Attorney General Jeff Sessions consulted Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group that champions conservative Christian causes, ahead of issuing controversial guidance to government agencies and departments on Friday about how to interpret federal religious liberty protections.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group whose stated mission is to “keep the doors open for the Gospel by advocating for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family,” hailed Sessions’ announcement, while a number of leading LGBT advocacy groups condemned the move for effectively offering a religious exemption for sexual orientation discrimination.
In a call with reporters, ADF CEO Michael Farris confirmed to ABC News that Sessions met with the group during a series of so-called “listening sessions” convened by the Attorney General, who says he was “seeking suggestions regarding the areas of federal protection for religious liberty most in need of clarification or guidance.”
“I commend the president for taking another step to honor his campaign promise to make religious liberty his ‘first priority’ by directing the Department of Justice to issue this guidance, which simply directs the federal government to adhere to its legal and constitutional obligation to respect existing religious freedom protections,” wrote Farris in a statement.
The Department of Justice did not respond to requests to release a list of the individuals and groups Sessions met with during his “listening sessions.”
ADF was founded in 1994 by a group of leading Christian evangelical leaders, including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ and Larry Burkett of Crown Financial Ministries. Since then, ADF has established itself as a leading litigation and appellate advocacy group for Christian right causes, including opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, and social conservatives hail the group as champions of religious freedom.
ADF lawyers have argued several cases before the Supreme Court and are currently representing Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who is challenging the state’s nondiscrimination protections after he was found in violation of the law for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review the Phillips case. In a recent appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Phillips defended his actions: “I don’t believe that Jesus would have made a cake, if he would have been the baker,” he said.
ADF has repeatedly disputed the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate group” designation as “a lie” and criticized news organizations, including ABC News, who make reference to it.
The SPLC, meanwhile, which has monitored hate groups throughout the United States for decades, continues to stand by its label, telling ABC News it’s “rightfully earned.”
Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom Mike Farris, President, CEO General Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom; and David A. Cortman, senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation with Alliance Defending Freedom, speak to reporters in Washington on April 21, 2017.
On Friday, Sessions outlined 20 broad “principles” designed to ensure that “to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be accommodated in all government activity,” including a decree that “a governmental action substantially burdens an exercise of religion … if it compels an act inconsistent with that observance or practice, or substantially pressures the adherent to modify such observance or practice.”
For several leading LGBT advocates, the new guidance was an alarming effort to undermine sexual orientation discrimination protections, under the guise of affirming religious liberty, that could have far-reaching implications.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin and the first openly gay U.S. Senator, told ABC News that today’s guidance could pave the way for discrimination of vulnerable populations.
“I support religious freedom and the freedom of full equality for every American,” Baldwin said in a statement. “A license to discriminate goes against our core American values and I fear that the guidance the Justice Department issued today is not designed to help agencies comply with the law, but rather to give them greater leeway to condone discrimination against LGBTQ people, women and others.”
“Today the Trump-Pence administration launched an all-out assault on LGBTQ people, women and other minority communities by unleashing a sweeping license to discriminate,” said Griffin in a statement. “This blatant attempt to further Donald Trump’s cynical and hateful agenda will enable systematic, government-wide discrimination that will have a devastating impact on LGBTQ people and their families.”
“Today’s guidance by Jeff Sessions proves this Administration will do anything possible to categorize LGBTQ Americans as second-class citizens who are not equal under the law,” said Ellis in a statement. “Freedom of religion is paramount to our nation’s success, but does give people the right to impose their beliefs on others, to harm other, or to discriminate. Nothing could be more un-American and unholy that using religion to justify harm and discrimination to others.”
For David Dinielli, the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s LGBT Rights Project, the ADF’s apparent relationship with Sessions is a troubling sign of the group’s growing influence in the new administration.
