Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit organization based out of Orlando, Florida, but with offices in Lynchburg, has been proclaiming itself the religious right’s answer to the ACLU since 1989. Their recent intervention in the Albemarle School Board’s policies went no further than a letter insisting that two Hollymead Elementary students could indeed distribute flyers for their Vacation Bible School, but the organization has shown itself unafraid to push cases to the extreme in order to “advance religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family”—which is their mission, as stated on their website.
Mathew D. Staver, Liberty Counsel founder as well as interim dean of Liberty University’s law school, calls his group a “public interest law firm…supported by individual contributions.” The counsel main-tains a paid staff in their Florida and Virginia offices, but also has a stable of more than 800 affiliate attorneys throughout the country who take on cases pro bono on Liberty Counsel’s behalf.
Sometimes the group’s fulfillment of its mission is as benign as stepping in to protect public Christmas displays; sometimes it is as volatile as suing abortion clinics. Case in hot-button point: Liberty Counsel has recently charged itself with ending a child-custody battle between a born-again Virginia woman who has renounced her homosexuality and her estranged partner, who lives in Vermont. The counsel seeks to ensure that Virginia courts continue to not recognize the couple’s Vermont civil union so that the Virginian can maintain custody of the child. Staver says they’ll take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
So while the Albemarle flyer controversy has died down for the time being, it appears that Charlottesville has not heard the last of Liberty Counsel. In its capacity both as an affiliate of Liberty University’s law school and as a conservative rights watchdog group, Liberty Counsel is here to stay.
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