Paper Reports On Growth of Liberty Institute

Today's Dallas Morning News reports on the growth of the Plano, Texas based Liberty Institute since its founding in in 1997. Its budget has increased to $2 million and it has 20 staffers plus volunteer lawyers across the country to help it litigate from a conservative Christian perspective on religious speech, free exercise and other national conservative issues. It became know initially for its litigation to allow students to distribute religious-themed candy cane pens in local schools. (See prior posting.) It also filed suit on behalf of Alaska legislators to attempt to prevent the release of a report that accused former Alaska governor Sarah Palin of abuse of power for her role in the firing of a state trooper. Liberty Institute's president Kelly J. Shackelford sees the group's main target as the ACLU.