South Dakota abolishes Rule Against Perpetuities, enabling dynasty trusts and tax haven status

South Dakota became the first U.S. state to abolish the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities, ending centuries of legal precedent designed to prevent families from holding wealth in trusts forever. The legislature enacted SDCL Section 43-5-8 declaring “The common-law rule against perpetuities …

Corrections Corporation of America Founded in Nashville, Launching Modern Private Prison Industry

Thomas W. Beasley (chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party), Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto found Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Nashville, Tennessee, creating the first modern for-profit prison company. After a 15-minute presentation on Valentine’s Day 1983, Massey Burch …

Heritage Foundation Expands to 100+ Staff with $10 Million Budget During Reagan Administration Peak Influence

The Heritage Foundation reached over 100 staff members and a $10 million annual budget by 1983, representing explosive growth during the Reagan administration’s implementation of Heritage policy recommendations. In just six years since Ed Feulner became president in 1977, Heritage had grown …

Josemaria Escriva Beatified Despite Controversies

Pope John Paul II granted Opus Dei status as a personal prelature in 1982, a pivotal moment in the organization’s history. This decision came amid significant controversy, with theologians and scholars questioning the rapid elevation of Opus Dei’s founder, Josemaría Escrivá. The …

CNP Completes "Three-Legged Stool" with Heritage and ALEC - Coordination Infrastructure Operational

By the end of 1981, Paul Weyrich had established the three core institutions that would serve as the infrastructure for conservative movement coordination for the next four decades: Heritage Foundation (policy research), ALEC (state legislation), and CNP (coordination hub).

Weyrich co-founded …

Council for National Policy Founded with Schlafly as Founding Member, Creating Elite Conservative Network

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is founded by Tim LaHaye, Paul Weyrich, Richard Viguerie, Morton Blackwell, Phyllis Schlafly, Nelson Bunker Hunt, Joseph Coors, and approximately 50 other conservatives who begin meeting every Wednesday morning at Viguerie’s Virginia home. The CNP is …

Schlafly and Falwell Joint Rally Demonstrates Religious Right Coalition Unity

Phyllis Schlafly and Jerry Falwell headline an ‘I Love America—Stop ERA Rally’ in front of the Illinois state capitol, publicly demonstrating the emerging unity of the Religious Right coalition that Schlafly had been building since 1972. The rally symbolizes a historic breakthrough: the …

Refugee Act of 1980 Establishes Systematic Asylum Process, Becomes Target of Enforcement Capture

President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Act of 1980, the first comprehensive reform of U.S. refugee policy since the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. The legislation adopts the United Nations definition of refugee as anyone with a “well-founded fear of persecution” based on race, …

Federation for American Immigration Reform Founded, Launching Modern Nativist Movement Infrastructure

Dr. John Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist and former Sierra Club population committee chair, founds the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Washington, D.C., establishing the organizational infrastructure for the modern nativist movement. Initially framing immigration restriction …

Corporate Lobbying Presence Quintuples in Washington, D.C.

By the end of the 1970s, corporate public affairs offices in Washington dramatically expanded from 100 in 1968 to over 500, with registered corporate lobbyists increasing from 175 in 1971 to nearly 2,500. This unprecedented mobilization, influenced by the Powell Memo, represented a systematic …

Edwin Feulner Becomes Heritage Foundation President, Beginning 36-Year Tenure Building Conservative Policy Infrastructure

Edwin J. Feulner Jr., co-founder of the Heritage Foundation in 1973, assumed the presidency of the conservative think tank in 1977, beginning what would become a transformative 36-year tenure that built Heritage from a modest Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members into the preeminent …

Corporate PAC Explosion: 433 New Corporate PACs Formed in Post-Buckley Era

Following the Buckley v. Valeo decision, corporations rapidly established Political Action Committees to influence elections. The number of corporate PACs grew from 89 in 1974 to 1,206 by 1980 - a 1,254% increase. This represented a systematic corporate mobilization to capture political influence, …

Supreme Court Allows Metropolitan-Wide Housing Desegregation Remedy

The Supreme Court rules in Hills v. Gautreaux that metropolitan-wide remedies are permissible for housing discrimination, distinguishing the case from its Milliken v. Bradley school desegregation decision that limited remedies to municipal boundaries. Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion finds …

Supreme Court Rules Money Is Speech in Buckley v. Valeo

On January 30, 1976, the Supreme Court issued its landmark per curiam decision in Buckley v. Valeo, fundamentally transforming American campaign finance law by establishing that spending money on political campaigns constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment. The case challenged the …

Boston Busing Crisis Erupts, Northern White Resistance to Desegregation

Court-ordered school desegregation begins in Boston amid massive white violence and resistance, shattering illusions that Northern cities differ from Southern segregation. Following Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.’s June 1974 ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan that Boston School Committee …

ERISA Pension Law Creates Framework for Corporate Benefit Cuts

President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) into law on September 2, 1974, Labor Day, following near-unanimous passage in Congress (85-0 in the Senate, with only two House representatives opposed). The legislation responded to catastrophic pension failures like …

