Ahead of the Reverend Rob Schenck’s infamous appearance at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, the pro-choice activist was heralded as an authority on the pro-life movement by the mainstream media.
In a hearing titled “Improper Influence: Supreme Court Practice and Politics at SCOTUS,” Chief Justice William Schenck, R-Ohio, said in a section that claimed his brother “made history” in his book, Rep. Jim Jordan Schenck. turned to Rehnquist. him in one case as “Reverend Paul Schenck”. However, Jordan then provided an audio recording of the incident, proving the activist wrong.
“One thing I’ve learned is that people who mislead people in small things will mislead them in big things,” Jordan said.
Although Schenck’s credibility is now in question, he has risen as an authority figure in the mainstream media to attack the pro-life movement because he was once a part of it.
The Rev. Rob Schenk appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday
(Judicial Committee of the Board)
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In a 2019 op-ed for the New York Times, Schenck condemned the effort to overturn Roe and Wade, saying, “I have come to believe that overturning Roe would not be ‘pro-life,’ but rather destructive. life.”
In July, Rolling Stone politics reporter Cara Vaught cited Shank as a counterpoint to Faith & Liberty Vice President Peggy Nienaber, who admitted to praying with Supreme Court justices in a secretly recorded video. Schenck, who founded the ministry group Faith and Action in the 1990s before resigning in 2018, denounced the group and claimed that their actions ultimately influenced the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and Wade.
“I’m confident that as we do this, it will contribute positively to our social life,” Schenk said. “It didn’t have the impact I thought it would. In some ways, it set the stage for the reversal of Roe, which I now think was a social disaster.”
This comment was used by Vought to condemn the judges who prayed with Faith & Liberty. “This information was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also revealed a major conflict of interest. Freedom Counsel, the Nienaber ministry’s umbrella organization, frequently brings lawsuits to the Supreme Court,” he wrote. Vogt. In fact, Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief in support of the Dobbs case.
Religious activists pray outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The reporter also claimed that Liberty Advocate’s Faith and Freedom Ministries was formed from Schenck’s Faith and Action group, which Liberty Counsel disputed in a statement at the time.
“Liberty Counsel is not affiliated with Rob Schenk. Faith & Liberty became a ministry of Liberty Counsel in 2018. While we hired two former employees of Rob Schenk’s Faith and Action, Faith & Liberty is separate and unrelated to Schenk’s defunct organization. With Rob Schenk. Faith & Liberty is a faith-based organization and does not engage in legal or political matters,” the statement read.
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In a similar Politico op-ed in July, Schenk exposed his organization’s efforts to “wine, dine and entertain conservative Supreme Court justices while promoting conservative positions on abortion, homosexuality, gun restrictions and other issues.” . The article noted that Schenck “has offended the religious right over the past decade with his aggressive tactics and support for gun rights.”
Schenck recently gained notoriety for claiming that he prejudged the outcome of Justice Samuel Alito’s 2014 Hobby Lobby decision in Burwell v. Burwell to another conservative activist who shared it with him. Although Alito has denied the allegation and investigations have found no evidence to support his claims, Schenck’s opposition to pro-life activism in the media as well as the court’s conservative majority supported for .
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
((Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File))
Mr. Schenck, 64, has changed his views on abortion in recent years, alienating him from many of his former allies, and is now trying to re-establish himself as a progressive evangelical leader. The Hobby Lobby episode, he said, stems from his remorse for the actions that led to his prior knowledge of the case,” New York Times reporters Jody Cantor and Joe Becker wrote in November.
They added: “He now regrets the tactics he used and said he used women and babies as props. “In all my rhetoric about dehumanizing the fetus, I’ve been very dehumanizing to others,” he said in an interview.
Schenck’s claim that Alito disclosed the decision in the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case led to her being called as a witness at a hearing Thursday.
After the hearing, MSNBC’s Jason Johnson continued to promote Schenck’s “remarkable testimony,” without referring to Jordan’s request, as a guest on “The ReidOut.”
Schenk said he was served with a 2014 ruling in the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case.
(Joshua Roberts)
“How dangerous is it to think that our Supreme Court is completely compromised after today’s testimony? Even if 80 percent of what we heard and the instructions are standard operating procedures for many judges, now the legal branch of government will i?” Johnson asked.
Rep. David Cicilline, DR.I., responded, “What we heard today was truly shocking.. It was a very sophisticated and well-financed campaign to influence the court to become more conservative, to strengthen their extreme positions. It was shocking to hear the testimony.”