Activists targeting Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, including one dressed up in an elaborate ‘angry uterus’ costume, gathered again on Saturday at his home in Northeast Harbor to protest recent Supreme Court decisions and to air a hodgepodge of left-wing political grievances.
More than 40 protesters turned up for the gathering, with many carrying signs that referred disparagingly to Leo’s religious faith and spoke to protesters’ desire to see him run out of Northeast Harbor.
Several messages contained thinly veiled attacks on Leo’s Catholic faith and his affiliation with well-known Catholic organizations.
One instance of sidewalk chalk graffiti called Leo a “religious zealot” and an “extreme religious Opus Dei member.”
Another banner read “rosaries off ovaries,” with some of the letters stylized after Nazi SS insignia.
Another sign, with letters dripping blood red, read “Leo, You should not be enjoying your life here while you destroy others’ lives. Get out!”
One woman held a sign accusing Leo of funding “reproductive terrorism,” while another man held a sign similar alleging that “reproductive terrorism funds Leo.”
Another sign alleged that Leo was “one of the most dangerous men in the United States.”
Related social media posts and a website targeting Leo contain even more strident anti-Catholic messaging.
The recently created website currently carries artwork depicting Leo as a member of the Ku Klux Klan setting a cross on fire.
Perhaps unbeknownst to the artist, the last time cross-burnings were common in Maine was when the Klan was using acts of terrorism to scare Catholic immigrants into leaving the state during the 1920s.
Members of MDI Indivisible, a private Facebook group that has helped stoke the protests, also published attacks on Leo’s Catholicism.
“Leo is a fundamentalist Catholic,” wrote group member Harriet Mendlowitz. “His extreme, reactionary views inform his relentless, theocratically-based drive to pack the courts with like-minded judges who willfully and disingenuously deny an ever-changing and evolving world.”
Other examples of extreme rhetoric associated Leo with rape, while one activist scrawled in chalk the word “predator” at the mouth of his driveway.
“Can you tell me about your uterus,” an unnamed camerawoman asks of an elderly woman dressed in a red foam uterus costume.
“I’m an angry uterus,” the costumed woman says. “I’m really mad because Leonard Leo has inserted himself, and that is not okay.”
“Isn’t that called rape,” an off-camera voice asks, to which uterus-clad woman nods dramatically.
Some protesters held signs blaring messages that were simply false, such as the claim that the overturning of Roe v. Wade “criminalized miscarriages” or banned birth control.
Although Leo has been a resident of Northeast Harbor for several years, he has only drawn the anger of liberal protesters since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Left-wing agitators have connected Leo to Supreme Court rulings they don’t like because of his publicized role in advising former Republican President Donald Trump on which American jurists to nominate for Supreme Court vacancies, as well as his connections with influential conservative organizations.
The Dobbs decision didn’t ban abortion, birth control, or criminalize miscarriages. Instead, it placed decisions over abortion laws at the state level, where state legislatures across the country have since enacted various abortion regulations in accordance with state-level political dynamics.
In Maine, the Dobbs decision, ironically, helped secure passage of one of the most permissive abortion laws ever enacted in the history of western civilization.
Videos and photographs taken by protesters Saturday appeared to show several out-of-state license plates, suggesting many those protesting are not year round residents.
Other signs at the protest bore more confused messages, such as one that accused Leo of “playing marbles with our lives.”
Some of the protesters carried fishing reels and printed out pictures of fish and Supreme Court justices — an apparent reference to the liberal belief, based on reporting from the ProPublica website, that a fishing trip Leo helped organize with billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer and Justice Samuel Alito resulted in favorable rulings from Alito in cases involving Singer’s business interests.
Justice Alito responded to the allegations and innuendo in the ProPublica report with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
In his response, Alito said he was never aware of Singer’s connection to parties with matters before the court and that even if he was, he would not have been required to recuse himself from those cases under federal rules on the books at the time.
