The dishonorable JBS and why they cannot be trusted

JBS employs former lawyer now indicted on 6 felony counts and indefinitely suspended from the practice of law by the Ohio Supreme Court, Robert Owens, to lobby state legislators against the only constitutional solution to end federal overreach.

The widely discredited John Birch Society (JBS) has existed as an embarrassment to serious conservatives for decades. Unfortunately, they still hold sway over a small minority of legislators in a few states. Despite their massive decline in popularity and numbers, the organization continues its work to spread bizarre conspiracy theories in an attempt to impede true conservative, solution-oriented movements such as Convention of States Action, with their fear-mongering, lies, and deceitful narratives.

Since the right-wing advocacy group was founded by Robert Welch in 1958, JBS’ penchant for making unhinged, ineffective, sensationalized accusations against their own side has been the source of more harm than good for the conservative movement. Prominent thought leaders, including William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Russell Kirk, and Ronald Reagan, worried that JBS would derail more serious conservatives’ work to save the country. Thus, they sought to sideline the organization, disparaging Welch’s “near-hypnotic,” “wild,” and “loony” influence and ideas.

Generally speaking, Buckley and his team of conservative icons were successful in their mission to isolate JBS to the fringe of legitimate politics in America, and to mitigate the damage they would have otherwise done to the conservative movement. The organization fell in popularity, having lost trust and respectability. Since then, the group has continued apace with the very tactics that elicited such disdain from conservatives. But due to their lost reputation and influence in the 1960’s, they are now relegated to using disreputable  “authorities” to spread their poisonous claims.

As attorney and co-founder of Convention of States Action, Mark Meckler, pointed out, “JBS has to rely upon suspended and criminally indicted lawyers, lawyers married to convicted federal felons, and uncredentialed, non-lawyer constitutional “experts,” because no real conservative lawyers in good standing would ever attach themselves to such an organization. There was a reason that William F. Buckley, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater chased JBS out of the legitimate conservative movement decades ago. They were illegitimate and dangerous then, and they continue to be so today.  Standing in the shoes of those icons of conservatism, we must once again expose their disreputable roots and lack of credibility to the conservative movement.”

The constitutional experts at Convention of States Action spend their fair share of time correcting the confusion sowed by JBS. Last week, for example, renowned constitutional attorney, and lifelong conservative leader, Michael Farris, (read Farris’s bio to learn more about his involvement in overturning Roe v. Wade) joined the Simon Conway Show to advocate for an Article V convention. In retaliation, the anti-Article V John Birch Society turned to their own “expert”: Robert Owens, Field Director and National Speaker for the JBS.

A close look into Owens, however, reveals he has been suspended indefinitely from practicing law by the Ohio State Supreme Court for fraud and is currently under indictment, awaiting trial in Delaware, Ohio for six counts of felony theft from his clients. And yet, his official JBS bio notes only that “He is an alumnus of Ohio Wesleyan University, Oxford University (St. Catherine’s College) and Capital University Law School. Owens was a trial lawyer in Delaware, Ohio, and served as a prosecutor in Delaware County.” Conspicuously absent is any mention of him being suspended by the Ohio Supreme Court or his pending criminal trial.  It’s almost as if the JBS wants you to think that Owens was a lawyer in good standing until he retired of his own accord, and thus that he is a credible “expert” whose legal opinion on these matters can be trusted.

Despite Robert Owens’ sordid record as an indefinitely suspended attorney, his opinion continues to be promoted as constitutional expertise by JBS and Tamara Scott, Iowa’s RNC Committeeman and host of The Tamara Scott Show.

Ironically, Owens, the expertise-deficient, suspended, indicted former attorney, recently accused all actual experts who support Convention of States of selling snake oil and “masquerading as experts.”  

These absurd claims are repeated by another JBS non-expert: Robert Brown, who travels around the country dismissing the Founders’ wisdom regarding an Article V convention. Mr. Brown is also hailed by JBS as a “constitutional expert” and calls himself a “nationally known constitutional scholar and lecturer.”

As we previously reported, “[w]hen testifying by Zoom in a South Dakota committee hearing recently, Robert Brown was asked about his credentials and background to testify on the subject of an Article V convention. Brown responded, ‘I don’t pretend to have any particular credentials other than that I have a very rare quality, in that I have the ability to read.’ He went on to explain that the ‘rare quality’ of being able to read makes him more of an expert than all the nationally known and respected scholars who disagree with virtually everything he says about the history and future safety and efficacy of Article V.”

Due to the organization’s disgraceful history, these are the “experts” JBS is relegated to employ. Ridiculously, this assortment of suspended lawyers under felony indictment, fringe conspiracy theorists, and non-experts has pitted itself against a long list of proven conservatives with legal experience at the highest levels, wisdom expressed over decades in books and peer-reviewed papers, and unparalleled track records of success for the conservative movement.

Mark Meckler, Mark Levin, Michael Farris, Sen. Rick Santorum, David Barton, Rick Green, Ben Shapiro, Prof. Rob Natelson, Prof. Robert George, Prof. Randy Barnett, Charles J. Cooper, Mat Staver, — Convention of States’ list of nationally-known lawyers, experts, endorsers and proven conservative warriors goes on and on. Not to mention the fact that a convention of states was put into the Constitution by our brilliant Framers by a unanimous vote.

Considering JBS’ past, however, it is not surprising that they are once again standing in the way of real conservative progress. The organization has made a dishonorable name for itself over many decades. Their opposition to Convention of States is no different.

It’s time to do what William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan did so many decades ago and expose the John Birch Society for what it is; a fringe organization with a long and sordid history of association with unsavory characters and ideas.