DOJ Investigates Blacklisting of Christian Realtor for Expressing Traditional Values

Free speech and free association, two cornerstones of freedom in the United States, both fell under the boots of politically weaponized “wokeness” in Virginia when a Christian Realtor decided he wanted to run for City Council in the small town of Staunton.

What happened to Wilson Fauber reads like the script for a Daniel Craig movie, as agents for his political opponents found a 2015 Facebook post of his in which he reposted a biblical passage, Leviticus 20:13, that had been shared by Franklin Graham.

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The passage reads, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

When he reposted it, Fauber added commentary from his own perspective as a pastor. 

Not only was the passage used to rally opposition to his run for public office, after he lost the election, those who opposed his election shared the post with his professional association, the National Association of Realtors, in an effort to have him expelled from the organization.

In April, he lost his membership to the National Association of Realtors, and the association labeled him a “discriminator” until he underwent “sensitivity training” administered by the Virginia Association of Realtors.

After Fauber threatened legal action, in late July, both organizations reversed their determinations against him and changed their codes of ethics to regulate only the speech of Realtors while they are actually conducting real estate business.

Then, on July 29, Fauber’s legal team from the Founding Freedoms Law Center, a division of Virginia’s Family Foundation, announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the conduct of both professional organizations.

The Daily Signal sat down with Mychael Sylvester, one of Fauber’s lawyers, for an update on this story.

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