Join us as we discuss the broader implications of sanctuary city policies and their intersection with federal immigration laws. Featuring insights from Rick Grinnell, we touch upon Amazon’s new tariff labeling and its potential impacts on American consumers. We also highlight the work of the ACLJ in tackling pivotal constitutional issues, such as nationwide injunctions and their effect on executive authority. This episode underscores the importance of preserving the rule of law and the active role of the ACLJ in these ongoing legal battles.
SPEAKER 03 :
We have breaking news.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wisconsin judge faces felony charges. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. I want to give you a minute to file in as the breaking news that’s coming on right now is pretty big as we see a judge facing felony charges. This is coming out of the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to break all of that down and phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. With only one day left in our life in Liberty Drive, we got a very packed show for you. Will Haines joining me in studio. My dad, Jay Sekulow, will be joining us a little bit later. And then towards the end of the show, Rick Grinnell will be with us. So it is going to be lightning fast today as we are covering a lot of topics including the incredible work of the aclj and some breaking news of what we’re doing there uh some of the new amazon tariff labels that are happening right now and what rick grinnell thinks should be a replacement or at least another option if you’re going to start doing that and of course will we wanted to kick this off headed to milwaukee to talk about that county circuit judge judge dugan who has now been charged with two federal counts in the case where she was essentially helping a violent uh person here illegally to escape the courtroom uh you know scooby-doo this person out the back door is what was going on here and I want you to break down the details of this and then what is this breaking news item?
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right so this judge we talked about when she was arrested uh kind of the the shocking overview of that but now we’re getting more details as this criminal complaint been released and we are looking at the details and stick around because we’re gonna go through exactly what she did to hide this illegal migrant from the the Border Patrol and ICE authorities when they had an administrative warrant to take him into custody but she’s being charged with Title 18, USC section 1505 and Title 18, U.S. Code section 1071. And we all know what that is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’m about to tell you, Logan. I just think people need to spend the time looking it up themselves. You know what? Let’s just say… Remember what Will just said? Just go try to find it. Call us if you can figure it out.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I will help you instead. 18 U.S.C. 1505 is obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees. And 18 U.S. Code 1071 is concealing a person from arrest. These both can… go along with it, considerable jail time and fines, upwards of as many as five years for one of the counts that you could be imprisoned.
SPEAKER 03 :
And let’s remember, she got the guy out the back door and then he was caught pretty much immediately after. Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
So it’s like, well, kind of going how they even caught him was remarkable as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
So she’s facing these charges on not only a failed attempt, but a very short-lived failed attempt. I mean, the guy had minutes. uh to get out and of course the police force and ice uh took care of business we’re going to get into that as will said go into the details of what happened what she’s facing and what this looks like for other judges who are facing similar uh issues obviously we know about the ones that were that had in new mexico that were having these same kind of uh people living with them uh you know gang members do this i mean this person in wisconsin it’s not like this person was here for a better life and had had escaped and gotten asylum like none of those things this is serious charges that they were up against even in that moment in that day violent charges that’s right he had already been deported back in 2013 and came back to the united states illegally and the reason he was in court that day before judge dugan
SPEAKER 05 :
was charges from him beating up, allegedly, his roommates, punching them as many as 30 times, choking them, because, as is alleged, they asked him to turn his music down.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, this was a man and a woman, correct? Yes, that he had beaten up. That he was beating up, and that’s allegedly. But that’s why he was in court. Okay, but she thought, oh no, I see ice. Let’s get him out of here. Let him run. What do you think about this? This is happening in our system, 1-800-684-3110. And again, we’re going to be hitting a lot of other topics today because we only got one day left in our life in Liberty Drive, and we need you. In just a few minutes, my dad, Jay Sekulow, will be joining us, and then Rick Grinnell hopping on a little bit later. But if you see that QR code on your screen, scan it now or go to aclj.org to have your donation doubled. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you, by the way, at 1-800-684-3110. I want you to join us on air because we are going through a lot of great content today, but with just one day left in our life in Liberty Drive, I also want to hear from you. How do you feel about the work of the ACLJ? Do you feel like we are doing the work that you want us to do? What could we do? What topics could we cover? What would you like to see? And also, what do you think of the ACLJ? If you have any good words of encouragement, words of prayer, I’d love to hear from you as well as we head to these final days. And I know it says, you’re like, Logan, you’re just going to do this again in a couple months. Well, this is how this works, everybody. There is an incredible group of donors, ACLJ champions and supporters that say, hey, for a month period, I will unlock a donation. Any donation that’s made, I will match it. So if $5 comes in, there’s someone saying $5. And it goes up to, you know, really it’s fairly unlimited. But, you know, if someone said, I want to give $100,000, there is somebody ready. There’s a group of people at least ready to unlock that donation. So no donation is too small. Obviously, no donation is too big. But this is a moment, and I’m going to go through a lot of the things that we are working on at the ACLJ, because I feel like it’s very important for you to hear that. But of course, we want to start, well, break down some of this breaking news with this judge that’s facing felony charges in Wisconsin for… It almost sounds comical, like we’re making light of it. And you only making light of it because she was caught so quickly and because it happened so fast. And this is what’s happening. And it is there’s a bit of ridiculousness that comes from these kind of moments in our society.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So the immigration officials had from an authorized immigration official found probable cause to believe that Flores Ruiz was removable from the United States and issued a warrant for his arrest. So they’re going through the process. And upon his arrest, he would be given notice of intent decision to reinstate a prior order, which is removal from the United States because he had been preempted. previously deported and then he would have an opportunity to contest the determination by making a written or oral statement to an immigration officer so this wasn’t someone that was being picked up in a part of trend de aragua or ms-13 and going to be put on a flight to el salvador this is normal immigration enforcement process so it’s not even something that the judge could have a uh an issue with saying you know there’s these injunctions against or anything yeah This is normal process of someone who had already been deported and was before her court for very serious criminal charges. And they even make note.
