Summary: The law firm representing Kim Davis, The Liberty Counsel, has been called a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Liberty Counsel is a Florida-based law firm that specializes in Christian litigation. According to The Daily Mail, the Southern Poverty Law Center is now calling the firm a “hate group.” So far the firm doesn’t seem to mind the label.
The Liberty Counsel has risen to fame in recent weeks thanks to its star client, Kim Davis, the Kentucky law clerk who illegally refused to issue gay marriage licenses.
“A group that regularly portrays gay people as perverse, diseased pedophiles putting Western civilization at risk are way, way over the line,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”). SPLC has deemed Liberty Counsel a hate group for spreading lies to promote an anti-gay agenda.
The Liberty Counsel was formed by attorney Mat Staver and his wife, Anita. Before Kim Davis’ case rocketed them to fame, they focused on other religious-oriented cases. They have represented clients in barring gay adoption and ending the “war on Christmas.” In 2000, they threatened to sue a library for giving “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” certificates to children, according to ABC News.
Staver, who also works as a pastor, does not think he operates a hate group. He believes his group promotes Christianity.
“Jesus told us we would be hated for his name,” Staver said. “For standing for what we stand for, people will hate us. It happened to the disciples, but it’s also happening today.” Liberty Counsel is a tax-exempt nonprofit and Christian ministry, according to Slate.
Kim Davis has polarized the nation with her anti-gay marriage agenda, and her law firm has done its best to keep her in the news. Sources report that it was The Liberty Counsel who leaked Kim Davis’ meeting with Pope Francis and overplayed the importance of it. Ms. Davis’ lawyers claimed she had a long, private meeting with the Pope last week; the church quickly countered, saying it was a group meeting and not a sign of support for Davis or her causes.
The Liberty Counsel has since issued a rebuttal against the Vatican, standing firm on its original statements.
“Neither Kim Davis nor Liberty Counsel ever said the meeting was an endorsement of particular and complex aspects of her legal case,” Staver said in a statement published in The Advocate. “Rather, the meeting was a pastoral meeting to encourage Kim Davis in which Pope Francis thanked her for her courage and told her to ‘Stay strong.’ His words and actions support the universal human right to conscientious objection.”
This is not the first time that the Liberty Counsel has lied about Kim Davis’ support, according to ABC News. Before the Pope story, Staver stood onstage at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. He held up a photo of 100,000 people at a football stadium in Peru and claimed that the crowd had gathered to support Davis. Those at the Values Voter Summit erupted in cheers, but internet sleuths discovered the photo was a year old and not related to Davis.