After decades of smearing Christian and conservative groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) put Liberty Counsel directly in its crosshairs, suing us for an outrageous 200 BILLION dollars! No kidding! This is the figure given by their plaintiff during a recent deposition.

Defend Liberty Counsel from SPLC’s outrageous attack! Every donation made by midnight, December 31, will be DOUBLED by a special year-end Challenge Grant.

In 2007, Mark Potok, senior fellow at the SPLC, explicitly stated in a speech that the purpose of the SPLC is not simply to monitor groups they falsely label as “hate groups.” Rather, Potok said, “I want to say plainly that our aim is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.”

We just completed several years of costly and frivolous discovery, resulting in our filing legal arguments in excess of 450 pages with more than 5,000 pages of exhibits, all of which PROVE OUR INNOCENCE.

Potok confirmed the SPLC’s raison d’etre in 2007 when he noted that the SPLC is “trying to wreck the groups, and we are very clear in our head, this is — we are trying to destroy them ... as a political matter, to destroy them.”

How this case began ...

In 2004, Liberty Counsel began representing Lisa Miller against Janet Jenkins. Lisa had entered a Vermont civil union with Janet. Then Lisa became a Christian and moved to Virginia with her 2-year-old daughter, Isabella. Litigation to dissolve the civil union pitted the laws of Vermont against Virginia, which did not recognize civil unions or same-sex marriage.

This first-of-its-kind case attracted national attention. After many court hearings, the Vermont court ordered visitation. Lisa complied — until Isabella complained of abuse. While the cases were ongoing in both states, Lisa disappeared suddenly and without warning. We informed the court and sought to withdraw.

To punish Lisa and send a message, the Obama administration invested enormous resources and discovered she had fled the country.

After indicting several people from Nicaragua and Virginia who, it was later learned, helped Lisa flee, Janet filed a civil lawsuit in 2012 against many people. In 2016, Janet amended her suit to include Liberty Counsel, falsely alleging that Liberty Counsel was part of a conspiracy to help Lisa flee.

The SPLC turned its focus to litigation against Liberty Counsel and began representing Janet. The SPLC joined with the intent of destroying Liberty Counsel through frivolous and time-consuming litigation.

The SPLC’s efforts to “completely destroy” Liberty Counsel have gone on for 12 years, spanning three continents and seven countries. Our legal team has spent well more than 10,000 hours reviewing over 186,000 documents and taking 25 depositions that included over 11,000 pages of exhibits and 6,800 pages of transcripts. Then, after engaging in all that time-consuming discovery, Liberty Counsel was forced to expend significant efforts preparing a motion for summary judgment that included a 174-page statement of facts and 142-page legal memorandum, all supported by nearly 6,000 pages of exhibits.

In the entirety of that massive record, there is not a shred of evidence against Liberty Counsel. Absolutely NOTHING!

The SPLC represents a lesbian plaintiff who, irrationally and without a shred of evidence, falsely claims, despite 12 years of litigation and scouring our files and emails, that Liberty Counsel participated in helping Lisa flee.

Liberty Counsel did nothing of the sort.

As if the case, with its complete absence of evidence, is not frivolous enough, SPLC and its client have made it outright ridiculous.

During a deposition, when asked what Janet Jenkins was seeking, she said 20 billion, but then said if she continues to get asked questions, the price would be 100 billion, then 200 BILLION dollars!

To put this outrageous demand into perspective, Bill Gates’ net worth is over 107 billion and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is nearly 218 billion.

The SPLC’s case is so ridiculous that only TWO people on Earth could afford to pay it — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is nearly 243 billion, or Elon Musk, whose net worth is nearly 429 billion.

The SPLC knows this, of course. They also know the irrefutable facts are on Liberty Counsel’s side, so they know their case is unwinnable. But SPLC’s aim, as shown in their own words, is not to win, but to destroy.

The SPLC lawsuit is one of the longest and most arduous cases in Liberty Counsel history. It is designed to bury our attorneys under mountains of paperwork in order to not only cost Liberty Counsel millions of dollars spent defending ourselves, but also (and perhaps more significantly), to tie up our time in hopes SPLC is able to prevent us from doing our REAL work — defending the right to life, religious liberty, and the natural family.

Liberty Counsel will not stand down.

We will not allow the SPLC to keep us from our work of preserving freedom.

Your prayers that this case will soon be decided in our favor would be greatly appreciated. Your generous donation to help us continue is also appreciated.

A special Year End Challenge Grant will DOUBLE every gift made by midnight, December 31. Please help us fight the SPLC and fund our regular legal work defending life, religious liberty, and the natural family.

Liberty Counsel is in an elite class when it comes to use of donor funds. Our non-donor income covers all administrative and fundraising expenses. Most of the non-donor income derives from attorney’s fees and costs that are recoverable from a government defendant. This means 100% of every dollar goes directly to Liberty Counsel programs. And Liberty Counsel operates on a debt-free basis.

“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (Deut. 28:7).

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

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Make a recurring monthly donation and let the Challenge Grant DOUBLE THE IMPACT OF YOUR REGULAR GIFT!

Sources:

“Mark Potok Speech 1.” YouTube, September 11, 2007. Youtube.com/watch?v=fnTz2ylJo_8.

“The World’s Real-Time Billionaires.” Forbes. Accessed July 12, 2024. Forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#537d64913d78.