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Non-profit

Committee for Justice (CFJ)

Website:

www.committeeforjustice.org/
Location:

Washington, DC
Tax ID:

04-3693799
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2017):

Assets: $115,696
Type:

Right-of-center Legal Group
Formation:

2002 1

References

  1. “Committee for Justice.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/company/committee-for-justice/
Budget (2022):

Revenue: $799,000
Expenses: $471,097
Total Assets: $669,688 1

References

  1. Committee for Justice. “Pro Publica.” Accessed May 10, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/43693799

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

The Committee for Justice (CFJ) is a right-of-center legal group founded in 2002 by the late C. Boyden Gray, former White House Counsel for President George H. W. Bush and later U.S. Ambassador to the European Union in the administration of President George W. Bush. 1 The stated mission was to restore the Founders’ vision of a federal judiciary governed by the rule of law and Constitution. 2

Gray founded the organization in response to Senate Democrats blocking President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. 3 Former Energy Secretary and U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) later joined Gray to run the organization. 4

Curt Levey became president of the Committee for Justice in 2005. 5

Background

The Committee for Justice is a conservative-leaning legal group that claims to focus on holding judges and politicians accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law. 6

The late former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray founded the organization in 2002. 7 CFJ advocates for legal and policy issues in Congress and the courts. 8 The organization has been involved in legal advocacy, media relations, lobbying, advising politicians and candidates, and running media campaigns. 9

Founding

Origin

The Committee for Justice was founded in July 2002 by C. Boyden Gray, former White House Counsel for President George H.W. Bush, in response to Senate Democrats blocking President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees.

During President George W. Bush’s first term, then-Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) recruited Gray to “set up something that could combat the well-organized groups on the left like People for the American Way and the Alliance for Justice,” Gray said. He also had encouragement from Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove. 10

Former President George H.W. Bush held a fundraising event for the Committee for Justice at his Houston home that raised $250,000. Later, Bush’s grandson, Texas politician George P. Bush, headlined a Washington fundraising event. Gray also received funding from organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which previously avoided judicial confirmation battles. 11

Initial Leadership

Gray announced the Committee for Justice in July 2002. Lobbyist Ed Rogers and international trade lawyer Edwin Williams, fellow alumni of the George H.W. Bush administration, joined him as co-founders of the new organization. 12

Gray clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren. 13 He was later a top adviser for George H.W. Bush during his Vice Presidency in the Reagan administration, and was the counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief during the Reagan administration. He went onto become White House Counsel for the first President Bush. In addition to founding the Committee for Justice after leaving government work, Gray worked for the George Mason University’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, and was a founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates. He died in 2023. 14

Ed Rogers was deputy assistant to the president and executive assistant to the Chief of Staff in the George H.W. Bush White House. He was a founding member of the lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers in 1991. Rogers was a senior deputy to Bush-Quayle 1988 Campaign Manager Lee Atwater. He was also a Washington Post columnist from 2011 through 2017. 15

Edwin Williamson is an attorney who was a legal adviser for the U.S. State Department during the George H.W. Bush administration, and specialized in international trade law and national security law. He went onto work for the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. 16

Founding board members in 2002 included then-Michigan Gov. John Engler (R), then-Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, former U.S. Senator Connie Mack III (R-FL), former White House Counsel Fred Fielding, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour. 17

Former Energy Secretary and U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) later joined Gray to run the CFJ, as it grew to comment more on judicial appointments and what it considered the threat of judicial activism from the political left. 18

Political Activity

The Committee for Justice initially ran TV and print ads promoting then-President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees whose nominations had been attacked and stalled by Senate Democrats. 19

The organization’s first political ad targeted Senate candidate Ron Kirk (D-TX) for his opposition to then-President Bush’s nomination of then-Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Richman Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 20

Other ads defended Bush judicial nominees such as Miguel Estrada, William Pryor, and Charles Pickering. 21

The Committee for Justice ran one ad that showed a sign outside a courthouse that read, “Catholics Need Not Apply,” alleging that Senate Democrats opposed Pryor’s nomination because Pryor was a Catholic. 22

In the 2004 election cycle, it ran ads criticizing Democratic presidential primary candidate Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) for his opposition to President Bush’s judicial nominees. 23

During Bush’s second term, the CFJ pushed to scrap the judicial filibuster for lower court judges but failed after a Senate compromise to limit the use of the filibuster. 24

In 2009, the Committee for Justice ran ads opposing President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. 25

After the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, the Committee for Justice expanded to addressing policy issues that it contends are jeopardizing a constitutionalist judiciary. The group claims there are two major challenges in the 21st century: one is establishing a framework for addressing constitutional questions involving innovative technologies, while the other is preserving the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary against an unaccountable administrative state. 26

In 2020, the Committee for Justice president Curt Levey criticized Chief Justice John Roberts of being another Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was known for being a moderate swing vote on the high court. 27

Amicus Briefs

In 2022, the CFJ filed a friend of the court brief with the high court challenging racial preference policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. 28

In 2023, the CFJ also filed an amicus brief with other conservative-leaning organizations challenging the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness policy. 29

In a 2023 case where traditional political lines were blurred, the Committee for Justice filed a brief siding with tech companies against Texas and Florida laws that regulate social media content moderation. 30

