State Policy Network (Madison Group) Founded - State-Level Think Tank Coordination

In 1986, the Madison Group was established as an informal confederation of state-level think tanks and their supporters, named after the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC where they first met. This network, which would be formalized as the State Policy Network (SPN) in 1992, represented the extension …

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 - Secret Conservative Coordination Network

In May 1981, during the Reagan administration, Tim LaHaye (then head of the Moral Majority), Paul Weyrich, Nelson Bunker Hunt, T. Cullen Davis, Howard Phillips, and William Cies founded the Council for National Policy (CNP) as an umbrella organization and networking group for conservative and …

Powell creates Central Hudson test expanding corporate commercial speech rights

Justice Lewis Powell delivers 8-1 majority opinion in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York (447 U.S. 557), striking down New York ban on utility promotional advertising and establishing four-part “Central Hudson test” for commercial speech …

Powell delivers Bellotti decision establishing corporate First Amendment rights

Justice Lewis Powell delivers majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (435 U.S. 765), establishing for first time that corporations have First Amendment speech rights to influence ballot initiatives and political campaigns. Powell’s 5-4 decision strikes down Massachusetts …

Nixon nominates Lewis Powell to Supreme Court two months after corporate blueprint memo

President Nixon nominates corporate lawyer Lewis Powell to Supreme Court as Associate Justice, just 59 days after Powell wrote confidential memo to Chamber of Commerce calling for business to acquire “political power” and use courts as “most important instrument for social, …