Changes

While serving as chairman of USCIRF, Leo was active in the opposition to the construction of an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. The Park51 or Cordoba House project was dubbed the "Ground Zero Mosque" by right-wing critics. Leo was director of Liberty Central, a Tea Party-related group organized by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Liberty Central organized a petition campaign against the Cordoba House project.<ref>David Corn and Nick Baumann, [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/commission-international-religious-freedom-ground-zero-mosque/ “Ground Zero Mosque” Foes Bankrolled By Feds], ''Mother Jones'', August 23, 2010.</ref>

==Ties to the Council for National Policy==

Leo sits on the Board of Governors at the [[Council for National Policy]] (CNP). Leo spoke to CNP in February 2019 where he told members,

:"We’re going to have to understand that judicial confirmations these days are more like political campaigns. We’re going to have to be smart as a movement. No one in this room has probably experienced the kind of transformation that I think we are beginning to see."<ref>Robert O'Harrow and Shawn Boburg, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/ A conservative activist’s behind-the-scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts], ''Washington Post,'' May 21, 2019.</ref>