Alan Sears

Alan E. Sears is an American lawyer. He served as the president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom until January 2017. Sears was also the staff executive director of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, popularly known as the Meese Commission.

Alan Sears
Alma materUniversity of Louisville
University of Louisville School of Law
OccupationLawyer

Education, faith, and family

Sears graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville.[1] He earned a law degree from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.[1]

Sears was raised in the Baptist church, but converted to Roman Catholicism in 1988 before marrying his wife, Paula.[2]

Career

Government

Sears served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office for western Kentucky. During his time as a federal prosecutor Sears served as staff executive director of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography also known as the Meese Commission. This commission was established by Attorney General William French Smith at the direction of President Reagan in early 1985. The commission became popularly known as the Meese Commission after Edwin Meese III, Smith's successor, announced the names of its eleven members in May 1985. Although he was not a voting member, Sears was influential on the commission and vigorously supported strengthening anti-obscenity laws.[1][3][2]

Sears served as associate solicitor under Secretary Donald Hodel at the Department of the Interior.

Alliance Defending Freedom

Sears led the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian right legal advocacy group[4] founded in 1994,[2] for more than twenty years. Under his leadership, the ADF won a string of victories in lawsuits on behalf of the conservative Christian movement.[4] By 2014, the ADF had an annual budget of $40 million and more than 40 staff attorneys, and had "emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country."[4] Sears retired as ADF's president and CEO in 2017.[5][6]

In June 2017, Sears was named a knight of the Papal Order of St. Gregory.[7]

Writing

The ACLU vs. America

In 2005, Sears wrote the book The ACLU vs. America with Craig Osten. During an interview for Front Page Magazine, Sears said, "...Bill O'Reilly asked me: 'Mr. Sears, isn't the ACLU an organization that had noble beginnings, but just went off track over the past ten years or so?' Of course, there was not enough time to answer that question in a 'sound bite,' so I decided right then and there that we would have to write a book to provide an adequate response – that the ACLU had a VERY different vision right from the start for America than our nation's founders. Craig Osten and I saw how the organization looked 'one way from a distance but yet another way up close' so we decided to tell the real story about the ACLU, its founder Roger Baldwin, its ultra-radical roots, its promotion of socialism, and its extreme positions that few Americans know about."[8]

The Homosexual Agenda

This 2003 book was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "an anti-LGBT call to arms that links homosexuality to pedophilia and other 'disordered sexual behavior.'"[9] The book was accused of claiming that allowing same-sex marriage was a part of a secret agenda by activists to “lead young men and women into homosexual behavior”[10] and trap them in a homosexual lifestyle. The book also accused gay-rights advocates as trying to create a nation of “broken families and broken lives.”[11]

Bibliography
  • Sears, Alan; Craig Osten (2003). The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today. B&H Books. ISBN 978-0-8054-2698-4.
  • Sears, Alan; Craig Osten (2005). The ACLU vs. America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values. B&H Books. ISBN 978-0-8054-4045-4.

References
  1. Ferrisi, Sabrina Arena (1 November 2014). "Fighting the good fight". Legatus. United States. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  2. McFeely, Tom. "Alliance Defense Fund's Chief Convert". National Catholic Register. United States. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  3. Vaughn, Stephen (2006). Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 126. ISBN 0521676541. Retrieved 13 April 2015. alan sears pornography.
  4. Erik Eckholm, "Legal Alliance Gains Host of Court Victories for Conservative Christian Movement", New York Times (May 11, 2014).
  5. ADF Founder Alan Sears named 2017 Wilberforce Award recipient, Alliance Defending Freedom (press release) (May 23, 2017).
  6. Stricklan, Anais (January 27, 2017). "Chronicle of Philanthropy".
  7. "Alan Sears, religious liberty advocate, named to Papal Order of St. Gregory". Catholic Business Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-09-15. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  8. Glazov, Jamie (26 September 2005). "The ACLU vs. America". Front Page Magazine. United States. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  9. "'Religious Liberty' and the Anti-LGBT Right". Southern Poverty Law Council. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  10. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/jeff-sessions-religious-liberty-task-force-part-dangerous-christian-nationalist-ncna895941
  11. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/us/legal-alliance-gains-host-of-court-victories-for-conservative-christian-movement.html
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