He also said that multiple members of his staff check cases to see whether his recusal is required.
Alito also pointed out that receiving “hospitality” was not a required disclosure at the time of the fishing trip.
[RELATED: Media Spin: Full Police Audio of Leonard Leo Protester’s Arrest Exposes Bogus Narrative…]
Nonetheless, the idea that a Supreme Court justice voted “yea” in cases when he otherwise would have voted “nay” solely because of a fishing trip has remained remarkably stubborn in the liberal imagination, as evidenced by the wader-wearing fisherwomen protesting in Northeast Harbor.
While Maine has seen its fair share of political protests over the years, including protests targeting conservative politicians, the demonstrations in Northeast Harbor are distinct in how they’ve targeted a private citizen at his home and invoked his religious beliefs.
So far, few political leaders in Maine have spoken out in Leo’s defense or condemned that attacks on his Catholicism.
[RELATED: Bar Harbor May Pay $150k to Oberlin Grad Who Harassed Leonard Leo and His Family…]
The latest protest followed the filing on Thursday of a lawsuit against two police officers from the Bar Harbor Police Department and the Mount Desert Police Department.
Eli Durand-McDonnell, who joined some protests at Leo’s house last year, was arrested for disorderly conduct after he screamed obscenities at Leo, his wife, and their 11-year-old daughter as they walked down Main Street.
Durand-McDonnell is alleging that he was wrongfully arrested for engaging in political protest.
He’s asking for $150,000 in damages from the police departments.
[RELATED: Maine Wire Podcast: Leonard Leo In His Own Words…]
“So far, few political leaders in Maine have spoken out in Leo’s defense or condemned that attacks on his Catholicism.”
That’s because he has become a pariah even to the right. Also it’s clear to anyone with a brain that the protests are against his actions to pack the court with unqualified judges who will rule a certain way, not because he is Catholic (as are many protesters, if you bothered to check).
Fact Checker-
The people who push abortion universally mock Christians and Catholics. Its their schtick. “Jesus freaks!” Its why every show youve ever seen that covers the topic has protesters carrying crosses and gesticulating bible thumpers. Why bother blowing smoke at us? You know the left lay blame for everything at the feet of White Male Christians (Catholics too, cuz bibles n such). Racism, Patriarchy, inequality, slavery, climate change, hurt feelings, fast cars, gunsgunsguns, underprivileged youth massacres, and so forth. If Leo was Jewish would the signs with yellow stars be “tee-hee” or would you consider that hateful? If he were Muslim and you chose to draw a cresent moon with bacon on his driveway, is that cool? You people are so hateful its almost comical. Watching you call black people stupid for low test scores, while laying the blame at the feet of “Institutional racisms”. Whatever your brain farts out for the days hate label. Christianity/Catholicism is the only religion you can openly hate, insult its worshipers, draw spiteful caricatures, and lambast the quotes of scripture as “for men only”. Roe vs Maynard. Fact check me.
Ladies, they just pushed abolitions back on the states, you can still murder your babies, calm the f/k down!
Got to love the party of death, if they can’t kill a baby in the womb they will groom them in the public schools.
Oh the spin….as if revealing some of the protestors as being Catholic brings more legitimacy to their demented nonsense. Biden and Pelosi both claim to be Catholic but both support abortion so please tell me where in Catholic doctrine that belief is stated.
Biden’s pick for SCOTUS…Ms. Brown…is a great example of “unqualified judges who will rule a certain way”. She couldn’t even define what a woman is.
thanks for sharing an interesting post, this information was the price, I read it while the service wrote types of essays in my place, and I rested 🙂
Most people in that area despise the protesters. We don’t believe they should be in front of his house…and certainly shouldn’t be yelling profanities at his children. Disgraceful and embarrassing to the locals.
Eli Durand-McDonnell is not a “contractor” – he works for a non profit that teaches boys to hate themselves (Boys to Men). Ek\li has never done a hard days work in his short life.
