Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has written and filed an unusual brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. Typically, when legislators file “friend of the court” briefs, they are about what a ruling would mean for Congress or their constituents. Whitehouse’s brief, filed on his behalf and that of four other senators, is different. It is an attack on an independent judiciary, on the ability of people to vindicate their constitutional rights in federal courts, on donor anonymity, on public interest lawyers,…