No doubt he recycles the same 'fact', 'expert testimony' and 'argument'...
Cut off the head and the body will die...
This can happen occasionally when a local chapter gets yahoo'd by the state or national office, who are running a special agenda of their own. But dollars to donuts, the local chapter and local attorneys are deeply involved in this case, and Esseks might not even be able to function without them.
In any event, only a small percentage of "ACLU cases" are actually run from the national office. Even though Esseks' name may appear on the pleadings, he may not even be lead consul for this case, but just the noisiest person in their pack of jackals and the cheer leader to get the local office behind the national office.
In any event, their is still plenty of dirt to dig up the local attorneys, board members and judges that are involved (don't forget those teachers that are probably secretly feeding info back to the ACLU).
--Boot Hill