PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The Independence Law Center (ILC) has made headlines throughout Central Pennsylvania this year by working with numerous school boards in the area.
The conservative law firm spoke with FOX43 for the first time about its mission and motivations in working with these boards and school districts in a wide-ranging interview that will air Tuesday and Wednesday on FOX43 News at 10.
The Harrisburg-based firm has been hired as pro bono legal counsel by school boards, such as Warwick, Elizabethtown, Penn Manor, Upper Adams and more this year.
What does the Independence Law Center do?
The ILC advises and drafts policy for school districts pertaining to cultural issues in schools, such as whether students can use their preferred pronouns or whether transgender students can use bathrooms or play on a sports team aligning with their gender.
Many of the board meetings where the ILC is discussed are met with protests by community members, as well as emotional testimony in public comment periods from parents and residents worried about hateful policies being put in place in schools.
Jeremy Samek, senior counselor of the ILC, says the firm's mission is to draft policies for boards that are fair to all students while maintaining common sense.
“There's a lot of things in the culture that people are trying to determine how do we accommodate everybody as best we can.” Samek said. “And these school districts are reaching out to us for help, because they want to find ways to accommodate everybody.”
Opponents of the ILC say their motivations are to impose their religious beliefs upon school districts through a campaign of fear.
“They are looking for our communities and our school districts to be guinea pigs for these anti LGBTQ policies that they're pushing,” said Lauri Lebo, an advocacy coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “I don't understand how not being able to force your religious beliefs on others is an infringement on your faith.”
What are the Independence Law Center's views?
The ILC is a branch of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which is a conservative non-profit advocating politically for policies aligning with Judeo-Christian values in order to bring about a Pennsylvania where “God is honored.“
The Pennsylvania Family Institute has been designated a hate group for its anti LGBTQ+ views by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a non-profit legal group specializing in civil rights. The distinction has been pushed back on by the group numerous times as being defamatory and not in line with its mission.
Samek pushed back on the ILC having a religious motivation despite its parent organization’s Christian roots.
“These policies that we've helped schools put into place are not related to religion at all,” Samek explained. “Actually, these are purely based on trying to accommodate and find common ground when it comes to things like sports, or when it comes to things like keeping parents involved in what's going on with their student at school.”
When asked if the ILC believes in the separation of church and state, Samek says that it is the law of the land.
“There's an establishment clause in our country,” Samek said when asked whether he believes in the separation of church and state. “There are numerous court cases in various contexts where that would be the case. So the separation of church and state, the Establishment Clause, is absolutely part of our law.”