Happy Tuesday, and welcome to PI. Send tips: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. SCOTUS DARK MONEY CURTAIN RAISER: “The Alliance Defending Freedom and Pacific Legal Foundation, two right-leaning groups that won major Supreme Court victories earlier this year, are again poised to play key roles in the term that opened this week,†Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum reports in a deep dive on the two dark money groups, who are raking in in more money than ever before. — “Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom has won 15 Supreme Court Cases since 2011, and four since 2020, when Justice Amy Coney Barrett tilted the court into a 6-3 conservative supermajority. Founded in 1973, the Pacific Legal Foundation — a libertarian group that opposes big government — has won five cases since 2020 and boasts an overall record of 17 Supreme Court victories and two losses.†— “The victories show the ADF and PLF’s mastery of the long game: Deploying their deep influence and vast financial warchests, loaded with funds from dark money groups, to advance conservative and libertarian cases through the legal system — all the way to the highest court in the country.†— “Liberal groups like the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union have cultivated cases in order to achieve policy goals for decades. But the Supreme Court's makeup means it’s the conservative ecosystem now pushing cases — and becoming more influential and better-funded than ever.†THEY WERE ON A BREAK: Exxon Mobil has added Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld back into its rotation of outside lobbying firms, two years after parting ways with the K Street heavyweight. Akin Gump has worked for the oil giant on and off for much of the past two decades, with the latest stint lasting from 2019 to 2021, disclosures show. Exxon currently retains nine other outside firms. — Akin Gump will lobby on corporate and energy tax issues for Exxon, according to a newly filed registration amendment. Zachary Rudisill, a former tax counsel to former Sen. Rob Portman; Brendan Dunn, a Mitch McConnell and Senate Finance alum; Reggie Babin, a former Chuck Schumer aide; Virgil Miller, a former Cedric Richmond aide; and Jose Borjon, a former Vicente Gonzalez aide, will work on the account for Akin. FIGHTING AI FIRE WITH AI FIRE: “A new initiative is planning to use AI-generated misinformation to try to prepare voters against a possible wave of similar content. AIandYou, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to help underrepresented racial and ethnic groups understand AI, is launching the public awareness campaign to educate voters on how AI could affect next year’s election,†POLITICO’s Madison Fernandez reports. — “The campaign is still in its early stages, and it launched Tuesday morning with more traditional kinds of outreach in an attempt to drive awareness and understanding of AI-created content. That includes a video that outlines the uses and risks of AI and an online database of election-related AI news and voter resources. Susan Gonzales, founder and CEO of the nonprofit, said it is also looking to host a town hall on AI and the election next month.†— “The campaign is planning to start running its own AI-generated ads — to make voters familiar with that type of content — as the primary elections start to ramp up, said José Villa, president of Sensis, an ad agency working with the campaign.†— “The ads are still being developed, but one example could be an AI-generated video of President Joe Biden saying something he didn’t say, with a message at the end saying that the content was not real and directing viewers toward the nonprofit, Villa explained.†WHITE HOUSE LAWYER HEADS TO GE: Another top White House lawyer is heading to the private sector. Jake Phillips, who served as deputy counsel to President Joe Biden and was a legal adviser to the National Security Council, has joined GE Aerospace as a senior vice president and general counsel. Prior to his role at the White House, Phillips worked for more than a dozen years at Boeing, including as an assistant general counsel handing the company's 737 MAX litigation and investigations.
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