The Washington Post loves to promote their reporting with the tagline, “democracy dies in darkness.” But in a published hit piece last month, designed to smear Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), they intentionally put readers in the dark with half-truths and thinly veiled insinuations, pointing to the fact that a number of ADF plaintiffs are no longer in business as evidence that ADF has “fabricated” religious freedom attacks on Christian vendors who cannot serve same-sex weddings. 

Just because some of the cases have been pre-enforcement challenges doesn’t change the fact that Alliance Defending Freedom has defended bakers, florists, photographers, and graphic artists from stiff state penalties for refusing to violate their conscience. The attack on Barronelle Stutzman lasted for more than a decade, and Jack Phillips is still being targeted by a trans-activist lawyer enabled by the state of Colorado. 

The Post’s hit piece obscures what’s at stake, who are the aggressors, and what freedom means. Missing all of that is how democracy really dies.