After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two weeks ago, Rolling Stone reported that an ultra-conservative activist whose organization wrote a brief that was cited by the court in the Roe decision also posted a video online that featured her boasting of praying with the conservative Supreme Court justices.
The publication reported that Peggy Nienaber, executive director of a ministry that falls under the umbrella organization of Liberty Counsel, bragged that she and her associates are “the only people” who get the chance to pray with Supreme Court justices.
A video obtained by Rolling Stone shows that Nienaber said as much to a live streamer who was filming outside the Supreme Court during a celebration of the decision to overturn 50 years of precedent on abortion and reproductive rights.
The streamer asked her “You actually pray with the Supreme Court justices?”
Nienaber replied “I do. They will pray with us, those that like us to pray with them.”
It is an understatement to suggest this might be a conflict of interests for the conservative justices and the group of activists, as Rolling Stone explains:
“Such an arrangement presents a problem for the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, which not only weighed in on the Dobbs case as a friend of the court, but also litigated and won a 9-0 Supreme Court victory this May in a case centered on the public display of a religious flag.”
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder, strongly denied that the prayer gatherings with justices that Nienaber claimed happened about even exist, saying, “It’s entirely untrue. There is just no way that has happened. She has prayer meetings for them, not with them.” When Rolling Stone asked Staver if he had an explanation for Nienaber’s direct comments that it did happened, Staver replied, “I don’t.”
