{"id":13167,"date":"2023-11-05T13:56:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T18:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/au.org\/?page_id=13167"},"modified":"2024-07-07T02:44:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T06:44:44","slug":"becket-fund","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/becket-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Becket Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Becket Fund: weaponizing religious freedom<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Becket Fund has deep pockets and deep political connections and is determined to turn religious freedom into a weapon.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Denying birth control and LGBTQ protections<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Becket Fund is a frequent opponent of AU in court, a prominent member of the Shadow Network seeking to undermine church-state separation, and a group bent on using religious freedom as a weapon.<\/p>

Here are some of the Becket Fund\u2019s most well-known Supreme Court cases:<\/p>

Becket got the Supreme Court to grant\u00a0religious exemptions to corporations like Hobby Lobby\u00a0<\/a>and religious employers like the Little Sisters of the Poor so they could deny their workers access to birth control \u2013 even though contraceptives are an important part of health care that was guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>

Becket also represented a\u00a0taxpayer-funded foster care agency that wanted to violate the anti-discrimination protections<\/a>\u00a0in its contract with Philadelphia and refuse to serve LGBTQ parents. The Supreme Court ruled in the agency\u2019s favor.<\/p>

In several cases, Becket has convinced the Court to broaden the definition of a \u201cminister\u201d to grant religious schools a right to fire lay teachers because of characteristics such as disability or age, preventing the teachers from fighting for their civil rights in court.<\/p>

And now, Becket is asking the Supreme Court to review two Americans United cases \u2013 one involving a\u00a0teacher fired for trying to combat pervasive racism in a Colorado Christian school<\/a>, the other involving a priest challenging colleagues and others who publicly defamed him and damaged his reputation. Becket argues these folks should have no civil rights or other legal protections and is asking the Supreme Court to slam the courthouse door on them.\u00a0<\/p>

Becket also opposes AU in the case of our client\u00a0Aimee Maddonna<\/a>, a mother of three who was denied the opportunity to help foster children because, as a Catholic, she didn\u2019t share the taxpayer-funded foster-care agency\u2019s evangelical Protestant beliefs. Becket represents South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who permits such discrimination by state-contracted foster care agencies.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Power and influence<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Becket Fund has deep Shadow Network connections. Leonard Leo sits on Becket\u2019s board of directors. According to Leo\u2019s former media relations director, \u201cBecket was saved at least two times by Leonard Leo before Hobby Lobby \u2026 Only Leo could raise that kind of money.\u201d And before her lifetime judicial appointment, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined a Becket letter insisting religious employers should be able to deny workers access to birth control.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\"Among the Crusaders, the Becket Fund is better at diversifying its clientele to include non-Christians, but it is still preoccupied with weaponizing religious freedom. One former employee explained that the ecumenicalism was self-interested and also that Leonard Leo, the court packer, saved Becket twice by tapping his shadowy network for massive cash infusions.\"\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tANDREW L. SEIDEL, AMERICAN CRUSADE: HOW THE SUPREME COURT IS WEAPONIZING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Americans United is fighting corruption, dark money, and an overfunded crusade against the separation of church and state. We need your support.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDONATE TODAY<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Becket Fund: weaponizing religious freedom The Becket Fund has deep pockets and deep political connections and is determined to turn religious freedom into a weapon. Denying birth control and LGBTQ protections The Becket Fund is a frequent opponent of AU in court, a prominent member of the Shadow Network seeking to undermine church-state separation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"issue_tax":[],"class_list":["post-13167","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13167"},{"taxonomy":"issue_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_tax?post=13167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}