The Searle Freedom Trust was founded in 1998 by Dan Searle with proceeds from the sale of the G. D. Searle pharmaceutical company. The foundation has been a major funder of university professors, supporting career development and detailed, esoteric, long-term research with the goal of bolstering academics working outside of reigning liberal orthodoxies. The trust has also been underwriting online higher education as a way to make college instruction less monolithic.
More recently, Searle has influenced public policy via support for important litigation. “Our biggest victories lately have come in the legal arena,” says president Kim Dennis. “There have been numerous Supreme Court decisions that we helped to fund. These produced decisions in policy arenas as diverse as voting rights, environmental regulation, education, and health care.”
“Of course these things can all be changed by one heart attack on the Supreme Court,” notes Dennis. “But there are also state courts. There’s a lot you can do in litigation.”
- Shelby County v. Holder opinion, supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf
- Fisher v. University of Texas opinion, supremecourtreview.com/case/11-345
- King v. Burwell docket, supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docketfiles/14-114.htm