WHAT IS “CITIZENS FOR TRANSPARENCY” HIDING ABOUT ITSELF? If you’ve never heard of this group, that’s probably because it appears to be another left-wing hit-and-run smear machine. This one is aimed at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the evangelical legal defense group that has won nine Supreme Court cases in its work on behalf of the First Amendment.

The most recent of those nine wins was on behalf of Masterpiece cake shop owner Jack Phillips upholding his right not to be forced by the Colorado PC police to use his artistic skills to advocate for gay marriage, a view that conflicts with his faith.

Citizens for Transparency bought an electronic billboard in Times Square and has used it for weeks to libel ADF as a “hate group” because of its position on gay rights issues. Following the billboard to the group’s two websites brings you to a host of wholesale misrepresentations that seem taken from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

When Hayden Ludwig of the Capital Research Center (CRC) asked Caleb Cade, the group’s spokesman, who funds it and related questions, Cade refused to answer. But Ludwig kept digging and discovered some very interesting stuff that sheds light on why Citizens for Transparency doesn’t want you to know who it is.