Even during the political exile of the Obama administration, A.D.F. had won five major cases at the Supreme Court,
including ensuring the right to pray at government meetings and securing an exception for Christian colleges from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to pay for insurance coverage for contraception.
Their victories consistently carved out additional space for Christianity in American public life.
Now A.D.F. saw a new chance to advance a body of law to attack abortion rights. It was a window that its lawyers believed might not be open for more than a few years,
and they were determined to take advantage of it.
In the summer of 2017, A.D.F. convened hundreds of top conservative leaders at the luxurious
Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Calif.,
for a private four-day summit.
The stated goal was to discuss religious freedom.
But the deeper ambition was to develop an agenda for the new Trump era.
The guest list included 10 state attorneys general and solicitors general;
a collection of the most powerful Christian lawyers in the country;
and Jeff #Sessions, Trump’s new attorney general.
Sessions initially kept his remarks, which offered a strident defense of religious freedom and A.D.F.’s work, a secret from the public.
Like the Federalist Society, A.D.F. aimed to connect lawyers and legal allies to further its goals.
But A.D.F. was also profoundly different.
It was an explicitly conservative Christian legal-advocacy project,
designed to bring together lawyers, elected officials and activists
to achieve policy goals in line with its religious mission.
Now A.D.F.’s work was growing, and largely under the radar, as it sought to become a mainstream Christian rival to the A.C.L.U.
No one on the outside knew just how extensive the network’s ambitions were,
or that it was beginning to lay the groundwork to challenge Roe.
A.D.F. had invited another delegation that sought to keep its participation off the official record:
a team from the Wisconsin attorney general’s office, including Tseytlin.
When a reporter from the USA Today Network-Wisconsin later unearthed the delegation’s participation,
a state spokesperson simply said that Tseytlin was a leader of a session at the conference.
No one disclosed what it was about.
Tseytlin’s remarks that day remained unknown to the public.
But Tseytlin, a man most Americans had never heard of, was there to present his legal strategy to end Roe.
Lawyers had a moral duty to act, Tseytlin told the group, according to participants.
He proposed his idea for an abortion ban that set a limit earlier than 20 weeks to undercut Roe more openly.
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#AllianceDefendingFreedom #fedsoc #FederalistSociety
#viability #Roberts #Kennedy #Alito
#Leonard #Leo #Misha #Tseytlin