For over two decades President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the next Attorney General was a Director on the Board of Advisors to a virulently anti-LGBT organization. That group has worked to prevent same-sex marriage and equality for LGBT people under the guise of defending religious liberty, and advised on high-profile cases for the religious right.
William Barr served as a Director on the Board of Advisors for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit legal firm that has worked on pivotal and well-known culture war cases including Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor. Barr, according to his just-completed and released Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, served for 21 years, from 1994 to 2015, in an uncompensated capacity.
His name appears on the organization’s letterhead, as this image from 2012 shows:
The Becket Fund’s Canterbury Medal is awarded annually. Among its recipients have been Robert P. George, the co-founder of the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), once the religious right’s leader against same-sex marriage. Other recipients have been Chuck Colson, the virulently anti-LGBT evangelical minister best known for his role in Watergate, including being President Nixon’s “hatchet man.” Also, Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, and Dallin Oaks, one of the heads of the Mormon Church, both anti-LGBT crusaders.
In an article asking, “Who Is Weaponizing Religious Liberty?,” People for the American Way reports the Becket Fund was “dubbed ‘God’s Rottweilers’ in a 2014 Politico story,” and notes that “Becket is also a big player in the religious liberty litigation culture wars.”
“Becket’s board includes the Family Research Council’s Kenneth Blackwell, Religious Right mega-funder Sean Fieler, and Robert George, an architect of the Religious Right’s ‘religious liberty’ strategy. Back in 2007, a Becket attorney warned that marriage equality would lead to ‘widespread legal confusion resulting in pervasive church-state conflict and a substantial chilling of religious expression.'”
All that was done during Barr’s tenure.
It’s hard to see how someone with this background could be designated as the nation’s top law enforcement agent in 21st century America, despite having been Attorney General for little over a year under President George H.W. Bush (photo).
If you’re not yet convinced, consider this: From 2004 to 2009 Barr was also a Director for the far right wing Ethics and Public Policy Center. Its founder was rejected for a State Dept. position after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Its current president is the attorney who very publicly on social media tried to allege, by name and photo, who – instead of Brett Kavanaugh – attempted to rape Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
Barr has also worked or volunteered with The Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative non-profit that advocates for a “textualist” interpretation of the U.S. Constitution – meaning the Constitution is not a living document, but must be read literally, as it was written, based on the beliefs of the time.
The Federalist Society has hand-picked many if not most of President Trump’s judicial nominees, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.