Jailkeep on July 24, 2023 8:16 PM
Ladies, they just pushed abolitions back on the states, you can still murder your babies, calm the f/k down!
Where is the blasted like /thumbs up button?
d abolitions back on the a non profit that teaches boys to hate fe
It’s not anti-Catholic, as even the Pope agrees. In 2019, in response to Vatican reporter Nicolas Seneze’s book arguing that Americans wanted a different Pope,”He (the Pope) always considers criticism an honor, particularly when they come from authoritative thinkers-in this case from an important nation.” But the overwhelmingly majority of Americans are rightfully anti-Christian Nationalism, as we have demonstrated through the popular vote results & recent ballot initiatives. However, that doesn’t fit Mr. Moneybag’s authoritarian agenda. He continues to use his endless supply of money to relentlessly undermine the rights of all Americans through voter suppression techniques, bought judges who are hardly qualified for the job (but all it takes for Leo is that they commit to opposing abortion), bought politicians (character doesn’t matter just have to be willing to push his agenda),bought RAGAs (who have demonstrated nothing but stupidity -wasting money & time attacking Target),bought Secretaries of State, deceptive copy & paste ALEC (carefully crafted to hid the Christian Nationalism group that contributed to writing it-ex David Barton) & giving large sums of money to non-expert, greedy individuals from “think tanks” (indoctrination tanks) who have zero integrity, like Nicole Neily who has provided the talking points & encouraged the attack on my school board, our teachers & is disrupting my child’s rightful education.
The self-victimization of the self-appointed King. Theocrat Leonard Leo and the deranged cult members of Council for National Policy (his “dear friend” unhinged obnoxious Q believer,Ginni Thomas) + their billionaire circle (Koch, Harlan Crow, Paul Singer, DeVos, Barre Seide,Tim Busch, Mercer,Bradley,etc) are the biggest threat to American democracy & democracies all over the world. It is indisputable, Leonard Leo, the Cheshire Cat,believing he is a God and that us “unchurched and uninformed” humans need to be saved from “demonic influences” through the authoritarian control of him & his allies at all cost. Hiding behind religion to justify hating your fellow Americans for who they love and chipping away at our reasonable civil rights. Playing doctor, with government interference of our reproductive healthcare & personal family planning. Ruining life on Earth for all of us because heaven is most important and based on what he funds seems to enjoy psychological, physical, & financial human suffrage. Cloaking the theocratic agenda as “Constitutional Originalism”. Politicizing religious liberty as if HE is a victim of oppression, when no one was forcing him to do things he doesn’t find moral. And unlike Jesus, he’s simply intolerant of others. Acting as if the mere existence & acknowledgment of someone gay is violating his religious liberty. Americans are sick of his gaslighting & his abuse of humanity as he attempts to destroy everything that doesn’t fit his extremist ideology & sets an agenda that creates unnecessary human suffrage. Picking the judges and funding the amicus briefs that fit his self-righteous agenda and the pockets of his friends. Void of reason & logic. Never, ever playing fair and justifying his actions with whataboutisms & false equivalencies, when the absolute factual truth is there is absolutely nothing comparable to Leo’s personal manipulation of democracy and indoctrination on the left. He is always projecting & avoiding the light, as is his Republican Party. Funding, perpetuating & emboldening the violence & white nationalist we are horrifically bearing witness too in our communities, refusing transparency, deceiving Americans with blatant lies & alt-fact propaganda & below the belt smear campaigns both on the left & the right-if you don’t play Leo’s game he’ll pour millions into your replacement. Love thy neighbor as they are, being inclusive, & simply just letting people live their lives is “demonic”to his group, because they blinded by their religion, egos, grievances, greed, fear+paranoia, narcissistic need for complete power & control. Behaving like Al-Qaeda, just with a different book.
Why doesn’t this include a disclaimer at the top that this is opinion, not reporting? Worst kind of “journalism.”