... For Edward Blum, who spearheaded the lawsuits against the University of North Carolina and Harvard - claiming the schools' race-conscious policies admit unqualified Black and Hispanic students, while "intentionally discriminating" against deserving Asian American applicants - the verdict would fulfill a decades-long quest.

... Blum has made a career of recruiting plaintiffs to challenge civil rights he opposes. His wins include Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, which nullified key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Less successful was Fisher v. University of Texas, decided in 2016, his first attempt to have the court undo affirmative action ...

... Though Blum calls himself a "one-man organization," his work is financed by familiar right-wing entities. The Project on Fair Representation, one of Blum's many litigation nonprofits, began as an internal program of Donors Trust, a funding vehicle bankrolled by conservative mega-donors, including the Koch, DeVos, and Mercer families.

... Donors Trust has also funneled more than $1.5 million to the white supremacist outlets VDARE & American Renaissance, both considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (VDARE's take on the affirmative action case? It "would be a huge victory for whites, but Conservatism Inc. seems quite uncomfortable with stating that fact," an article on the VDARE site states. "The primary victims of Affirmative Action aren't Asians. They are whites - the group formerly known as 'Americans.'")

... The Bradley Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation have all contributed to Blum's litigation. The 85 Fund, which donates to his work, is led by Leonard Leo, cochairman of the Federalist Society.

... Blum and SFFA's amicus friends are frontline leaders in the anti-LGBTQ, climate denial, anti-"critical race theory," and anti-democratic movements. Many are also funded by the same donors as Blum. The SFFA amicus brief from the Claremont Institute - which, like Blum, gets funding from the DeVos Foundation - was written by Trump "coup attorney" John Eastman.