COEUR d'ALENE - A federal lawsuit against the city of Coeur d'Alene is at a crossroads following a week of discourse revolving around the anti-discrimination ordinance at the center of the debate.

Lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom - a Christian rights advocacy organization - filed the lawsuit on behalf of Don and Evelyn Knapp, owners of the Hitching Post, in federal court on Oct. 17.

The ADF immediately began a media campaign that has propelled Coeur d'Alene to the center of the national conversation on same-sex marriage. By early Friday evening, an article written by the ADF about the Hitching Post case had been shared via the group's Facebook page 15,444 times.

Coeur d'Alene City Attorney Mike Gridley, as well as entities such as the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and the ACLU, have made public statements this week that the Hitching Post is exempt from the city's anti-discrimination ordinance due to its status as a religious corporation.

Where the ADF stands, and how the group intends to move forward in light of these public comments, is uncertain.

"The future remains to be seen," said ADF spokesman Greg Scott. "(ADF) can't really say much beyond that absent substantive action by the city."

Since the lawsuit was filed, the Knapps have told The Press that the ADF would field any media inquiries on their behalf. It is unclear how the Arizona-based ADF came to represent the owners of the wedding chapel. Evelyn Knapp would not comment, and Scott told The Press in an email that that is a "matter of attorney-client privilege."

"A Legal Ministry"

The Alliance Defending Freedom was founded in 1994, as the Alliance Defense Fund, with the goal of, according to its website, "defending the right to hear and speak the truth through strategy, training and litigation." Numerous religious leaders - including Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusades for Christ, and James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family - were instrumental in starting the organization.

Today, the Alliance Defending Freedom operates out of Scottsdale, Ariz., with an annual budget of $30 million. There are 44 lawyers on staff and an additional 2,400 lawyers that are called "allies" and work closely with the organization.

"ADF provides pro bono legal advocacy services to advance religious freedom, conscience freedom, free speech, sanctity of lie, marriage and family," Scott said.

Attorney Alan Sears is the president, CEO and general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.

In 2003, he co-authored "The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Liberty Today" with Craig Osten. The book asserts that the moral decline of America can be directly traced to the work of activists whose goal is to silence the church and promote a homosexual agenda.

The book drew sharp criticism from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based organization that, according to its website, is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.

In a publication entitled "Criminalizing Sex: Six U.S. Anti-Gay Groups Abroad," the center calls the book "rabidly anti-gay." The publication also states that the book argues that the demise of anti-sodomy laws will lead to overturning "laws against pedophilia, sex between close relatives, polygamy, bestiality and all other distortions and violations of God's plan."

The Southern Poverty Law Center piece goes on to criticize the ADF as a whole, particularly its policies in the area of same-sex marriage.

"Today, the group is increasingly committed to international anti-LGBT work," the publication states. "In January 2010, the ADF secured special consultative status at the UN. The following year, it sent out an alert celebrating a foreign law (Section 53 of the Belize criminal code) that punished LGBT advocacy of any kind with a 10-year prison sentence."

Scott declined to comment on any of the allegations made in the Southern Poverty Law Center publication, or to refute any of the assertions, such as the organization's $30 million budget, to the Press.

"Being an active federal appellate court and Supreme Court advocate, ADF only responds to serious analysis from credible sources," Scott said. "We don't respond to demagoguery."

On its website, the ADF states it has won eight out of every 10 cases it has litigated to conclusion, including 38 victories in the US Supreme Court.

In his email to The Press, Scott cited several cases ADF has been involved in. One in particular, Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, was heard in conjunction with Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. in the US Supreme Court.

In the suit ADF lawyers, on behalf of Norman Hahn - the owner of Conestoga Wood Specialties - successfully appealed a lower court decision that Hahn's business did not qualify for a religious exemption from providing Affordable Health Care Act coverage.

Scott added that the ADF has successfully litigated "more Obamacare mandate cases" than any other nonprofit legal group.

According to its website, the ADF has 200 active cases in various stages of the legal process.

"Flare-Ups"

Liz Brandt is a professor of family law at the University of Idaho. She describes herself as a law professor with an activist background, particularly in the realm of LGBT rights.

In an interview with The Press, Brandt said her class was excited to discuss the Knapps' case, which prompted her to explore the particulars of the lawsuit.

Brandt added that she has not encountered a legal case similar to the Hitching Post. The uniqueness of the case is why it has garnered so much national attention, she said.

"If you think about the arguments against gay marriage, the 'parade of horribles' that have always been paraded out is that religious organizations who think that homosexuality is sinful and don't support gay marriage are going to be forced to marry gays and lesbians," Brandt said. "So here, if that's how this can be portrayed, I think that this could be the first incident where arguably that's happening."

But to Brandt, it doesn't appear that is what is in fact happening to the Knapps.

She said that based on her experiences, people who are gay or lesbian and interested in being married wouldn't approach a location like the Hitching Post.

"Why would you do that?" Brandt said. "If marriage is legal and there are people that are supportive of your relationship, why wouldn't you go there to get married?"

Brandt said she has studied Coeur d'Alene's anti-discrimination ordinance, as well as the legal documents filed by ADF on behalf of the Knapps. She also spoke to City Attorney Mike Gridley about the issue.

"If the lawsuit continues to move forward, I think the Hitching Post would have a very strong argument that they cannot be compelled to violate their religious beliefs and that they wouldn't have to do gay marriages," Brandt said.

The reasoning for her belief, she said, is the Knapps reincorporating the Hitching Post as a religious corporation in Sept.

"My own gut reaction is to say that the city would have a hard time enforcing its ordinance against the Hitching Post as the kind of mixed entity it is," Brandt said. "I think they fall within the religious exemption of the statute."

Brandt added that if the Hitching Post was a business that only provided civil, secular, marriages but is politically outspoken against same-sex marriage, then the ordinance could be enforced.

"There wouldn't be a religious objection in that situation," Brandt said.

With more states being required to recognize same-sex marriage, Brandt said she forecasts that there will continue be tension around the issue.

"We are going to continue to have broad recognition (of same-sex marriage)," Brandt said. "Are there going to be little flare-ups where we figure out what this means? Sure. But I don't think we are going to be heading backwards toward more discrimination."