“The fact that the ADF has confirmed it has participated in a listening session is further proof that extremists have infiltrated the highest echelons of power in this administration, even the Attorney General who is tasked with protecting the civil rights of all Americans,” Dinielli told ABC News. “I’m not certain who came up with the invitation list to these listening sessions, but I can assure you it did not include groups who provide services to those who will be directly affected by this new guidance.”
As storm clouds gather around movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in the wake of an explosive New York Times report with allegations of sexual harassment and other misbehavior, his company’s Oscar season hopefuls are staring down an unsure future.
Frankly, though, this year’s potential contenders — “The Current War” and “Wind River” — were already facing an uphill battle. Unlike previous years when the Weinstein Co. and Miramax juggled numerous strong awards contenders, mounting expensive, competitive campaigns and lavish Oscar and Golden Globes parties, the company’s financial woes have resulted in pared-back awards spending.
Weinstein’s awards season presence is often felt beyond his on-screen contenders. He holds an annual pre-Oscars bash at the Montage Beverly Hills, where illuminaries like Oprah Winfrey and business leaders like Amazon chief Jeff Bezos have been guests. Last February, Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Lin-Manuel Miranda attended the soiree.
He also partners with Netflix every year for a well-attended Golden Globes after-party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Given the current scandal, it’s unclear at this point whether Weinstein will even show his face during this year’s awards season.
Weinstein had high expectations for Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s “The Current War.” The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon as electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, respectively, in a story of the duo’s cutthroat turn-of-the-century race to determine whose system would power the modern world. But reviews at the Toronto Film Festival seemed to seal its fate. The film “can’t generate even the slightest bit of interest in what happens to any of its characters,” read Variety‘s take.
So it was back to the editing suite, where Harvey Scissorhands, his longstanding nickname for his heavy-handed control of the editing process, would step in. That was in fact where he said he was on Wednesday when Variety reporters first reached out to him about the then-upcoming New York Times report. But for a film that has already been dismantled by critics — it currently sits at 31% on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 42 score at Metacritic — the merciful thing might be to hold it for 2018 rather than release it under a cloud.
“That’s the question of the week,” one person involved with the film said. Gomez-Rejon could not be reached for comment.
In the wake of “The Current War’s” Toronto stumble, the Weinstein Co.’s efforts appeared to shift to its August release “Wind River.” Indeed, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s (“Hell or High Water”) directorial debut, a murder mystery set in Wyoming’s snow-blown Wind River Indian Reservation, is the embattled distributor’s biggest success story of the year. Weinstein acquired the film, which cost $11 million, at the Cannes Film Market in 2016 for a figure reportedly north of $3 million. It went on to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and has generated $33 million at the domestic box office after two months in release. The campaign gears are already turning; a pair of screenings was recently set for this weekend at the DGA Theater in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Sheridan, stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, and key crew members will be on hand for post-screening QAs.
But the last thing an indie success story hoping for an awards season profile needs is a scandal overshadowing its efforts. Through his publicist, Sheridan declined to comment.
A third, outside possibility for Weinstein this season might have been “The Upside,” Neil Burger’s remake of the 2012 French film “The Intouchables,” with Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, and Nicole Kidman. It, too, performed poorly for critics in Toronto, but as a populist comedy featuring an on-fire Hart, the film might at least have box office potential.
At the festival, Weinstein told press that he planned to qualify “The Upside” for awards consideration in December and then go wide next year, perhaps angling for Golden Globes comedy recognition as a ploy to boost its commercial prospects. (Per contractual obligations with Sony regarding the December release of Hart’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” Burger’s film cannot open wide before March.) But that runs counter to producer Todd Black’s expectations. “I think that was only in [Weinstein’s] mind and not in any of our minds,” Black said. “Nothing’s changed. We’re coming out in March. All we’re concerned about is a big, fat commercial release.”
Nevertheless, Weinstein could use a hit sooner rather than later; the often resilient impresario has been dogged by ongoing murmurs that his company, which recently saw significant turnover among key executives, continues to be in financial straits. But he obviously has other concerns at the moment.
“I don’t know that Harvey has much say right now,” Black said.
