Liberty Counsel is a 501 tax-exempt religious liberty organization that engages in litigation related to evangelical Christian values.
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Liberty Counsel is a 501 tax-exempt religious liberty organization that engages in litigation related to evangelical Christian values.
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Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989 by its chairman Mathew Staver and its president Anita L Staver, who are attorneys and married to each other.
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Liberty Counsel started as a religious liberty organization that focused its litigation efforts on freedom of speech cases.
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In 1990, Liberty Counsel supported a change in public library rules which had excluded religious and political events from library meeting rooms until the ACLU met with a library official.
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Liberty Counsel opposed the repeal of the US military's former policy "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that banned personnel from openly identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
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Liberty Counsel has been listed as an anti-gay group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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Liberty Counsel has challenged that SPLC's designation and the Associated Press's reporting thereof.
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In 2017, Liberty Counsel sued GuideStar USA, Inc, an information service specializing in US nonprofit ratings, for flagging Liberty Counsel as having been labeled a hate group by the SPLC.
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In 2018, a Virginia federal judge dismissed Liberty Counsel's suit, ruling that GuideStar's "expressive right to comment on social issues" was protected by the First Amendment.
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In 2020, Liberty Counsel launched "ReOpen Church Sunday" to encourage Christian leaders in the United States to hold in-person services on the first weekend of May On-site religious services had stopped in some locations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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In 2000, Liberty Counsel threatened legal action against a public library in Jacksonville, Florida after the library held a party that featured readings from Harry Potter books and distributed "Hogwarts' Certificate of Accomplishment" to the children who attended.
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Liberty Counsel represented a parent who objected to using secular lyrics to the tune of Silent Night.
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In March, 2020, Liberty Counsel defended a Florida megachurch pastor who was arrested for "unlawful assembly" after holding church services in violation of a public health emergency order.
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Liberty Counsel engaged in attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election in favor of Donald Trump after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.
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In 1993, Liberty Counsel sued the Orlando airport over a literature distribution policy that required proof of liability insurance.
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Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 1993 injunction restricting protests near an abortion facility.
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Liberty Counsel represented the plaintiffs challenging the injunction, which barred protesters from interfering with those entering or exiting an abortion facility within a 36-foot buffer zone.
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Liberty Counsel represented Kentucky counties that posted copies in courthouses.
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Liberty Counsel represented Dixie County, Florida against the American Civil Liberties Union in a 2007 lawsuit involving a Ten Commandments monument.
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In 2010, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against Obamacare but the Supreme Court declined to take the case.
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In 2012, Liberty Counsel unsuccessfully maintained a case at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia on behalf of Liberty University against the Affordable Care Act.
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Liberty Counsel lost an earlier ruling in 2015 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.
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Liberty Counsel filed for a stay pending appeal with the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
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In late 2021, Liberty Counsel filed suit in Florida on behalf of members of the US military who had religious objections to taking COVID-19 vaccinations.
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