HMO Act Enables For-Profit Healthcare Expansion

President Richard Nixon signed the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 into law on December 29, 1973, following Senate sponsorship by Edward Kennedy. The Act provided grants and loans to start or expand Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), removed certain state restrictions for federally …

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board Adopts Powell Memo Task Force Recommendations

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors formally adopts recommendations from a 40-member task force of business executives convened to review and implement Lewis Powell’s 1971 memo. The task force, comprised of executives from U.S. Steel, General Electric, ABC, General Motors, CBS, 3M, …

Chicago Boys Initiate Radical Economic Shock Therapy Under Pinochet's Dictatorship

In the aftermath of the 1973 Chilean coup, the Chicago Boys, a group of economists trained by Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, began implementing radical free-market economic reforms under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Their ‘shock therapy’ approach involved rapid …

Eagle Forum Founded as Permanent Conservative Infrastructure for 'Pro-Family' Organizing

Phyllis Schlafly founds Eagle Forum in Alton, Illinois, creating permanent institutional infrastructure for conservative social activism that will last for decades. Initially created to coordinate the STOP ERA campaign, Eagle Forum quickly grows into a comprehensive conservative advocacy …

Powell Memo Leaked to Public, Exposing Corporate Institutional Capture Blueprint

Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson publishes the confidential Powell Memo in his “Washington Merry Go Round” column, exposing Lewis Powell’s August 1971 corporate blueprint for institutional capture to public scrutiny. The leak occurs over a year after Powell wrote the memo and …

Phyllis Schlafly Launches STOP ERA Campaign, Pioneering Anti-Feminist Infrastructure

Phyllis Schlafly launches her STOP ERA campaign with an article titled ‘What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?’ published in her February 1972 newsletter, fundamentally reshaping American conservative politics and pioneering the anti-feminist movement. After being asked to …

Nixon Ends Gold Standard, Bretton Woods System Collapses

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon announced his “New Economic Policy” in a televised address, unilaterally closing the gold window and ending the convertibility of U.S. dollars to gold at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce established under the Bretton Woods system. The …

Supreme Court Rules 1866 Civil Rights Act Bans Private Housing Discrimination

The Supreme Court issues a 7-2 decision in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., holding that Congress can regulate private property sales to prevent racial discrimination under the Thirteenth Amendment’s power to eliminate “badges and incidents of slavery.” The case centers on Joseph Lee …

Vietnam War Defense Contractor Profiteering Reaches Peak as Congressional Investigations Expose Waste and Corruption

Defense contractor profiteering from the Vietnam War reaches extraordinary levels as the RMK-BRJ construction consortium alone holds contracts officially estimated to reach at least $900 million by November 1967. Over 60% of all construction work in South Vietnam during the war is accomplished by …

Dorothy Gautreaux Lawsuit Challenges Chicago Public Housing Segregation

Dorothy Gautreaux, a community organizer and resident of the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on Chicago’s South Side, becomes lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by six Black tenants with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit alleges that the Chicago …

HUD Created as Cabinet Department, Inherits FHA Discriminatory Practices

President Johnson signs legislation creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a Cabinet-level agency, consolidating federal housing programs under one roof. Robert C. Weaver becomes the first HUD Secretary and the first African American Cabinet member. However, HUD inherits …

Medicare and Medicaid Signed Into Law After Defeating Decades of AMA Opposition and Reagan Propaganda Campaign

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, creating Medicare and Medicaid with former President Harry Truman at his side. The legislation provides federal health insurance for Americans over 65 …

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Passes Based on Fabricated Second Attack Authorizing Vietnam War Escalation

Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution with near-unanimous support (416-0 in the House, 88-2 in the Senate), granting President Johnson broad war powers to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. The resolution responds to reported attacks on U.S. Navy …

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Passes After Filibuster Defeats Corporate Southern Resistance

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. The legislation passes only after defeating a 60-working-day filibuster led by the “Southern …

Phyllis Schlafly Publishes 'A Choice Not an Echo,' Launching Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Phyllis Schlafly self-publishes ‘A Choice Not an Echo,’ a 128-page polemic attacking the Republican establishment and supporting Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. The book becomes an instant phenomenon, selling over three million copies by summer 1964 and bringing Schlafly …

President Eisenhower's Farewell Address Warns Against Military-Industrial Complex

In his nationally televised farewell address from the Oval Office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued one of the most prescient warnings in American political history about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. The five-star general and Republican president who had led Allied forces in …

Roy Cohn Establishes Blackmail and Intimidation Network

In early 1953, Roy Cohn begins developing a systematic blackmail infrastructure during the McCarthy Senate hearings, leveraging anti-communist hysteria and homophobic tactics to gather compromising information on political and cultural figures. As 24-year-old chief counsel to Senator Joseph …

NSC-68 Directive Creates Permanent Military-Industrial Establishment - Defense Spending to Triple

