Thomas More Law Center Fights the Culture War

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CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) - Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center and two of his associates gave an eye opening, spirited presentation of the legal powerhouse's successes and experiences at the Catholic Leadership Conference in Charlotte North Carolina today.Thompson, a prominent Michigan lawyer who successfully prosecuted assisted suicide killer "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian, will be one of the leading speakers at the Creating a Culture of Life International Pro-Life Conference in Toronto this coming Oct. 2-4 in Toronto Thompson was interviewed by LifeSiteNews in Charlotte about the Center's work:

LifeSiteNews: How many cases is your organization involved in at any one time?

Thompson: We are currently in the middle of 175 to 180 cases and they involve the Sanctity of human life, traditional family values, religious freedom of Christians. Basically we have a gamut. We are also representing a Marine who was charged in what they call the Haditha Massacre - Colonel Chessani. So we also get involved in those cases when we feel that it is important to the security of the United States. So, we have cases that involve the Islamic threat. We are all over the place as far as the culture war goes.

LifeSiteNews: How do you get these cases? Do people come to you or how else are these cases initiated?

Thompson: In most cases people come to us. Sometimes, we seek them out when we see an important case in the media. We think it's important to be involved in litigation.

LifeSiteNews: How did the Thomas More Law Center get started?

Thompson: Back in 1999 - almost 10 years ago - I met Tom Monaghan and Tom was interested in changing the culture and we discussed what areas we should be involved with. I said that, number one, a lot of the culture is being determined by the court system. What department made abortion a constitutional right? It was not the legislature, it was the courts. What department legalizes same-sex marriage? The courts do. So, if you go down the list of all the things that are changing our culture you will find that the courts have determined what is going on. They can veto whatever the Congress and the President of the United States does. The ACLU has been dominant in that field since the 1920's so we needed a counter-force. So, he agreed and he provided the seed money for us to start.

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LifeSiteNews: Do you get other funding as well?

Thompson: Yes, from many donors. We have over 50,000 members that donate $25 or more, so it is a huge base, but it involves not only Catholics but also Protestants. We have a lot of Protestant supporters and we have a lot of cases that involve Protestants as well.

LifeSiteNews: How many lawyers are involved?

Thompson: We have 5 lawyers in Michigan. We have a west coast regional office with two lawyers. We have a lawyer on the East Coast. We have about 530 pro-bono attorneys throughout the United States that will help us when we need help in a particular locality.

LifeSiteNews: What is your success rate?

Thompson: A little over 50%. Some people say they have an 80% or 90% rate, but we take on the cases that no one wants. If we were winning all our cases, there wouldn't be a culture war because the courts would be on our side.

LifeSiteNews: Do you feel there is an upswing in the need for your organization now?

Thompson: There is a need for it - whether there is an upswing or not, I don't know. We have some good people on the Supreme Court, but people have to understand the Supreme Court only handles maybe 70 cases out of the 8000 or 9000 cases that they are asked to review. So, the vast majority of cases are being handled by the lower courts - the Court of Appeals or the District Courts where there are a lot of Clinton and Carter appointees. So we still have to cross those hurdles before we even get to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court many times will not grant reviews on cases that we think are important to have the Supreme Court look at.

LifeSiteNews: What is your most significant case that is going on now?

Thompson: There are several significant cases. We just won a great case. The Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR) - they drive trucks around with large pictures of aborted babies on the side panels. They were driving trucks around LA County in front of a public school. They were stopped by the local police. They were told to get out. We filed a lawsuit on their behalf and we were in California - we got up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and we thought we were going to be in trouble but they ruled for us. So, that was a very important case.

Lieutenant Colonel Chessani, a marine of 20 years, a very devout Protestant - we think he was made a political scapegoat and that is a very important case. We have some other cases dealing with CBR where pro-lifers were harassed by the police and by various municipalities and we are involved in a lot of those cases. It is important for us to be involved in that.

The pro-life movement is one of the paramount issues in our society today. We have sponsored and drafted Human Life Amendments in several states now - trying to get state legislatures to adopt a pro-life position in their Constitution right now before the Supreme Court over-rules Roe v. Wade. We do think at some point the Supreme Court is going to over-rule Roe v. Wade and then those battles will be fought at the State level. Each state will have a battle as to whether their state constitution allows abortions as a constitutional right. So, we think it's very important strategically to go into those states now to add a pro-life amendment to the Constitution so that when it occurs, they are already there. Secondly, we like these Human Life Amendments because they provide a vehicle to challenge Roe v. Wade, because once we get it in there, we wait for Planned Parenthood to file a lawsuit and then we can take it up and hopefully get it to the Supreme Court.

LifeSiteNews: Do you get some pro-lifers objecting to some of your strategies?

Thompson: Yes. There is a debate that goes on in the pro-life movement and it is healthy in the sense that it really hones our ability and vision to go exactly where we want. There are some that say, "Let's wait - its not the right time." They have been saying that for years and years and years. Our comeback is - "When is the right time?" After 35 years or so, they are still saying that it is not the right time. And normally, if they are saying it is not the right time, it means never, because you can never guarantee a win because it takes two years for the case to get up to the Supreme Court.How do you know what the make up of the Supreme Court is going to be - two years hence? You don't know. They were moving ahead with, "We are getting a pro-life Supreme Court, we need only one more justice." What if Barack Obama wins? Forget about it. We feel that the right thing to do is the right thing to do. Mother Teresa said, "You are not called by God to be successful - you are called by God to be faithful." If we truly believe in the sanctity of human life, we truly believe that we are snuffing out lives and these young unborn children are suffering excruciating pain while going through the abortion process - we owe it to do everything we can, everyday we can to stop that.

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LifeSiteNews: One last question, what would you like most to help your work? What do you think is most needed?

Thompson: Money. Because we need more attorneys. When you compare us to the ACLU - the ACLU has 70 lawyers on its permanent staff and several thousand lawyers that help them out from the Universities. If we had 20 lawyers we could change the culture. We don't need as many as the ACLU because we have truth on our side.

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