WASHINGTON – Ramping up its ongoing efforts to protect against the threat of global censorship from a powerful combination of state and private actors in the U.S. and abroad, Alliance Defending Freedom has recently hired three top attorneys with extensive expertise and experience in corporate America, Big Law, and financial regulatory policy.
The new hires are Alexandra Gaiser, former general counsel at Strive Asset Management; Brian Knight, former senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and Noah Nash, former corporate attorney at Delaware-based Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A. The trio will contribute to ADF’s successful track record of combatting threats of censorship from government actors as well as from major publicly traded corporations, including nationally chartered financial institutions and digital services providers that control vast portions of the U.S. and global marketplaces.
“There’s no greater threat to our freedoms in the West than the global censorship cabal that silences and de-platforms mainstream views from the public square,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “Big Tech and Big Banks can and often do punish peaceable, law-abiding citizens when they exercise their God-given freedoms of speech and religion. This happens through draconian government edicts like the European Union’s Digital Services Act, and it also happens when large banks or platforms like Bank of America or Amazon punish and cancel customers for their views. I am confident that Ms. Gaiser, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Nash will make significant contributions to our efforts.”
In 2022, ADF launched its Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index. The first comprehensive benchmark designed to measure corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom across 43 performance indicators, the Business Index scored 85 publicly traded corporations in its third year. Overall, 76% of scored companies, including all 21 digital service providers from Amazon to Zoom have vague or subjective terms of service that threaten viewpoint discrimination against their customers.
Relying on findings from the Index, ADF has formed a coalition of likeminded investors and asset managers who filed 70 shareholder resolutions in the 2024-25 season, leading to significant changes at the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, as well as substantive progress at major companies like PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, and Morgan Stanley. ADF has also drafted and supported a state-level model bill protecting against debanking, which Tennessee and Idaho have adopted.
Late last year, ADF launched its Center for Free Speech, which immediately notched a victory at Meta, filed a lawsuit against digital services platform Asana, and has filed multiple rounds of public records requests at taxpayer-funded agencies engaged in censorship schemes involving vague “misinformation” and “disinformation” terminology that sets the table for censorship and deplatforming.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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