Attorney Joel Thornton, President of the European Defense Fund (now called International Human Rights Group) will be speaking this year at the Southeast Open Air Preachers Conference.

TOPICS The 1st Ammendment and the protections it affords the Open Air Preacher Preaching on "State" property vs. "Public" property

Joel Thornton is the founder and President of the European Defense Fund (now called The International Human Rights Group).   The European Defense Fund was created to work with European attorneys and other leaders who are working to protect religious liberties.  The EDF is currently working with a variety of Christian attorneys and ministry leaders in Europe, including working with Greek attorneys and international ministry leaders to ensure that religious liberties are protected during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.  A project of the EDF, the Greek Olympic Task Force is providing legal advice to Christian missionaries, working with attorneys for civic authorities and Olympic Committee leaders, as well as monitoring the activities of civic police authorities during the Games.  Everything is designed to keep the doors open for the proclamation of the Gospel during the Athens Games.  Joel served as the head of the Olympic Task Force for the Atlanta Games in 1996.  He also worked closely with the lawyers who handled the legal matters for missionaries during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.  He worked with missionaries during the outreach during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

    Before founding the EDF Joel was Senior Counsel and Chief of Staff  for the American Center for Law and Justice based in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  He began working with Jay Sekulow while attending Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.  Joel also served as the State Legal Director for the American Center for Law and Justice of Georgia from 1996 through 2004.  He served a short stint as Special Counsel to the President of Trinity Broadcasting Network

    From 1997 until 2004 Joel was Senior Counsel and United States Liaison for the European Centre for Law and Justice based in Strasbourg, France and the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice based in Moscow, Russia.  In.2000 Ben Bull, the founding Executive Director for the ECLJ, returned to the States.  Joel served as the Executive Director of the ECLJ from 2000 through 2001.

    A member of the Georgia bar, Joel has worked on a variety of cases at the European Court  of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.  Some of these cases include: Christliche Gemeinde Koln v. Germany, Konrad v. Germany, and the Salvation Army of Moscow v. Russia.  Additionally, he has provided legal advice to European attorneys working on a variety of other cases before their national courts.

    Joel Thornton is also admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States where he has worked on a variety of cases serving as co-counsel with Jay Sekulow and other attorneys from the American Center.  These cases include:  Davey v. Locke, Hill v. Colorado, and Sante Fe v. Doe.  He has also been co-counsel in a large number of amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court and various Courts of Appeal around the country, including most recently, the various cases brought by Michael Newdow, including the Pledge of Allegiance case.  He has also appeared in various federal and state courtrooms around the country on behalf of clients involving first amendment freedom questions

Joel has worked on a variety of legal research and writing projects with Jay Sekulow, including Canadian Free Speech Rights, Knowing Your Rights by Jay Sekulow, "Government Intervention in the Church" by Jay Sekulow (published September 1990, in Charisma magazine), and  “Student Rights and the Public Schools”.  Joel is the author of "A Field For The Harvest", a pamphlet on students' legal rights that distributed over 3 million copies.  He also worked with contemporary Christian singer Carman on the legal background research for song and video "It's Our Turn Now".

Joel worked closely with Jay Sekulow on his publications  From Intimidation To Victory (Charisma, 1990) and And Nothing But The Truth (Thomas Nelson, 1996).

   Joel has been as a guest lecturer at Regent University School of Law’s International Human Rights Institute in Strasbourg, France in July 2000 and July 2001.  He was a guest lecturer at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia in a variety of constitutional law classes from 1995 through 2003

Joel Thornton has appeared on a variety of television programs discussing American and international human rights issues.  He has appeared on the 700 Club on numerous occasions, was a regular guest on “And Nothing But The Truth” with Jay Sekulow, “A Call To Action” with Jay Sekulow, made a number of guest appearances on “Praise The Lord” on Trinity Broadcasting Network, and various interviews for television news broadcasts.  Joel also served as the Executive Producer, Producer, and Guest on “Reach Your World” a back-to-school special on Trinity Broadcasting Network..  He has also appeared on a variety of Christian radio programs including, Janet Parschell, Phylis Schafley, Jay Sekulow, and a variety of secular and Christian news programs.  

    Joel and his wife, Angelle, currently live in Rome, Georgia with their nine year old son, John and their two year old daughter, Angelle.