Leadership

Curt Levey is the president for the Committee for Justice. Levey is a lawyer and former artificial intelligence scientist. When working for Hecht-Nielsen Neurocomputer Corp., an AI firm in San Diego, California, he invented and patented technology for adding expert system-like capabilities to a multilayer neural network. The invention became part of HNC’s neural network products as the Falcon credit card fraud detection system. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Levey was previously director of legal and public affairs at the Center for Individual Rights, where he worked on Supreme Court cases, including the University of Michigan affirmative action cases and the successful constitutional challenge to provisions of the Violence Against Women Act. 31 He later worked for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and led the Title IX policy group before joining the Committee for Justice to be president in 2005. 32 He has been on the Virginia State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the executive committee of the Federalist Society’s civil rights practice group. 33

Ashley Baker is the director of public policy of the Committee for Justice. Baker focuses on the Supreme Court, technology and regulatory policy, and judicial nominations. She is a member of the Regulatory Transparency Project’s Cyber and Privacy working group of the Federalist Society. 34

Lisa Neuder is the general counsel of the Committee for Justice. 35

References

  1. “New GOP group promotes judicial nominees.” CNN. July 23, 2002. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/23/judicial.nominees/index.html
  2. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  3. “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  4. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  5. “Curt Levey.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtlevey/
  6. “Committee for Justice.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/company/committee-for-justice/
  7. “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  8. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  9. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  10. Birnbaum, Jeffrey. “A Moving Force In Fight for Bush’s Judicial Nominees.” The Washington Post. May 24, 2005. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301640.html
  11. Birnbaum, Jeffrey. “A Moving Force In Fight for Bush’s Judicial Nominees.” The Washington Post. May 24, 2005. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301640.html
  12. “New GOP group promotes judicial nominees.” CNN. July 23, 2002. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/23/judicial.nominees/index.html
  13. Birnbaum, Jeffrey. “A Moving Force In Fight for Bush’s Judicial Nominees.” The Washington Post. May 24, 2005. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301640.html
  14. Press Release. “CFJ Mourns the Passing of Its Founder, Conservative Titan Boyden Gray.” Committee for Justice. May 21, 2023. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/single-post/cfj-mourns-the-death-of-its-founder-boyden-gray
  15. “Ed Rogers” Barbour Griffith & Rogers. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://bgrdc.com/team/ed-rogers/
  16. “Edwin D. Williamson.” Federalist Society. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://fedsoc.org/contributors/edwin-williamson
  17. “New GOP group promotes judicial nominees.” CNN. July 23, 2002. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/23/judicial.nominees/index.html
  18. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  19. “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  20. Drehle, David Von. “New GOP Group to Push For Judicial Nominees.” Washington Post. July 22, 2002. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/07/23/new-gop-group-to-push-for-judicial-nominees/37f18fe7-a908-4e51-bf0c-3dbb77b8993f/
  21.  “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  22. Birnbaum, Jeffrey. “A Moving Force In Fight for Bush’s Judicial Nominees.” The Washington Post. May 24, 2005. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301640.html
  23. “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  24. Birnbaum, Jeffrey. “A Moving Force In Fight for Bush’s Judicial Nominees.” The Washington Post. May 24, 2005. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301640.html
  25. “Committee for Justice.” Annenberg Classroom. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/committee-for-justice/
  26. “About the Committee for Justice.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/about
  27. Levey, Curt. “John Roberts has gone full Anthony Kennedy.’ Washington Post. July 1, 2020. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-roberts-has-gone-full-anthony-kennedy/2020/07/01/3640fd6a-bbdd-11ea-bdaf-a129f921026f_story.html
  28. Press Release. “CFJ to SCOTUS: Harvard’s 100 Years of Racial Discrimination is Enough.” Committee for Justice. October 31, 2022. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/single-post/cfj-to-scotus-harvard-s-100-years-of-racial-discrimination-is-enough
  29. Press Release. “SCOTUS Hears Student Debt Case in which CFJ Filed Amicus Brief.” Committee for Justice. February 28, 2023. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/single-post/scotus-hears-student-debt-case-in-which-cfj-filed-amicus-brief
  30.  Press Release. “CFJ Files Brief in SCOTUS Challenge to TX & FL Social Media Laws.” Committee for Justice. December 7, 2023. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/single-post/cfj-files-brief-in-scotus-challenge-to-tx-fl-social-media-laws
  31. “Curt Levey.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/curt-levey
  32. “Curt Levey.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtlevey/
  33. “Curt Levey.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/curt-levey
  34. “Ashley Baker.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/ashley-baker
  35. “Our Experts.” Committee for Justice. Accessed May 10, 2024. https://www.committeeforjustice.org/our-experts
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: July 1, 2013

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2017 Dec Form 990EZ $0 $0 $115,696 $28,195 $0 $0 $0 $0
    2016 Dec Form 990 $1,127,361 $14,126 $111,760 $22,157 N $2,061 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2015 Dec Form 990 $328,166 $26,375 $123,068 $1,146,700 N $328,166 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2014 Dec Form 990 $998,846 $1,197,824 $150,341 $1,475,765 N $998,846 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2013 Dec Form 990 $2,050,773 $2,854,786 $159,034 $1,261,332 N $2,050,773 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2012 Dec Form 990 $2,186,722 $1,769,153 $121,784 $132,711 N $2,186,722 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2011 Dec Form 990 $1,269,970 $1,802,415 $105,760 $607,996 N $1,267,491 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2010 Dec Form 990EZ $26,172 $52,399 $267,614 $24,693 $0 $0 $0 $0

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Committee for Justice (CFJ)

    1629 K St. NW. Suite #300
    Washington, DC 20006