Opponents accuse Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative law firm behind a landmark Supreme Court case, of manufacturing lawsuits to advance its agenda during a decade-long battle against laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Starting in 2014, ADF filed preemptive lawsuits in nine states on behalf of Christian vendors who objected to same-sex marriage, which was on its way to becoming legal across the country. The plaintiffs claimed that the local laws infringed on their First Amendment rights because photography and other creative work are effectively speech, which the government may not compel. That argument was accepted inby a 6-3 Supreme Court majority that included Trump’s three appointees.
in a federal court in Kentucky on behalf of Chelsey Nelson, a photographer who said she had dreamed of a career in photography growing up and always wanted to specialize in weddings.Nelson says she first photographed a wedding in 2016. When she formally incorporated her photography firm the month before filing her lawsuit, the paperwork filed to Kentucky regulators was signed by Aaron J.
Late last month, ADF told the court that Nelson had photographed two weddings this summer, neither of them in Louisville. It filed copies of work contracts dated months after Louisville noted her absence from photographing weddings. Customers’ last names were redacted. The Post determined that the bride in the first wedding, held in Mississippi in July, was Nelson’s sister-in-law, and that Nelson was also a guest, according to the couple’s wedding website.
A year after obtaining the injunction, however, the Minnesota videographers dropped their lawsuit, saying in a court filing that they were “exploring new business opportunities outside the wedding field.” State officials alleged in a court filing that ADF scrapped the case to avoid turning over records that would show the videographers never had a viable wedding business, which ADF denied.
In July 2020, ADF sued Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on behalf of Kristi Stokes, who had incorporated a company for wedding officiant services about two months earlier. County lawyers argued that although Stokes claimed that her business was “a place of public accommodation,” a designation that would make it subject to the law barring discrimination, the business address she provided indicated otherwise.
In Virginia, ADF sued state authorities for Chris Herring of Chesapeake in June 2020, 25 days after he incorporated a photography firm. Herring’s lawsuit said he wanted to “point people to God through wedding photography.” But within three months, Herring dropped the case, records show. He now lives in Pennsylvania and works for a tech company. He declined to comment.
Stephen F. Rohde, a veteran civil rights attorney and a director of the ACLU of Southern California, described the activity as unusual and manipulative. “This firm has played a highly proactive role,” Rohde said. Scruggs told The Post that ADF advised religious clients “in a wide variety of contexts,” including on preparing company documents, to help protect them from legal threats, and that this was not unusual. “I don’t think it’s problematic to get advice from a lawyer,” he said.
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