These Jan 6 lawyers should not be allowed near a courtroom — never mind a school district

Here’s a lesson for the public schools to teach parents: “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be lawyers at the Thomas More Society.”

You may have heard that Kirkwood School District, in Missouri, was recently threatened with a lawsuit over a three-minute LGBTQ+ History Month video shown to middle schoolers last month. Some parents complained.

The Chicago-based Thomas More Society swooped in with an eight-page demand letter threatening years of federal litigation and “substantial attorney fees” unless Kirkwood caved to their demands — all in the name of “protecting” the school district’s children from exposure to non-heterosexual subject matter.

This uncivil society has fancied itself for two decades as a guardian of morality. Not merely to advance homophobia, but to defund public libraries, shutter abortion clinics and otherwise seek to redefine America in the most unChristian manner imaginable.

But it was the group’s spectacularly failed attempt to overthrow American democracy as leading election deniers that best defines its notion of right and wrong. And that best illustrates the threat it poses to the rest of us.

Kids need to be protected from adults like this.

In 2020, the Thomas More Society created something called the Amistad Project — after updating its bylaws to include “election integrity” as part of its mission statement.

It launched lawsuits in multiple key swing states Donald Trump lost — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona — all of which were dismissed or tossed out after courts found serious procedural or constitutional flaws.

In December 2020, it sued in federal court seeking to block Congress from counting electoral votes on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg rejected the motion, writing that the suit “rests on a fundamental and obvious misreading of the Constitution. It would be risible were its target not so grave.”

Risible is judge-speak for “Stupid on stilts.”

The Amistad Project was run at the time by Phill Kline, a former Kansas state attorney general whose resume included having had his law license suspended in 2013 for what the Kansas Supreme Court termed “clear and convincing evidence” that Kline committed 11 separate ethics violations.

The Court’s findings included that he misled a grand jury, provided false testimony, and illegally obtained confidential medical records during his investigations of abortion providers. The Court cited his “dishonest and selfish motives” and noted his “inability or refusal to acknowledge” his misconduct. He would ultimately lose his appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, at a reported cost of $600,000 to Kansas taxpayers.

Great guy. I have no idea what he’s doing now. But during the scandalous post-2020 election effort to thwart democracy, he personified the Thomas More Society’s idea of an upstanding and morally impeccable attorney.

There are quite a few other examples of attorneys who have been associated with the society and whose service — like Kline — speaks volumes as to the group’s high standards of virtue.

There was Jenna Ellis, whose meteoric rise from a traffic-law attorney in Colorado to the height of Trump World culminated in a criminal guilty plea for aiding Trump’s fake‑elector scheme and a public censure for repeatedly misrepresenting the 2020 election. (To be fair, Ellis deserves our compassion as a survivor of close exposure to Rudy Guiliani’s flatulence and runaway hair dye.)

There were lesser known stalwarts like Erick G. Kaardal — identified as “Special Counsel” for the Amistad Project in the December 2020 election‐lawsuit filings. A federal judge referred him for possible disciplinary action after describing his complaint as “a sweeping Complaint filled with baseless fraud allegations and tenuous legal claims.”

The list goes on. But you don’t need deep research to understand the grotesque nature of the Thomas More Society. The demand letter it sent to the Kirkwood School District on behalf of a handful of aggrieved parents speaks for itself:

“Based on our track record of First Amendment victories and fee recoveries across the country, those amounts are likely to be substantial.”

Nice school district you have here. It would be a shame if something bad happened to it.

At this point, it’s fair to wonder what sort of moral outrage might be so heinous as to offend the sensibilities of the openly heinous themselves? Must be pretty gruesome, right?

Fortunately, there’s no need to speculate. The demand letter specifies some of the atrocities perpetrated at Kirkwood. Here it is (but I must warn you these bulleted items might not be appropriate for children to see):

• “Years ago” being “openly LGBTQ+ was difficult and dangerous” and “everything changed” for the good during the “Stonewall Uprising,” thanks in part to “brave activists like Marsha P. Johnson [a self-identified ‘drag queen’] and Sylvia Rivera [a self-identified ‘transvestite’],” which led to “speak[ing] up” for “LGBTQ+ rights” across the world.
• The “Christopher Street liberation day march” was the first “Pride parade” that served as a way for self-identified LGBTQ+ individuals to “step out of the shadows” and “show the world who they were,” because “being yourself is something to celebrate, not hide.”
• “Pride” is about “being proud of your identity.”
• “Pride month” is “celebrated” with “parades, festivals, and flags full of bright colors.” The rainbow flag was created as a “symbol of love, acceptance, diversity, and hope.”
• Newer versions of the “Pride flag” include the “progress pride flag” adding “black and brown to highlight the inclusion of people of color,” along with “pink, blue, and white to include the ‘trans’ community.’ This evolution shows that the movement is growing and working hard to include everyone.”
• “The Pride community today is a huge and amazing group”; “it’s a supportive family.”
• “Pride reminds us to[:] Be proud of who you are[,] Stand up for fairness and equality[,] Support Others” [as also displayed in illustrated text on the video], “no matter who they love or how they identify.”
• “It started as a protest, and today it’s also a celebration of courage, history, and community.” “Supporting ‘Pride’ means supporting equality, kindness, and the right to be yourself.”
• “HAPPY LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH” [shouted by student-narrators in unison, and as further displayed in illustration on video].

Dear reader, I apologize if it has offended your sensibilities to see — in raw and uncensored form — the subversiveness that was inflicted upon innocent children in Kirkwood. Certainly, it’s understandable that it might offend your religious beliefs.

Especially if you’re possessed by whatever demons haunt the nice people at the Thomas More Society.

• Ray Hartmann writes on Substack at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox.