Liberty Counsel

Liberty Counsel, Inc.

Founded	December 26, 1989 (1989-12-26)[1]
Founder	Mathew D. Staver
Type	501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[2]
Tax ID no.	59-2986294[3]
Headquarters	Maitland, Florida, United States[1]
Services	Pro bono assistance and representation[4]
Chairman	Mathew D. Staver
President	Anita L. Staver
Secretary	Candice McGuire
Treasurer	Robert Miller
Revenue (2015)	$5,572,566[3]
Expenses (2015)	$5,263,709[3]
Employees (2014)	38[lower-alpha 1][3]
Volunteers (2014)	264[3]
Website	www.lc.org

Liberty Counsel is a 501(c)(3)^[2] tax-exempt religious liberty organization that specializes in and promotes litigation related to evangelical Christian values,^[5] Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989^[1] by its chairman, Mathew D. Staver, and its president, Anita L. Staver, who are attorneys and married to each other. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Liberty Counsel as a hate group, a designation which has been disputed by the group.

Positions and responses

Liberty Counsel advocates for Israel.^[6] Liberty Counsel agreed with the military policy banning homosexual activity within the armed forces.^[7] Liberty Counsel defends employment discrimination against gay workers^[8] and opposes the addition of sexual orientation, gender identity, or similar provisions to hate crimes legislation.^[9] Liberty Counsel also opposes same-sex marriage, civil unions, and adoption by gay people.^[10]

Liberty Counsel has been listed as an anti-gay group^[11] and, in October 2015, as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).^[12] Liberty Counsel has challenged that designation^[13] and the Associated Press' reporting of that designation.^[14]

Activities

Liberty Counsel represented a pastor who was arrested for protesting at a demonstration against abortion.^[15]

Liberty Counsel defended students in Duval County, Florida, who wanted to deliver a graduation message that may include religious statements.^[16]

Liberty Counsel represented Dixie County, Florida, in a case involving the Ten Commandments against the American Civil Liberties Union.^[17]

Liberty Counsel offered to help Arkansas defend the law restricting abortion.^[18]

Franklin Graham was a guest speaker at Liberty Counsel's "The Awakening 2015" event in Orlando.^[19]

In 2000, Liberty Counsel threatened legal action against a public library in Jacksonville, Florida. Liberty Counsel complained after being contacted by parents who complained about "Hogwarts' Certificate of Accomplishment" to students who attended a party featuring readings from Harry Potter books.^[20] Staver said that "Witchcraft is a religion, and the certificate of witchcraft endorsed a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause."^[21]

The group has hosted college students for trips to Israel.^[22]

In December 2005, Liberty Counsel issued a press release accusing an elementary school in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, of changing the lyrics of Christmas songs to make them more secular, and said that it would sue the school district "if the district does not immediately remedy the situation." The school was putting on the play "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift", written by Dwight Elrich, a former church choir director.^[23] The Dodgeville school district attempted to seek a retraction and an apology from Liberty Counsel, as well as reimbursement of $20,000 spent in personnel, security, and attorney fees to fight the accusation. Liberty Counsel's Staver refused, asserting, "There is nothing to apologize for or retract."^[24]

In July 2016, Liberty Counsel has lobbied^[25] the Romanian Constitutional Court for a referendum on defining marriage as "the union between one man and one woman".^[26] Groups linked to the Orthodox Church^[27] and united under the umbrella Coaliția pentru familie (Coalition for Family) collected 3 million signatures^[28] to seek the constitutional amendment.

Programs

Liberty Counsel offers pro-bono litigation on topics that is within its mission.^[29] Liberty Counsel provides information and research to affect legislation and public policy at the local, state, and national level. Liberty Counsel operates the Liberty Center for Law and Policy which monitors and drafts proposed legislation.^[30]

Cases

• Lawrence v. Texas submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of a Texas statute that criminalized homosexual sodomy.^[31]
• Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc. (1994)^[32] In a partial victory for Liberty Counsel, the United States Supreme Court defined the limits of injunctive relief available to abortion clinics against pickets and demonstrators. The Court established the Madsen Test, which provides that injunctive relief can be granted when it is shown that the defendant has violated or imminently will violate some provision of law, there is a discernible danger of recurrent violations, and a following speech restrictive injunction may not burden speech more than necessary to serve a significant government interest.^[33]
• Wigg v. Sioux Falls School District 49-6 (2004)^[34] The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled as Liberty Counsel argued that after school Bible study classes on campus after school hours do not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, since they constitute private free-speech.^[35]
• In November, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Liberty's Counsel's appeal, previously dismissed in the District Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, on behalf of the Catholic Action Council of Massachusetts and others who sought to block implementation of the court decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that held the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples to be unconstitutional.^[36]
• McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005)^[37] defended a Ten Commandments public monument. Liberty Counsel lost this case that challenged the legal test regarding religious displays used by the courts since the 1970s. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered a dissent that challenged prevailing Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.^[38]
• In a challenge to New York's June, 2011 Marriage Equality Act, Liberty Counsel asked the state's highest court to hear its appeal and invalidate the law.^[39] That court declined to hear the appeal on October 23, 2012.^[40]
• Miller v. Davis Liberty Counsel represented Kentucky Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian who in 2015 stopped issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry. She lost an earlier ruling in 2015^[41] and in 2016, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an injunction against her at the request of Liberty Counsel after a new Kentucky law was passed that made the case moot. At the same time they refused to vacate a contempt decree against her ^[42]

Affiliates

Liberty Counsel has ties with Liberty University Law School, which was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell with the assistance of Liberty Counsel's Founder. ^[43][44]

Related Organizations

Liberty Counsel has interlocking boards with several related organizations.^[3]

• Luke 1827 Foundation Inc^[3]
• Liberty Counsel Action (FL)^[3]
• Liberty Counsel Action (VA)^[3]
• Freedom Federation Inc^[3]
• Liberty Action PAC Inc^[3]
• Salt and Light Council^[3]
• Liberty Mission Trust^[3]
• Liberty Action Mission Trust^[3]
• Freedom Mission Trust^[3]

Publications

• Judicial Tyranny - The Faith & Freedom Series - ISBN 0-9662079-1-2
• Eternal Vigilance - Knowing and Protecting Your Religious Freedom - ISBN 0-8054-4000-3
• Same-Sex Marriage - Putting Every Household at Risk - ISBN 0-8054-3196-9

Notes

References

External links

• Official website