Members of evangelical organizations have discussed conservative issues with Supreme Court justices at elaborate dinners, according to reports from Politico and Rolling Stone, pushing right-wing ideas on issues including abortion, LGBTQ rights and gun laws.
Peggy Ninaber, vice president of Liberty Counsel — which describes itself as a “nonprofit ministry that operates a pro bono litigation program” — was heard in a video posted on YouTube boasting that her organization prays with sitting Supreme Court justices court.
“We’re the only people doing this,” Rolling Stone reported Ninaber told the YouTuber at an event celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Although an amicus brief written by Liberty Counsel was cited by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month, the organization denies close ties to the justices.
“The Rolling Stone article is false. The authors know it to be false, but still chose to print the sensational story. “Since Liberty Counsel took over the prayer ministry in 2018, now called Faith & Liberty, there has been no prayer with the judges,” Liberty Counsel said in a statement in response to the report. “Faith & Liberty prays for the judges, not with them.”
In the YouTube video, Nienaber can be heard saying she is praying with the justices “right here on Capitol Hill.”
Supreme Court officials did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Similarly, Rob Schenck, an evangelical pastor and leader of a group called Faith and Action, told Politico that between 1995 and 2018 he arranged for nearly two dozen couples to fly to Washington to share expensive dinners and dinners at entertainment with Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia.
The dinner program was called “Operation Supreme Court,” and Schenck told Politico that it would train couples to discuss conservative issues with the justices, being careful not to specifically mention current cases.
“We would rehearse lines like, ‘We believe you’re here for a time like this,'” Schenck told Politico.
Schenck’s ties to the Supreme Court — as well as “Operation Supreme Court” and his attempts to discuss religious and conservative issues with the justices — are well-documented. One couple he trained to discuss their conservative views with the justices, Don and Gail Wright of Dayton, Ohio, built long-term relationships with some of the justices — who were mentioned in Don’s obituary.
In a 2001 article for the Christian magazine Charisma titled “Storm the capitol (sic) with prayer,” he detailed a meeting and prayer with the late Justice Scalia just hours after the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the disputed 2000 presidential election. .
“The Supreme Court is the most insular and insular branch of the U.S. government,” Schenck said in the 2001 article. “They don’t interact with the public, so we literally had to beg our way there every step of the way. “
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