Formation | 1990 |
---|---|
Headquarters | Washington, D.C., United States |
Founder | Pat Robertson |
Key people | Jay Sekulow, Jordan Sekulow |
Website | aclj.org |
The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) is a politically conservative, Christian-based legal organization in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and associated with Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The ACLJ was founded in 1990 by law school graduate and evangelical minister Pat Robertson with the stated "mandate to protect religious and constitutional freedoms". ACLJ generally pursues constitutional issues and conservative Christian ideals in courts of law. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The leaders of the ACLJ also occasionally engage in public debates to present their perspective on legal and constitutional issues.
The ACLJ is described as being "committed to ensuring the ongoing viability of freedom and liberty in the United States and around the world" by "focusing on U.S. constitutional law, European Union law and human rights law" to protect "universal, God-given and inalienable rights," according to Charity Navigator, which also issued a "Low Concern" advisory for the District of Columbia branch [6] and a "Moderate Concern" for the Virginia Beach branch [7] about the group after The Washington Post reported that ACLJ has paid Donald Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow and his family millions of dollars. [8] [9]
The ACLJ arose in part as a right-leaning political answer to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has a different interpretation of First Amendment protection of religious rights. [10] The name and acronym, ACLJ, were chosen to contrast with the ACLU. [10] It has attracted much media attention for its lawsuits, such as its campaign to oppose changes to the constitution of Kenya that, according to the group, would permit abortion and Islamic law, [11] [12] and its attempts to block the construction of an Islamic cultural center near the former site of the World Trade Center. [13] The ACLJ supported blocking the construction of the center through New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
In November 2010, the ACLJ asked that the U.S. Justice Department investigate the Congressional Muslim Staffer Association's weekly prayer session on Capitol Hill, alleging that the organization demonstrated "a pattern of inviting Islamic extremists with ties to terrorism to participate in these events". [14]
In 2018, ACLJ attorney Jay Sekulow was serving on President Donald Trump's personal legal team. [15] Another Sekulow client at the time was the American Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, in detention and facing charges in Turkey. [16]
Since 2011, donations to ACLJ are routed through Sekulow's family-run Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE), [17] [18] and many "transactions that benefit members of the Sekulow family are disclosed on the CASE returns, but not the ACLJ's." [19] [18] ACLJ's and CASE's tax returns show that between 1998 and 2011 they paid more than $33 million to Sekulow, members of his family, and businesses owned or co-owned by them. [19] from 2011 to 2015, the two charities paid $5.5 million to Sekulow and members of his family, and $23 million to their businesses. [17]
Sekulow is half-owner of the for-profit corporation Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group [17] whose governor and executive officer is Stuart Roth, [20] one of his partners in the law firm and real estate business that declared bankruptcy in 1986. [21] From 2011 to 2016, the ACLJ paid the group $23 million, "its largest outside expense." [17]
In 1997 Jay Sekulow and Thomas Patrick Monaghan, Chief Counsel and Senior Counsel of the ACLJ, respectively, set up the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) in Strasbourg as part of the ACLJ's international strategy. Sekulow serves as Chief Counsel for the ECLJ. The following year the ACLJ set up the Slavic Center for Law and Justice (SCLJ) in Moscow. Both organizations on the European mainland have a full-time staff of religious rights attorneys. [22] The ECLJ is active in the United Nations Organization and in the Council of Europe, and represents the interests of some Christians in the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The ACLJ is one of several American Christian groups that are promoting conservative Christian laws in Africa, supporting controversial movements regarding LGBT rights, including support in Uganda for criminalizing homosexuality. [23]
The ACLJ has been criticized by the ACLU for its stance on putting prayer in public school, and by Americans United for conflating support of separation of church and state with being anti-religious. [24] The Human Rights Campaign is critical of the ACLJ's finances citing that the organization does not meet "10 out of 20 of the Better Business Bureau’s standards for charity accountability" and that ACLJ obfuscates how much Sekulow earns from the organization. [25] [26] [27]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit human rights organization founded in 1920. The organization strives "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying and has more than 1,800,000 members as of July 2018, with an annual budget over $300 million. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student, lawyer, and faculty divisions; the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events, lectures, and other activities, it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing conservative views to interact with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that sanctions including any form of criminal punishment to all forms of private, consensual non-procreative adult sexual activities between two individuals are unconstitutional. The Court reaffirmed the concept of a "right to privacy" that earlier cases had found the U.S. Constitution provides, even though it is not explicitly enumerated. It based its ruling on the notions of personal autonomy to define one's own relationships and of American traditions of non-interference with any or all forms of private sexual activities between consenting adults.
Morris Seligman Dees Jr. is an American attorney known as the co-founder and former chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), based in Montgomery, Alabama. He ran a direct marketing firm before founding SPLC. Along with his law partner, Joseph J. Levin Jr., Dees founded the SPLC in 1971. Dees and his colleagues at the SPLC have been "credited with devising innovative ways to cripple hate groups" such as the Ku Klux Klan, particularly by using "damage litigation".
Regent University is a private Christian university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was founded by Pat Robertson in 1977 as Christian Broadcasting Network University and changed its name to Regent University in 1990. Regent offers on-campus programs as well as distance education. Regent offers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in over 70 courses of study. The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Jay Alan Sekulow is an American lawyer, radio, television talk show host and politically conservative media personality. He has been chief counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) since 1991. As a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, he served as lead outside counsel for Trump's first impeachment trial in the United States Senate.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in several locations including Washington, D.C., and New York. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.
The Thomas More Law Center is a Christian, conservative, nonprofit, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and active throughout the United States. According to the Thomas More Law Center website, its goals are to "preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage, defend the religious freedom of Christians, restore time-honored moral and family values, protect the sanctity of human life, and promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America."
International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.
David D. Cole is the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Before joining the ACLU in July 2016, Cole was the Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at the Georgetown University Law Center from March 2014 through December 2016. He has published in various legal fields including constitutional law, national security, criminal justice, civil rights, and law and literature. Cole has litigated several significant First Amendment cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, as well a number of influential cases concerning civil rights and national security. He is also a legal correspondent to several mainstream media outlets and publications.
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The Foundation for Moral Law is a socially conservative, Christian right legal advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Jordan Sekulow is an American lawyer, radio talk show host, former Washington Post blogger, political consultant, and author. A veteran of three presidential campaigns, Sekulow is the executive director at the American Center for Law & Justice, a conservative international public interest law firm and watchdog group founded by his father, Jay Sekulow.
David Austin French is an American political commentator and former attorney who has argued high-profile religious liberty cases. He is a columnist for The New York Times. Formerly a fellow at the National Review Institute and a staff writer for National Review from 2015 to 2019, French is senior editor of The Dispatch, and occasionally a contributing writer for The Atlantic. French is currently a distinguished visiting professor of public policy at Lipscomb University, his alma mater.
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