Conservative Christian attorneys gain influence under Trump

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Lawyers who espouse a conservative Christian agenda have found plenty of opportunities in Texas, suing on behalf of Bible-quoting cheerleaders and defending a third-grader who wanted to hand out Christmas cards that read in part "Jesus is the Christ!"

But for the First Liberty law firm, the last few years have been especially rewarding: Their attorneys have moved into powerful taxpayer-funded jobs at the Texas attorney general's office and advised President Donald Trump, who nominated a current and a former First Liberty lawyer to lifetime appointments on federal courts. Another attorney went to the Department of Health and Human Services as a senior adviser on religious freedom.

It's a remarkable rise for a modest-sized law firm near Dallas with 46 employees, and it mirrors the climb of similar firms that have quietly shifted from trying to influence government to becoming part of it. The ascent of the firms has helped propel a wave of anti-LGBT legislation and so-called religious-freedom laws in statehouses nationwide.

"First Liberty just struck gold with a Republican president and the Texas attorney general. It's pretty incredible and definitely unusual," said Daniel Bennett, a professor at John Brown University in Arkansas and author of a book on the conservative Christian legal movement.

Since 2015, First Liberty and a conservative Christian law firm, the Alliance Defending Freedom, have moved prominent lawyers to top jobs in attorney general's offices in Texas and elsewhere. In the process, they have shifted from outsiders suing government to insiders pushing religious-freedom issues. Their influence is widening under the Trump administration as it attempts to deliver on his pledges to evangelicals and other religious supporters.

Their work includes a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple and another case involving a rural Texas high school whose cheerleaders were prohibited from writing inspirational Bible verses on banners during games.

The organizations have also drafted bills introduced by Republicans in state legislatures. The proposals include a bill to allow government clerks who object to same-sex marriage on religious grounds to deny marriage licenses.

It's not unusual for legal nonprofits to lose key staff to attorney general's offices. California's Democratic attorney general, Xavier Becerra, has former ACLU attorneys among his top leadership. And outside groups often work with lawmakers to shape agendas or draft bills. But few have expanded their footprint in recent years like First Liberty.

For Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has hired from First Liberty, two of his largest political donors are board members of the group: oilmen Tim Dunn and Kyle Stallings, who combined have given Paxton more than $767,000 in his political career through personal campaign donations and Dunn's archconservative group called Empower Texans.

One example of the back-and-forth between First Liberty and Paxton came in 2015, when he worked with the firm on legislation to curtail courtroom payouts to losing lawyers in certain cases.

"Thank you for this," First Liberty attorney Hiram Sasser wrote to Paxton's office, according to emails obtained under Texas open-records laws. "I know you guys worked hard before on this bill and are working hard on this amendment. We appreciate it."

Asked about the email exchange, Paxton spokesman Marc Rylander said in an email, "When constituents inform us about upcoming legislation, we help put them in touch with key experts in the field."

But First Liberty's attorneys are no everyday citizens to Paxton. First Liberty founder Kelly Shackelford has known Paxton for more than 30 years, endorsed his wife for a seat in the Texas Senate and donated $1,000 to a legal-defense fund for Paxton, who is awaiting trial on felony charges of misleading investors in a tech startup before becoming attorney general. He has pleaded not guilty.

Sasser rejected the idea that his firm's lawyers had become insiders, but he declined to discuss whether they were in contact with the Trump administration, which issued guidelines last fall through the Justice Department for its philosophy on religious-freedom cases. The guidelines envisioned sweeping protections for faith-based practices in private workplaces, in government jobs and grants, and in running prisons.