SPEAKER 03 :
Again, not criminal charges that are just immigration related. Right. Actually not immigration related. Offenses within the United States. Violent crime within the United States is the charges that were why he was there in the room.
SPEAKER 05 :
And they even say that when they’re going to these courthouse issues, they say this within this charging document, that they don’t go to family court issues or civil court issues. They only use the courthouse as the venue when they know someone is there for a criminal charge. So just that fact alone. But they went through the entire process here. The immigration officials talked with the sheriff’s department, who’s in charge of keeping the courthouse safe. They talked with clerks and administrators at the courthouse to make sure everything was in line. And they also say they do this, especially with criminal offenses many times, where they will pick up someone for arrest. because it’s safer for the arresting officers, for the individual, for the people around, because they know that person’s coming through security. They’re not going to be armed. There’s not going to be an issue that could escalate further and cause violence or harm to other people. So this is a routine thing they do when they have the information that someone that they are after, that they have a warrant for, is going to be in the court now they went there they spoke with people at the court the clerk said can you please wait to do the arrest until after his case has gone through its hearing so don’t obstruct our state process let that play out before and they agreed so these agents are there there’s people from ice there’s border patrol there are fbi agents and they wait and then the attorney for this individual goes and tells the judge, there’s ICE agents out there. This part is where it turns to the point of absurdity. And they say that she got visibly angry in the courtroom, called the clerk over, and then she went outside and confronted them visibly angry many witnesses said and said you have to go she said do you have a warrant a a judicial warrant no i have an administrative warrant which is what a uh an immigration warrant would be and she says no you have to have a judicial warrant to do this here you need to go talk to the chief judge So they say, okay, they’re obliging and everything. They are trying to keep this calm and do this by the book. They go to the chief judge’s office. One of the agents that was there because they were all plainclothes was not a part of that discussion and was on the other side of the hall. watched her then go look around for other agents to make sure they’re all gone goes back in the courtroom confers with the attorney of this defendant takes him through she summons him over takes him through the jury chamber and then directs him, and that’s all non-public areas, so they can’t do an arrest there. Takes him, gets him through a different exit. Then after they talk to the chief judge, and he says, you may make arrests within the public areas. This is fine. They then go back out. They see him going through another door, very Scooby-Doo, as you mentioned, that was not directly behind that courtroom of Judge Duggan. And then they pursue him in a foot chase and end up catching him. And they have all this very matter of minutes. As you said, it wasn’t even successful, but she orchestrated this elaborate distraction. Go talk to the chief judge.
SPEAKER 03 :
By the way, didn’t we find out also that the people on the other side of the case, I don’t know, the lawyers of the people who were…
SPEAKER 05 :
potentially allegedly beaten including a man and a woman that were beaten by this guy weren’t involved in this weren’t told right so the lawyer for the defendant was talking having this sidebar with the judge but the lawyer for the state the state’s attorney was told none of this and all of a sudden he’s like where’s the defendant and the clerk goes oh the judge has informed me that his proceedings have been adjourned for the day and he’s like well why didn’t you tell me any of this also the victims are here and the victim advocate was there and still this judge thought she had the authority this arrogance To say, you know what? I don’t care about the law anymore. I am going, I don’t like what the administration is doing with this immigration stuff. I’ve already told people if they’re scared to come in my courtroom, you don’t have to come into court. You can come into Zoom. I am going to subvert the law. That’s where people lose faith in our institutions.
