[3][4] Prominent in the legal circles on the Christian right,[5] the organization litigates in First Amendment cases on religion,[6] and is often referred to as a law firm.
[11] First Liberty Institute is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025,[12] a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election.
In a 6-3 ruling, the Court held that the school district discriminated against Coach Kennedy and that his prayers are protected by the Constitution's guarantees of free speech and religious exercise.
[37] Maine tuition program First Liberty, alongside the Institute for Justice, represented three families in the Supreme Court case Carson v.
[41] In June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in favor of the three families, holding that Maine's exclusion of religious schools from otherwise generally available tuition assistance programs violated the Free Exercise Clause.
In 2015, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries found the couple had violated the state's nondiscrimination statutes and ordered them to pay $135,000 in compensatory damages.
[46] In January 2022, the Oregon Court of Appeals, for a second time, held that the Kleins had illegally discriminated against the same-sex couple, but ordered the state to reconsider the monetary damages.
[51] In previous years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU, and the American Humanist Association have challenged other similar veterans memorial cross cases.
[55] The suit alleged that the service members had faced a range of military discipline for declining to take the COVID-19 vaccine due to their religious beliefs.
In January 2022, a U.S. District Judge issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the Navy and the Department of Defense from punishing the service members and enforcing the vaccine mandate.
The SEALs’ lawsuit was subsequently expanded to a class-action that included all Navy service members with religious objections to the vaccine mandate.
[56] [57] In March 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order affirming the Biden administration's authority to make deployment decisions based on vaccination status.
The Navy agreed to review the records of all plaintiffs to ensure that the service expunged any information on administrative separation, counseling or nonjudicial punishment for failing to comply with the mandate.
The suit alleged that the Department of Defense violated the First Amendment by denying several service members a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Carter’s lawsuit claimed that the VA’s policies violated her sincerely-held religious beliefs, which prohibit her from participating in abortion procedures or services.
[69] In November 2016, Ken Klukowski, First Liberty's senior counsel and director of strategic affairs was appointed to head the issue area of "Protecting Americans' Constitutional Rights" in the Donald Trump presidential transition team.
[70] Klukowski, later Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, was one of several Trump campaign officials subpoenaed in the Jan. 6 Select Committee investigation.
[74][75] James C. Ho worked as a volunteer attorney at First Liberty prior to becoming a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.