President Harry S. Truman received National Security Council directive NSC-68, a 66-page top-secret policy paper that would fundamentally transform American defense policy by calling for “full mobilization of the U.S. economy during peacetime”—an unprecedented measure that created the …

Housing Act of 1949 Creates Urban Renewal Program, Becomes "Negro Removal"

President Truman signs the Housing Act of 1949, establishing the Title I Urban Renewal Program that provides federal grants to local governments for slum clearance and redevelopment. While the act sets a goal of ensuring “a suitable home and decent living environment for all Americans,” …

Supreme Court Rules Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants Unenforceable

The Supreme Court issues a unanimous 6-0 decision in Shelley v. Kraemer, holding that racially restrictive housing covenants cannot be judicially enforced without violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case arises when Louis Kraemer sues to prevent the Shelley family, …

Levittown Opens as America's First Suburb With Explicit Whites-Only Policy

Levittown, regarded as America’s first modern planned suburb, opens on Long Island to accommodate returning World War II veterans with “Clause 25” in housing agreements explicitly forbidding homes “from being used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian …

James Forrestal Becomes First Defense Secretary, Fusing Wall Street Financial Power with Pentagon

James Vincent Forrestal, a successful Wall Street financier who ran the investment bank Dillon, Read & Co., becomes the first United States Secretary of Defense when the National Military Establishment is formally established. Forrestal’s appointment represents the archetypal revolving …

National Security Act Establishes Permanent Warfare State and Military-Industrial Framework

President Truman signs the National Security Act, merging military departments into the National Military Establishment (later Department of Defense), creating the CIA and National Security Council, and establishing the National Security Resources Board to coordinate military, industrial, and …

Anti-Communist Loyalty Oaths and Taft-Hartley Act Weaponized to Crush Labor Movement

After World War II, as worker militancy swept the country, the right-wing struck back with the Taft-Hartley Act, passed by a Republican Congress over President Truman’s veto on June 23, 1947. The bill used the threat of communist subversion to justify rolling back advantages labor had gained …

Truman Proposes National Health Insurance, AMA Mobilizes Unprecedented Opposition Campaign

President Harry S. Truman becomes the first sitting president to propose a comprehensive national health insurance program, sending a special message to Congress calling for federal health insurance that would cover all Americans regardless of employment status. Truman declares healthcare …

HUAC Made Permanent Standing Committee, Institutionalizes Political Persecution

On January 3, 1945, the House of Representatives votes to make the Dies Committee a permanent standing committee, renamed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Mississippi Representative John Rankin, a virulent segregationist and antisemite, engineers the transformation through a …

Anaconda Wire and Cable Indicted for $6 Million Fraud Selling Defective Equipment

The Justice Department indicts Anaconda Wire and Cable Company and five employees for conspiracy to defraud the United States by supplying defective wire and cable for combat use. Lend-Lease shipments to the Soviet Union were 50% defective, prompting an official Soviet protest. Despite pleading …

Committee for Economic Development Founded as Business-Government Policy Coordination Body

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) is founded in September 1942 as a nonprofit policy organization bringing together corporate executives, economists, and government officials to coordinate economic policy. The organization originates within the Commerce Department under FDR’s …

War Production Board Establishes Corporate-Government Fusion Model

President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the War Production Board (WPB) to coordinate wartime production, staffing it with corporate executives as ‘dollar-a-year men.’ This establishes a precedent for corporate-government partnership where business leaders shape government policy while …

FHA Underwriting Manual Formalizes Racial Covenants, Physical Segregation

The Federal Housing Administration publishes its Underwriting Manual, which establishes formal mortgage lending requirements that institutionalize racism and segregation within the housing industry. The manual emphasizes the negative impact of “infiltration of inharmonious racial groups” …

National Association of Manufacturers Launches Unprecedented Multi-Million Dollar Anti-New Deal Propaganda Campaign

In 1935, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) under president Robert Lund launches what Business Week headlines as “The NAM Declares War” (December 14, 1935)—an unprecedented multi-million dollar propaganda campaign to discredit Roosevelt’s New Deal and promote …

Marine General Smedley Butler Testifies to Congressional Committee About Wall Street Plot to Overthrow FDR

On November 20, 1934, the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (McCormack-Dickstein Committee) begins secret testimony from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who alleges that wealthy Wall Street financiers plotted to overthrow President Franklin …

American Liberty League Founded by Du Pont Family and Corporate Elite to Oppose New Deal

On August 22, 1934, the American Liberty League is announced in Washington, D.C., as a purportedly bipartisan organization to defend the U.S. Constitution against “radical” New Deal policies, with Jouett Shouse appointed as president. The League’s formation represents the first …

Federal Housing Administration Created, Institutionalizes Racial Segregation

The National Housing Act creates the Federal Housing Administration, which immediately implements systematic racial discrimination through mortgage underwriting guidelines. From its first operations in 1934, FHA staff conclude that no loan could be economically sound if the property was located in a …