SPEAKER 03 :
I want to take this call, Scotty’s calling, because I think he’s asking the question that certainly I’m asking, which is essentially, why are you risking your life, your career, over someone who is again this is not oh your favorite family man who came over who brought his fam through and they’re being deported there’s a lot of heart there i understand those you know i understand having a heart for people who need help but when it’s talking about somebody who their alleged crime is beating a woman who is his roommate and another man uh this is why risk it all and scotty go ahead
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, just that. What kind of tie does this judge have with this illegal immigrant, whether it’s relational or monetary, that she would put her life in jeopardy for this guy? Does it make sense?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it’s somewhat, it could mean, look, there’s a lot of obviously corruption that goes on, but there’s obviously the sort of, you don’t want to say it, but the Trump derangement syndrome that breaks people down. I’ve seen a lot of good friends get broken down by this. And look, sometimes I understand it’s tough, But if you’re a judge, a sitting judge in Wisconsin or anywhere in this country, you still have a job to do and you got to do it. And your responsibility as an American isn’t to do this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and there’s a question coming in from YouTube. This is Patrick that asks, how do these people get appointed in the first place? Well, this is a state court. This person’s elected. This person is elected by the people of Wisconsin. So she will have a reelection, which we’ll see how that plays out, if she’s even still able to serve as a judge because of a conviction or things of that nature. But that’s what you’re looking at here. These state court judges are elected by people, and then they feel like they have the utmost authority. Now, they do have a lot of authority when it comes to the courtroom and making decisions and interpreting the law. But that doesn’t give them the right to take the law into their own hands. This wasn’t even some excuse she could come up with that there’s an injunction, which we’ll talk about those injunctions in the next segment.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER 05 :
But there’s this injunction in place. And so I was concerned he was going to be put on a plane to El Salvador. No, this was a warrant. that was valid someone who’d already been deported and still violated that and came back and she ignored it you can’t ignore the law that’s the famous thing from leticia james where she said no one’s above the law when going after president trump they think that they are above the law and you know what you’re not and you can get arrested for that and that’s what happened happened right now
SPEAKER 03 :
Look, in one minute, we’re going to be back. We’re going to take a quick break. When we get back, my dad, Jay Sekulow, is going to be joining us. But in this next minute that we have on the air with you, it’s an important time. You may feel like we are amped up right now. It’s because we are, because these are some of the biggest days of our year. We need your support right now. Donations are only doubled through the end of this month. So if you can’t support the work of the ACLJ, I’m just going to read you a few things that we’re doing because there’s no case too small and no case too large for the ACLJ when we’re going to protect your constitutional rights, the precious life of the unborn and your freedoms. We’re fighting for right now. These are just a few. A grandmother was told she can’t hold a Bible study. A student who was told she can’t pray. A preacher arrested for sharing the gospel. A nurse who’s being forced to participate in abortions. Pro-life centers are being attacked just for providing hope and life. FBI whistleblowers whose livelihoods were wrecked by the deep state. and a president who was banned from the ballot. That is just what we’ve done in the last, I don’t know, year or less. Some of those are ongoing right now. Give today if you can at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with Jay Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We also know a bunch of you are joining us live on YouTube right now. So I encourage you, if you haven’t yet, hit that thumbs up. It really does help us get into more people’s feeds and get this message out there. because it’s an important time as we are on the countdown, essentially, for the last day of our life in Liberty Drive. We need your support right now. My dad, Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the ACLJ, is joining us right now. Dad, obviously, you and the team have been hard at work, but there are some interesting new cases that are coming out of the ACLJ. We wanted to make sure, as we head towards the end of this life in Liberty Drive, that we keep everybody updated.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’re going to have more detail on this tomorrow on the broadcast, but let me just start. We are representing the state of West Virginia, so the ACLJ is counsel to a state, challenging these district court judges that are issuing nationwide injunctions against the executive order signed by President Trump. Now, the problem is, A district court’s jurisdiction is supposed to be very narrow, very limited to the locale where they’re sitting. That’s not the case that has happened now with President Trump. So here’s what’s going on. There’s an emergency stay at the Supreme Court of the United States. We worked on this brief through the weekend and are ready to file it momentarily, hopefully. And it will, in fact, be, I think, the seminal, the key brief on limiting the jurisdictions of these US district courts that are issuing, instead of issuing their injunction covering, say, the Northern District of New York, they issue an injunction covering the entire country, even though they only sit in the jurisdiction for Northern New York. It has to stop. When we talk about law and order, when we talk about separation of powers, what’s the president’s authority, what’s the judiciary’s? The one thing the judiciary cannot be is a policymaker. But a lot of these judges have taken that element. And the answer to that at the Supreme Court needs to be you can’t do that. So we are open. front and center on that. Like I said, very significantly, and you’ll have more details on it tomorrow, we are representing the state of West Virginia in this cause of action. We’ve got a lot of other cases breaking right now, but I want to spend some time on this, Logan, because the implications are very significant.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s a big day and a big case that will come in, like you said, tomorrow. We’re going to have my brother Jordan will be on. We’re also going to have some friends from West Virginia joining us. So it’s going to be a great show. You want to make sure you tune in for that. But Will,
