrian Brody speech at the Oscars.

Nice.

I'm Peter.

I'm here with Rhiannon.

Hey.

And Michael.

It was the worst.

It was truly

the worst.

You know, I thought when those Amelia Perez songwriters started singing in their acceptance speech, that would be the low light of the show.

And Brody was like, I can beat that.

Yeah.

I can beat that.

Real race to the bottom.

A lot of terms like toxic masculinity get overused, but I'm sorry, a woman would never have done that.

It just doesn't.

it's just one of those things where you're like, this is us.

You know what I mean?

Like,

there's something in our brain that allows us to do this.

And women are like, no.

And that doesn't mean that the ladies are free of sin.

That lady did start singing at the end of her speech.

Right.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

But it's different.

There's just different things.

We're all cursed in different ways.

And

my God, what a burden that man is.

And by the way, I don't care how good people say the brutalist is four hours long yeah no thank you no thank you absolutely not i'm gonna say pass on that one the irishman was 330 and that was a gangster movie that's built for me even like by the end of that i was like all right yeah yeah i just watched uh barry linden which i enjoyed and it's like you know people say a masterpiece from one of the great filmmakers of all time and i was like Three hours.

Three hours.

That was indulgent.

Yeah.

It's a lot.

Yeah.

So longer than that.

And then people I trust have told me that, like, the first half of the movie, they were like, I think this might be the best movie I've ever seen.

Not only did it stick the landing, it like compound fractured its ankle on the way down.

No.

Bone sticking out and

bleeding all over the place.

It's real brutal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Before we move on, I should say I might sound a little bit different.

Number one, I'm a little sick.

Number two, I have a new mic set up here.

So listeners, be patient.

You're in a different room.

I'm actually in a room.

I'm usually in the closet of this room.

Yeah.

Your mellifluous tone is still coming through beautifully in my earphones.

Thank you so much.

All right.

So today we are talking about Lewis Powell, former Supreme Court justice, now dead, and his...

famous memo from the early 1970s, nicknamed the Powell Memo, which many people believe to be a blueprint for

the intrusion.

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