Here is more from the Washington Post:
[Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale] started the Cicero Institute, a think tank dedicated to bringing market-based solutions to social issues like criminal justice, health care and homelessness, but the group’s ideas got virtually no traction in solid-blue California. In Texas, Lonsdale urged the Cicero team to go bigger, to target the toughest societal problems with “bold” solutions that challenged the status quo.
Over the next year, the group developed a controversial policy proposal: Cities should make it a crime to sleep outside, forcing people off the street, placing them in temporary shelters or treatment facilities, and sending them to jail if they refused.
No one paid much attention to Cicero at the time. The proposal ran counter to more than 15 years of federal and state policy, which held that forced treatment rarely works and that getting society’s most vulnerable into long-term housing should come before any intervention.
But five years later, Cicero’s vision has spread across the country. It is now the official policy of the Trump administration, and versions of Cicero’s proposal are law in 15 states, with 11 making it a crime to sleep outside.
Scott Centorino, who coordinated the White House’s homeless policy, told The Washington Post that Cicero was a critical partner in driving the administration’s position. “They are the best group out there with a lot of knowledge at the state level,” said Centorino, who left government a few months ago and is now a senior fellow at Cicero.
The article notes that across the US, Cicero has worked behind the scenes to shepherd 214 pieces of legislation into law in 29 states since 2021, on issues related to public safety, education, artificial intelligence, and health care.
It also notes that Cicero experts now hold weekly calls with White House officials to share lessons from their victories in US states.
Here is what the New York Times has to say about the influence of Cicero.