GOP Outsources Lawsuits To Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group

Rolling Stone reports:

It’s not unusual for attorneys general to bring on outside counsel when they’re going to the Supreme Court. Historically, however, experts say, it has not been common for attorneys general to outsource their litigation efforts to private, agenda-driven interest groups. But in recent years, Alliance Defending Freedom has become the go-to firm for Republican officials defending anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ legislation.

ADF is a nonprofit litigation shop founded in the early 90s by dozens of the highest profile conservative Christian figures of the time, including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Campus Crusade for Christ’s Bill Bright, and anti-porn crusader Alan Sears, co-author of the anti-LGBT book “The Homosexual Agenda.” Its mission: “to change the law and culture of the nation,” essentially, by helping do away with the separation of church and state.

Read the full article.

Photo: ADF chief counsel Kristen Waggoner.

Among the Republicans to have partnered with the ADF are the attorneys general of Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Kansas. In most cases, the ADF provides their services at no cost.

As I’ve mentioned here before, in 2003 the ADF petitioned the Supreme Court to keep homosexuality criminalized in a brief submitted in the landmark Lawrence v Texas case.

The ADF, which has a strong presence the UK, also provides free legal support to overseas groups seeking to implement or retain prison sentences for same-sex relationships.

Of note, in 2012 Federalist Society member and ADF lawyer Lisa Biron was sentenced to 40 years in prison for sex trafficking and child porn. The victim in the case was Biron’s daughter. In 2017 the Supreme Court refused to vacate her sentence.

An appeals court later also refused to return to Biron a 144-page prison-penned manuscript on the virtues of “Christian morality and sexual conduct” that was deemed to be contraband for sexual offenders.

GOP officials hire the far-right Alliance Defending Freedom to defend their culture war lawsuits and handle their public statements, according to contracts obtained by Rolling Stone.

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— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 25, 2024