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History

The U.S. Constitution is Southeastern Legal Foundation’s guiding principle. Since 1976, Southeastern Legal Foundation has been fighting to protect the political miracle that is America, the creation of a government of laws and not men. When the government goes beyond its constitutional limits, we are there to hold it accountable. SLF’s strategic approach has resulted in hundreds of courtroom wins, including four precedent-setting wins at the United States Supreme Court, and with your continued support, we won’t back down.



  • 1976: Southeastern Legal Foundation Is Founded

    Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), a national organization of conservative lawyers defending the Constitution, is founded by Edwin Meese III (U.S. Attorney General, Reagan Administration) and conservative business leaders.

    Their mission: to fight for “the survival of America as we know it,” representing the rights and freedoms of real, everyday Americans.

  • Proudly Defending Americans’ Constitutional Rights

    SLF gets to work defending Americans’ constitutional rights, representing small businesses challenging federal power grabs that threaten their livelihood and educating the public about their rights.

    SLF proudly serves as “the friend in court for the tax paying citizen, the businessman, the farmer and the laborer,” supporting public interest cases as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court.

  • Supporting America’s Future Leaders on College Campuses

    SLF defends Title IX from abuse and misinterpretation—the start of what will be a decades-long battle to protect women and girls’ civil rights, privacy, and sports. SLF stands with college students to fight and stop viewpoint discrimination and forced expression of views on college campuses.

  • Leading the Fight Against Racial Discrimination

    SLF secures key victories stopping unconstitutional quotas and set asides as it leads the fight against racial discrimination in government programs at the local, state, and national levels through lawsuits, public comment, and amicus briefs.

  • Defending Property Rights Against Government Intrusion

    SLF represents landowners challenging burdensome and restrictive land use ordinances that effectively prevent landowners from developing on their own property.

  • “SLF is engaged in a war of ideas….”

    “SLF is engaged in a war of ideas, a war that will not be decided in one Armageddon of a lawsuit. The war is fought in skirmishes, with an incursion here, a holding action there, winning new ground-then defending it from counterattack. We have learned our lesson from the civil rights lawyers of the ‘ 50s and ’60s. We have learned that even where novel cases are not victorious initially, the groundwork is laid for future victories. We have learned that even where individual cases appear to be of minor significance, they have a cumulative effect greater than the sum of their parts. We have learned that the very fact that cases are brought focuses attention on issues and sensitizes the judiciary and other opinion-makers to the values being expressed through those cases.”
    – Note from SLF President and Chairman, 1982

  • Standing Beside America’s Farmers

    SLF continues to stand with family farmers to stop unconstitutional takings, including helping a fourth generation farming family end decades-old environmental regulations that prevent them from using their land and aiding a widowed land owner barred from harvesting timber on her own property.

  • “My grandfather farmed this land…”

    Just like fourth generation farmer Annie Laurie James in 1992, SLF continues to represent our clients pro bono (free of charge) thanks to the generosity of our donors.

  • 1993: First Supreme Court Victory Secured

    The landmark case, Northeastern Florida Chapter of Associated General Contractors of America v. City of Jacksonville, successfully ends racial preferences in Jacksonville city contracts and sets key precedent to enable professional associations to represent its members in court challenges. The case is also a “first” for Justice Clarence Thomas, marking the first majority opinion he authors on the Supreme Court.

  • Defending the Right To Be Heard in School, Work, and the Press

    SLF is on the frontlines of major, national battles to protect free speech, including parents’ rights to speak at local school board meetings, employees’ rights to challenge unions, and a former FBI agent’s right to expose wrongdoing in Clinton White House through publication of his bestselling book, which was obstructed by Clinton officials.

  • “SLF’s work is vital to our efforts in Congress and across America…”

    “SLF’s work is vital to our efforts in Congress and across America to push back the tide of government encroachment on liberty…SLF is effectively using the tools at our disposal to help change the way we view government in a free society.”
    – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Celebrate America Gala, 1995

  • 1999: SLF Secures Another Supreme Court Victory

    SLF wins another U.S. Supreme Court case, where it challenged the Clinton Administration’s plan to use widespread statistical sampling instead of an actual enumeration of the U.S. population. In a resounding victory, Supreme Court rules that the statistical sampling plan is illegal.

  • Representing Everyday Americans Across the Country: Free Speech, Property Rights, and Civil Liberties

    SLF continues to pave the way in challenging what is now called “reverse discrimination,” bringing federal lawsuits ending unconstitutional racial quotas and illegal set aside programs across the country.

     

    SLF represents dozens of property owners in successful challenges to ordinances and regulations that “take” a portion of private property for public use without due process or just compensation.

     

    SLF represents small business owners to stop government agencies from attempting to scare conservatives into silence with unfounded discrimination charges.

