SOURCES: LibertyJusticeCenter.org, captured 2020-09-08 | SourceWatch.org, captured 2020-09-08 | note red flags re: SourceWatch.org
This page last modified: 2021-11-20 11:02:11 -0800 (PST)
Note ties to State Policy Network, Koch Brothers, Bradley Foundation, ...
The Liberty Justice Center is a partner organization of the Charles Koch Institute internship program.
According to the State Policy Network, "the Liberty Justice Center is the litigation partner of the State Policy Network affiliate, the Illinois Policy Institute."
The Liberty Justice Center (LJC), is a non-profit conservative "public-interest litigation center that fights to protect economic liberty, private property rights, free speech, and other fundamental rights in Illinois and beyond," according to its website.
Founded in 2012, "The Liberty Justice Center is a public interest law firm started by, and in close relationship with, the Illinois Policy Institute." The two organizations share an office, and the Chairman of the Liberty Justice Center is John Tillman -- who is also the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, and the Director of Atlas Network's "Center for U.S. and Canada".
The Liberty Justice Center is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a web of state pressure groups that denote themselves as "think tanks" and drive a right-wing agenda in statehouses nationwide.
Alongside the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the Liberty Justice Center represented Mark Janus in Janus v. AFSCME, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on February 26, 2018. Mark Janus [now, 2020-09-08, a Senior Fellow at both the Liberty Justice Center, and the Illinois Policy Institute] was a child support worker for the State of Illinois who does not want to pay the agency fees (also known as fair share fees) required to compensate the union representing Illinois state workers for the cost of his representation. This case is part and parcel of a coordinated legislative and legal strategy to dismantle unions being advanced in a systematic manner by an interlocking group of right-wing funders and state-based groups.
A report from the Economic Policy Institute on those who sided with the plaintiff in Janus v. Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 found:
"Janus, and the two fair share cases that preceded it, did not grow from an organic, grassroots challenge to union representation.
Rather, the fair share cases are being financed by a small group of foundations with ties to the largest and most powerful corporate lobbies.
These organizations and the policymakers they support have succeeded in advancing a policy agenda that weakens the bargaining power of workers. In Janus, these interests have focused their attack on public-sector workers -- the workforce with the highest union density."
The Liberty Justice Center represented Mark Janus pro bono. The Economic Policy Institute investigated the sources of funding for the Liberty Justice Center and the associated Illinois Policy Institute:
"... a review of the Liberty Justice Center's and the Illinois Policy Institute's 990s [U.S. tax forms] provides a limited view of their financial profile, but it is clear that they survive off of the same core group of corporate-backed organizations that contribute to many political and legal fights against unions. Donors Trust, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking, and the Charles Koch Institute have supported the Illinois Policy Institute and Liberty Justice Center."
The Liberty Justice Center is a part of the "a small group of people working for deep-pocketed corporate interests" which CMD's Mary Bottari outlined in her "Behind Janus: Documents Reveal Decade-Long Plot to Kill Public-Sector Unions" piece for In These Times. She writes, "those same people cheer "defunding" and "bankrupting" unions to deal a "mortal blow" to progressive politics in America."
In 2015, the Liberty Justice Center represented litigants arguing against the application of an "amusement tax" in Chicago being applied to online services, such as Netflix. According to the Wall Street Journal, LJC argued in the case that the tax was "a violation of the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA); ... the United States Commerce Clause ... the uniformity clause of the Illinois Constitution; and an extraterritorial application of Defendants' taxing power." In May of 2018, the Circuit Court of Cook County ruled in favor of the city, disagreeing with LJC and their litigants. Jefferey Schwab, senior attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, told Forbes, "we plan to appeal this decision because it has far broader implications than this single attempt to tax online entertainment"
According to the State Policy Network, "the Liberty Justice Center is the litigation partner of the State Policy Network's affiliate, the Illinois Policy Institute."
Amicus briefs in the Janus case were filed by the following SPN associates and affiliates:
The Liberty Justice Center is a partner organization of the Charles Koch Institute internship program.
The Liberty Justice Center is a member of the Goldwater Institute's litigation alliance, a project started in 2014. The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation provided $350,000 in seed money for litigator Clint Bolick's "initiative to create a state litigation alliance" (Report: Goldwater Institute, 2016). The 2006 Bradley Prize recipient Clint Bolick [local copy (html)] was Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute at the time. Today Bolick is on the Arizona Supreme Court. The state litigation alliance, according to Bradley internal documents, "helps research and identify those states that have the greatest potential for advancing state-constitutional law -- then trains and, if asked, mentors attorneys who can either lead or staff existing or newly-created legal centers elsewhere, with an intensive 'litigation boot camp' for interested conscripts."
In all, Bradley has contributed $600,000 to the state litigation alliance because it "retains great potential to continue maximizing the benefit of Bradley's much other recent strategic grantmaking to improve conservative infrastructures" (Goldwater Institute, Grant History Record, 11/10/14).
The Liberty Justice Center lists the following cases on its website as of May 2019:
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The Liberty Justice Center receives grants from the Illinois Policy Institute. According to the Economic Policy Institute:
"Donors Trust, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking, and the Charles Koch Institute have supported the Illinois Policy Institute and Liberty Justice Center."
| Year | Total Revenue | Total Expenses | Net Assets |
| 2017 | $692,322 | $559,903 | $151,208 |
| 2016 | $494,000 | $477,968 | $18,789 |
| 2015 | $349,250 | $367,321 | $2,757 |
| 2014 | $343,000 | $341,718 | $20,662 |
| 2013 | $225,035 | $211,011 | $19,380 |
| 2012 | $150,000 | $144,645 | $5,355 |
As of May 2019:
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