Defending Liberty is an advocacy organization affiliated with the Convention of States Foundation. Defending Liberty seeks to provide strategic assistance to individuals and organizations that have allegedly been targeted by the government due to their political, religious, or ideological beliefs. ¹

Financials

The majority of Defending Liberty’s spending goes to legal services, litigation support, and program consulting. ² In 2018, Defending Liberty made a $50,000 contribution to DonorsTrust.³

Defending Liberty has filed the IRS e-Postcard tax return for small organizations for tax periods 2021 and 2022, claiming less than $50,000 in revenue. In 2019 and 2020, Defending Liberty claimed no revenue, but claimed $180,000 in revenue in 2018, $530,000 in revenue in 2017, and $320,000 in revenue in 2016. ⁴

Board of Directors

Mark Meckler is the chief executive officer of Defending Liberty, the president and CEO of Convention of States Action, and the president of Citizens for Self-Governance. Meckler was a co-founder and former national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. ⁵ Meckler is also the CEO of Health Care Compact. ⁶

Michael Ruthenberg is the secretary of the board of Defending Liberty, ⁷ the chief operating officer of both Convention of States Action and Citizens for Self-Governance, and a private real estate investor. ⁸

Eric O’Keefe is the chair of the board of Citizens for Self-Governance ⁹ and co-founder of the Campaign for Primary Accountability PAC. ¹⁰ O’Keefe sits on the boards of the Wisconsin Alliance For Reform, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, Private Citizen, the Citizens In Charge Foundation, Health Care Compact, the Institute For Free Speech, and Capital Research Center. ¹¹ O’Keefe is the founder, former chair, and former CEO of the now defunct Sam Adams Alliance ¹² and a founding board member of the Center for Competitive Politics. ¹³

Carla Sonntag is the president and co-founder of both Rebound New Mexico and its sister organization, the New Mexico Business Coalition. ¹⁴

1. Defending Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2020, Part I, Line 1.
2. Defending Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2016-2017, Part VII, Section B, Line 1.
3. Defending Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2018, Schedule I, Part II.
4. ^[1] Defending Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2016-2020, Part I, Line 12.
5. “Who is Mark Meckler, President of Convention of States Action?” Convention of States Action, March 1, 2021. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://conventionofstates.com/news/who-is-mark-meckler-president-of-convention-of-states-action.
6. “Mark Meckler.” ProPublica. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.propublica.org/search?qss=%22Mark+Meckler%22.
7.  Defending Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2020, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a.
8. “Michael Ruthernberg,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeruthenberg/.
9. The Lawfare Project Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2020, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a.
10. “Campaign for Primary Accountability.” Ballotpedia. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/Campaign_for_Primary_Accountability.
11.  “Eric O’Keefe.” ProPublica. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.propublica.org/search?qss=%22Eric+O%E2%80%99Keefe%22.
12. “About.” Sam Adams Alliance. Archived from the original February 16, 2013. Accessed January 25, 2024. http://web.archive.org/web/20130216105044/http://samadamsalliance.org/about.
13. “Leadership.” Citizens for Self-Governance. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://selfgovern.com/leadership/.
14. “Our Team.” Rebound New Mexico. Accessed February 1, 2024. https://reboundnm.org/our-team/.