  • 2001: Bill Clinton Forced to Surrender Law License

    SLF files a formal bar complaint against Bill Clinton for making false statements in a deposition, which results in Bill Clinton becoming the first sitting United States president to lose his bar license because of a formal complaint.

  • 2003: Heading Back to the Supreme Court

    SLF defends freedom of speech in a Supreme Court case challenging the McCain-Feingold Act. Although the Court upholds the Act, SLF’s lawsuit sets the stage for an important ruling upholding political free speech and overturning part of the McCain-Feingold Act a few years later.

  • “We are not willing to stand on the dock and wave goodbye..”

    SLF continues its multi-front battle against the Obama Administration’s EPA overreach, issuing public comments on proposed regulations, submitting FOIA requests, and filing federal lawsuits.

  • 2014: Back-To-Back Supreme Court Wins

    SLF wins two Supreme Court cases against the Obama Administration EPA over unconstitutional greenhouse gas emission rules and an attempt to redefine “waters of the United States.”

  • The 1A Project Is Launched

    In 2015, SLF launches its 1A Project to protect and defend free speech on America’s college campuses. Its purpose is twofold: equip college students with the tools they need to share their message and defend their right to do so in the courts of law and public opinion.

    SLF sees some of its first free speech wins under its 1A Project, stopping student government associations from discriminating against conservative student chapters.

  • Exposing Corruption at the Highest Levels of Government

    SLF files several lawsuits that ultimately expose government corruption at the highest levels of office within the Obama White House and intelligence community over information about the Steele Dossier, a manufactured report funded by the Clintons which was used to further the “Russia hoax” and justify spying on the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.

    SLF also works with client, award-winning investigative journalist John Solomon, to expose the truth behind the Biden family’s corrupt and illegal actions regarding Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.

  • Defending Citizens from Intrusive Government Action

    SLF wins its case challenging an unconstitutional law in Nashville that coerces property owners into spending thousands of dollars and dedicating property to the city for public sidewalks, securing a necessary win to tee up a Supreme Court ruling just one year later setting property rights precedent across the country.

    SLF stands up to unconstitutional local, state, and federal Covid restrictions across the nation, taking successful legal action on behalf of private property owners and college students.

  • 2020: Save America’s Schools Project Is Launched

    SLF launches its Save America’s Schools Project to protect America’s youngest citizens—K-12 students—from radical ideology including critical race theory and queer theory.

    SLF promptly begins offering legal assistance to parents, students, teachers, and school board members through direct litigation, advocacy, and education, including the nation’s first modern lawsuits challenging critical race theory in schools on behalf of educators.

  • Over 30 Biden-Era Discriminatory Programs and Policies Stopped

    SLF continues to represent America’s farmers in court, now challenging several farming programs implemented by the USDA that discriminate against white male farmers. Through its legal challenges, SLF stops over 30 discriminatory USDA programs—a huge victory against toxic reverse discrimination policies.

  • 2024: Major Title IX Victory for Students from Kindergarten through College

    SLF files a historic 2024 lawsuit on behalf of two national organizations to save Title IX after the Biden Administration attempts to redefine “sex” to include “gender identity” at the expense of student privacy, safety, and freedom of speech. It secures a multi-state preliminary injunction stopping the rule from being enforced in any school where Moms for Liberty members have children or where YAF has student members. This becomes the broadest and farthest reaching injunction issued by a federal court at the time.

  • Stopping Federal Overreach That Targets Livelihoods

    SLF takes to the courts of law and public opinion to expose Biden Administration overreach, from federal programs that discriminate based on race and sex, to labor-related power grabs that hurt small businesses and farmers, to extreme speed limits placed on boats along the Atlantic coast that would have a devastating impact on the boating and fishing industries.

  • Taking Legal Action for Parent and Student Advocates

    SLF continues to represent parents and students of all ages challenging other policies that infringe on their rights, including stopping the University of New Mexico from imposing a hefty security fee against a Riley Gaines event, challenging K-12 schools’ attempts to stonewall and silence parent advocates, and submitting several complaints to the Trump Department of Education urging it to investigate school districts refusing to comply with federal law.

  • Continuing to Expose Misconduct in the Highest Levels of Office

    SLF’s efforts to expose attorney misconduct at the highest levels of office within the Obama White House and intelligence community are renewed after a 2025 bombshell whistleblower report confirms that the Steele Dossier was used to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016 and that communications about the Dossier existed, despite agency representations to SLF and federal courts that no communications existed.

  • 2026: SLF Continues to Fight for our Constitutional Rights at the U.S. Supreme Court

    SLF is proud to support all Americans in court as we work to defend their freedom of speech, secure property rights, restore constitutional balance, and reclaim civil liberties. Over the last ten years alone, in addition to our lawsuits, we have taken several lawsuits to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed over 160 amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court and other federal courts to protect these key principles.