In April, we received joyous news: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) attempt to destroy Liberty Counsel was an utter failure. Truth prevailed. A Vermont federal judge ruled for Liberty Counsel on every point and dismantled the SPLC’s lies and frivolous lawsuit!

But the SPLC isn’t done trying to bankrupt us yet. They are trying to take this frivolous, meritless case to the Court of Appeals in an effort to force us to spend countless more hours and dollars defending ourselves when they KNOW their claim is a lie.

The SPLC’s meritless case has already cost Liberty Counsel 10-plus years and over 11,000 hours of time defending ourselves. Every single piece of evidence proves we are innocent.

The SPLC’s aim is to break us financially by continuing this lawfare.

On Wednesday evening, we filed in court to oppose the SPLC’s latest move.

Please, help us defend ourselves by supporting our legal fund today, and a special Challenge Grant will DOUBLE the impact of your gift.

For over a decade, Liberty Counsel has been fighting the SPLC’s frivolous lawsuit falsely accusing us of conspiring to help Lisa Miller flee the country with her child, Isabella, and escape the jurisdiction of the courts.

As part of their lawsuit, the SPLC’s client, Janet Jenkins, insisted she wanted Liberty Counsel to pay her a ridiculous and outrageous demand that began at 20 million dollars and escalated to a whopping 200 billion dollars for something in which Liberty Counsel had no involvement!

The SPLC and its client, Jenkins, led the court down a rabbit hole in order to extend their case for years through a burdensome discovery process — a lawfare tactic meant to destroy Liberty Counsel.

While the SPLC and Jenkins were not able to bankrupt us, defending against the SPLC’s lawfare put a serious dent in our legal fund.

We need your help to restore what the locusts have eaten.

Help us replenish our legal fund so we can continue to fight for others, and a special Challenge Grant will DOUBLE your impact!

It took nearly a decade and over 11,000 hours to clear our name, pouring through more than 186,000 documents and 25 depositions that included over 11,000 pages of exhibits and 6,800 pages of transcripts. Then, our legal team wrote nearly 500 pages of arguments supported by thousands of exhibits.

Since its founding, the SPLC has made clear that its intention is to “completely destroy” conservative religious organizations like ours.

“I want to say plainly that our aim is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them,” SPLC fellow Mark Potok said in 2007.

In another setting that same year, Potok restated the organization’s quest, saying the SPLC’s mission 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.”

The SPLC represents a lesbian plaintiff who, irrationally and without any evidence despite years of litigation and scouring our files and emails, falsely claimed that Liberty Counsel participated in helping her former Vermont civil union “partner,” Lisa Miller, flee the country with Lisa’s biological daughter.

Our name has finally been cleared — but a significant portion of our legal fund was cleared out in defending ourselves against this spurious attack.

For 36 years, Liberty Counsel has defended life, religious liberty, and the natural family. We’ve won 37 of the cases we have argued or briefed before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is EXACTLY why the SPLC wanted to bankrupt us and shut us down.

We need your financial support to replenish our legal fund. Please consider making a special single gift or even a small recurring monthly donation to support our legal work.

DOUBLE THE IMPACT of your gift with our Challenge Grant.

Finally, I want to thank you for your enduring support. Your prayers have lifted and protected Liberty Counsel and our staff, and we deeply appreciate it. May God bless you for your faithfulness!

“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

Source:

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