. . . and then later cite them in the Opinion
Rollingstone published this Wednesday:
At an evangelical victory party in front of the Supreme Court to celebrate the downfall of Roe v. Wade last week, a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. “We’re the only people who do that,” Peggy Nienaber said.
This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court. In fact, the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, cited an amicus brief authored by Liberty Counsel in its ruling.
Some Supreme Court justices pray together in the Court building with evangelical leaders who bring cases and arguments before them.
Nienaber is Liberty Counsel’s executive director of DC Ministry, as well as the vice president of Faith & Liberty, whose ministry offices sit directly behind the Supreme Court. She spoke to a livestreamer who goes by Connie IRL, seemingly unaware she was being recorded. “You actually pray with the Supreme Court justices?” the livestreamer asked. “I do,” Nienaber said. “They will pray with us, those that like us to pray with them.” She did not specify which justices prayed with her, but added with a chortle, “Some of them don’t!” The livestreamer then asked if Nienaber ministered to the justices in their homes or at her office. Neither, she said. “We actually go in there.”
The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s just a conflict of interest . . . . . of Biblical Proportions . . . . . but our Supremes apparently get to individually decide which conflicts they choose to be spiritually interested in; and will pray with some parties in a dispute for The Lord’s guidance in actually deciding that dispute.
POINT OF PROTOCOL : The speaker of a prayer assumes the mantle of the divine, and to disagree with an offered prayer is akin to sin. “It’s just not common to interrupt or challenge a prayer,” “That’s not something a devout Supreme Court justice would ever consider doing.” After all, those prayers are offered by Liberty Counsel for the “Spiritual Conditioning” of the Justices. The quotes are from Rob Schenck, founder of the original Supreme Court Prayer Ministry in the 1990s which later was subsumed by Liberty Counsel in 2018. Schenck subsequently found God again and repented, and is now a strong critic of the group and practice.
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