Thread by @sarahposner

THREAD:

Alliance Defending Freedom (fka Alliance Defense Fund) will likely come up in Barrett's confirmation hearing this week.

I've been reporting on ADF for more than a decade.

1/x

In my first story, 2007, I reported on how they represented a local anti-LGBTQ coalition in Boyd County, KY, which was fighting diversity training in a public high school, stemming from local efforts to block a gay-straight alliance at the school.

2/x

typeinvestigations.org/investigation/…

The piece detailed how ADF had racked up a series of victories in court, based on the claim that religious organizations were victims of "viewpoint discrimination."

3/x

One of ADF's attorneys that I interviewed for that story, who was very keen on ADF's agenda of overturning SCOTUS precedent on church/state separation, was Mike Johnson, who is now a Republican Congressman from Louisiana.

4/x

You can read that whole story here:

5/x

typeinvestigations.org/investigation/…

Barrett has served as faculty for ADF's Blackstone Fellowship, which gives law students "the highest level training in Christian worldview and constitutional law to help break the stranglehold the ACLU and its allies have on our nation’s law schools and judicial system.”

6/x

A decade after that first story, I wrote another piece on ADF, post-marriage equality, seemingly a crushing loss for the group and its allies.

It used those same claims of discrimination against Christians to first fight marriage equality, and then undermine it.

7/x

They call it "religious freedom."

8/x

I covered a 2017 press conference, where I found that same Mike Johnson (now Rep. Johnson), where GOP lawmakers announced their support for Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, whose case was before SCOTUS.

Here's what Johnson said:

9/x

For that 2017 story, I read 146 briefs ADF had filed in the courts. The conclusion:

10/x

Link:

11/x

thenation.com/article/archiv…

(Side note: ADF won Masterpiece Cakeshop, thanks to Anthony Kennedy, who bought their argument that the state, in enforcing its nondiscrimination laws, had exhibited "hostility" to religion.)

12/x

thenation.com/article/archiv…

But really, go back and read my 2017 piece on ADF, to understand the full sweep and scale of the organization.

And remember, questioning Barrett about why she chose to speak at their law student trainings is most definitely *not* anti-religion.

13/x

thenation.com/article/archiv…

Last year, I did another story on ADF, on how embedded in Trump's Washington it is.

For ex., Barrett taught at the same Blackstone seminars as Sen. Josh Hawley (who incidentally has said he is satisfied that she passes his anti-Roe litmus test).

14/x

talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/inside…

And last week, I published a new story on how this "religious freedom" argument, developed and pressed by ADF (and other, similar Christian legal groups) is taking hold in the federal courts, thanks to Trump judges:

15/x

rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

The piece raises questions about Barrett's answers in her 2017 confirmation hearing for the 7th Circuit, saying she didn't know all of ADF's policy positions.

16/x

Barrett, who would likely hear cases from ADF at SCOTUS, as it is an active litigator there, had to have known its positions on "religious freedom" versus LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights. Hard to miss.

17/x

And she would have had to agree with them to teach at Blackstone.

18/x

She would give the Court a solid majority for the position that conservative Christians can opt out of complying with nondiscrimination laws because of "religious freedom."

19/x

In fact, there is a crucial case on this issue before the Court this term, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

20/x

rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

Let's review what's at stake.

Trump judges (in the below screengrab, Justin Walker) are intent on making this the law of the land. With a 6-3 majority on SCOTUS...?

rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

21/x