The Wizard Behind The Curtain: Citizens United Lawyer Behind Detroit’s Emergency Manager Laws
According to Richard McLellan’s Board of Trustees web page for Michigan State University’s College of Law, The Detroit Free Press once wrote:
“He’s seldom seen in the state Capitol, and less likely to be noticed. Take a look at someone who may well be the most influential person in Michigan you never heard of.”
You know all that negative talk folks get into, once in a while, about invisible illuminati-types actually running the world like puppet-masters from a dark ceiling above the stage? McLellan lends credit to that plausibility and is proud of it, boldly sharing the quote for all to see on his trustee page.
But Richard McLellan is not just influential behind the scenes in Michigan, where he envisions a “super agency” 20 years down the line, after busting up the Detroit Public Schools “monopoly” with school of choice programs and charter schools beginning under the Engler administration, he’s influential nationally, too, and his name is worth noting.
“Now,” McLellan stated in Nov., 2014, “the pendulum is swinging back to… much more control and command of Detroit schools,” and the same thing is happening on a larger, economic/political level across the country.
He has strong ties to the weakening of our democracy overall and certainly in Michigan, with a list of devious, notorious associates the likes of which John Dillinger would be envious. And he’s become the unsavory Gov. Rick Snyder’s go-to man in Michigan, as well, coming together in what should be known nationally as “The Great Michigan Public Schools Caper.” His work has contributed to lending democracy a death-stroke both nationally and locally and nowhere knows that better than Detroit.
(Image courtesy of Facebook)
McLellan’s professional and political career is lengthy. It is filled with affiliations and memberships to an assortment of organizations and posts, complete with accolades and friendly pats on the back, most of which you can get in a nutshell, here, as a starting point for further research, should you so desire. However, McLellan kicked off his career quickly by working for then Michigan Governor William Milliken as an administrative assistant after earning a BA from Michigan State University in 1964 and a law degree three years later from the University of Michigan. He’s been active in the Republican Party for decades. Even in his undergrad he worked as chairman for the MSU Romney Volunteers in 1962.
This guy is a system politician through and through – you know, the corrupt, twisted system everyone’s always complaining about? McLellan is the embodiment of that system. He’s helped uphold it and furthered its grip on the country for decades, yet many still don’t recognize his name.
How has he furthered the grip of our corrupt, racist system over the country and Michigan? Well, for starters, his law firm has extensively, time and again, represented both political candidates, and more specifically, their SuperPACS. McLellan’s also served on Sen. John McCain’s National Steering Committee of Lawyers back in 2008 and as Chairman of the Michigan Lawyers for Bush-Cheney in both 2000 and 2004. That should tell readers exactly which camp McLellan pitches his tent in. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Federalist Society’s Michigan Chapter, which according to its website is:
“…a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.”
Wikipedia also states the Federalist Society is “one of the nation’s most influential legal organizations.”
“It has played a significant role in moving the national debate to the right on the Second Amendment,campaign finance regulation, state sovereignty, and the Commerce Clause.”
McLellan’s hammered his stakes in long ago.
Over the years, the puppeteer’s worked with a virtual who’s who list of the most loathed and least trusted politicians of the last 40 years, on both the state and national levels: from Gerald Ford to George H. W. Bush, John Engler to Bill Schuette, George Romneyto Rick Snyder, Colin Powell to Dick Cheney, John McCain to George W. Bush. McLellan’s worked with them all.
Now, McLellan works primarily as a lawyer at McLellan Law Offices PLLC, and is lauded with accolades such as “Lawyer of the Year” by such publications as Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Lawyer’s Weekly and Law and Politics. Among other roles, he also keeps an adjunct position at MSU. In addition, he works with three public interest law firms, one of which is the infamous Mackinac Center for Public Policy – what Right Wing Watch calls “the largest conservative state-level policy think-tank in the nation.”
If that doesn’t speak volumes to you, start paying more attention.
McLellan isn’t just working with the Mackinac Center’s law firm, he is actually both a founding member and board member of the Center.
He gets more interesting than that, too, with ties both nationally to Citizens United, as well as the destruction of democracy in Michigan with the Emergency Manager laws and the dismantling of the public school systems, the ripples of which reverberate Addicting Info – The Wizard Behind The Curtain: Citizens United Lawyer Behind Detroit’s Emergency Manager Laws: