

Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Court ruled that the birth control mandate in employee funded health plans violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 since there existed a less restrictive means of furthering the law’s interest.
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By 2014 the organization had more than 40 staff attorneys, and had "emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country." The ADF garnered national attention in its 2014 challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The name change was intended to reflect the organization's shift in focus from funding allied attorneys to directly litigating cases. The Alliance Defense Fund changed its name to Alliance Defending Freedom on July 9, 2012. James Kennedy dismissed same-sex marriage as "counterfeit" and promoted pseudoscientific conversion therapy, while James Dobson helped launch a ministry aiming to help gay people "overcome" homosexuality. Several founding members wrote books condemning homosexuality, including longtime president Alan Sears, who authored the 2003 book The Homosexual Agenda, and Marlin Malloux, who wrote 1994's Answers to the Gay Deception. Principal concerns of the ADF have been outlawing abortion and opposing gay rights. It particularly targeted the work of the American Civil Liberties Union, which its founders saw as contributing to an erosion of Christian values. In its early years, Alliance Defense Fund funded legal cases rather than litigating directly. James Kennedy, Evangelist pastor and founder of Coral Ridge Ministries Marlin Maddoux, a Christian radio radio personality and Alan Sears, former director of the Meese Commission and a devout Catholic. The co-founders were Bill Bright, who also founded Campus Crusade for Christ Larry Burkett, an evangelical financial advisor James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family D. ADF was incorporated in 1993 by six conservative Christian men, most of whom belonged to evangelical movements. The Alliance Defense Fund was founded by members of the Christian right movement to prevent what its founders saw as threats to religious liberty in American society. History and structure FoundingĬo-founders of Alliance Defense Fund, the predecessor to Alliance Defending Freedom. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designates ADF as an anti-LGBT hate group, saying in 2017 that, since the election of President Donald Trump, ADF had become "one of the most influential groups informing the administration's attack on LGBTQ rights." The ADF has taken many anti-LGBT positions: it opposes same-sex marriage, decriminalization of same-sex sexual activity, and anti-discrimination laws, as well as taking an active role in writing model anti- transgender bills for state legislators. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the decision that overruled the 49 year-old precedent case Roe v. ADF lawyers also wrote the model for Mississippi's anti-abortion legislation involved in Dobbs v. ĪDF attorneys have argued a number of cases before the Supreme Court, taking positions such as: support for religious activity in public school and Christian prayer at town meetings narrowing coverage of contraceptives under the ACA prohibiting same-sex marriage, and supporting businesses in the wedding industry who refuse to serve gay couples. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former vice president Mike Pence, former attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions, and Senator Josh Hawley. Individuals associated with ADF have included U.S.

ĪDF is one of the most organized and influential Christian legal interest groups in the United States based on its budget, caseload, network of allied attorneys, and connections to significant members of the political right. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.

ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in Washington, D.C., and New York, among other locations. The Alliance Defending Freedom ( ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and curtail the rights of LGBTQ people.