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, this is just obviously this is an issue everyone has been paying attention to and concerned about. But I think it’s important to reiterate that at the ACLJ, we watch and we find the appropriate time to file in something like this so that we can make the strongest impact that sometimes we want that immediate. How can we fight back? But this is the example of the ACLJ hard at work. finding the right avenue, the right representation to go after something. That is an issue that I know that our listeners and members at the ACLJ are very, very concerned about. And this happens to be that moment.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it is, Will. And let me talk to our ACLJ members and our ACLJ champions, especially. Let me tell you this. This case is the repercussions, the reason we’ve gotten involved so aggressively and so quickly. This case has huge ramifications. I mean, gigantic ramifications. uh when you elect a president they’re supposed to be able to work through their executive authorities without a court doing what these courts have been doing and they’ve been doing it pretty much without stop now the spring court has got this application they’ve asked for briefings so this is going to it’s going to move in days here so i want everybody to understand this but we have to fight back on this because what you have is an unelected judge somewhere in the country the issue with the stroke of a pen in order to stop the administration policy for the entire country. Then you ask yourself, well, why can’t they stop that for foreign policy as well? And the answer is, under these judges’ interpretation, they have authority to do anything. The answer has to be no. So, you know, it’s one thing that the government’s fighting it, but now the states are fighting it. And I said we’re in a very unique situation, folks. And we are fighting back aggressively. I want to say also something to our ACLJ champions. We couldn’t do this without you. We appreciate it so much. Also to our ACLJ members. So continue to support the work of the ACLJ. Maybe you can become an ACLJ champion. We’re in a matching challenge campaign, the last moment here. And we could use your support in a big way. These cases are tough. Look, the one thing you know is these cases are complex and they’re different than what we’ve done in the past because they’re moving at a different pace. So we have our Supreme Court team is fully engaged on making sure that we’re moving forward on these. Jordan is as well. And I’m very optimistic on where it goes. It’s going to take some time. But like I said, the time on this, Logan and Will, is going to be days, not months on this one.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we’ll keep updated on that. That’s precisely when you’ll hear from people like my dad, my brother, when there is really important, incredible things they need to come on and share. Obviously, Will and I are always going to be sharing the updates on the ACLJ. We’re going to have on some of our incredible legal team that’s here in studio, you know, Harry Hutchinson or CeCe Heil. We’re going to have a lot of those people always on this broadcast. We have great guests coming in. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us a little bit later in the broadcast as well. But know that everyone is hard at work. The ACLJ team is in full action. I think when you have a case like this, Dad, in West Virginia, it can get a little lost in what we’re doing. When you look at what we’re doing on a local level, like we said, we’ll talk about the grandmother who can’t hold a Bible study. But on a bigger, bigger scale, the ACLJ can still get involved on these really world-changing, if not just America-changing laws that are happening right now as they battle against this administration.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, you’re absolutely right, Logan. And let me let me take it. You talk about like the Bible study can’t happen in a way. So what if the court rules against us in a case like that and issues a nationwide injunction banning Bible studies from happening in neighborhoods? Now, that sounds absurd, but it’s the same principle of when these judges don’t have jurisdiction, they think they can without limits. Do whatever they want. So the answer has to be no, the way you handle this is not is not by just speaking and talking about it, which is important. You have to litigate it. And that’s why we’re honored to be representing West Virginia. Jordan will be on with you tomorrow to talk more about that, but it applies to any case. So this case involving jurisdiction. is critical to moving things forward we have to win this uh it may take additional briefing we’ll see how it goes but like i said it’s moving very very quick and we’ll keep everybody updated on that look we got two minutes left in this segment and this some some of you lose us here it’s the first half hour the show is wrapping up
SPEAKER 03 :
If you feel engaged, empowered, you hear what we’re doing here and you want to get involved, this is it, folks. This is the last 24 hours. You need to do it right now. You just heard from my dad, Jay Sekulow. Later on, you’re going to hear from Rick Grinnell, this incredible team that we’re able to put together and get hard at work. Because remember the ACLJ, we do this show and we also do incredible amounts of great media content, but we also are on the front lines of the legal battles. I believe those go hand in hand. We have to have support for both. And you need to support both. And when you support the ACLJ, it does that. It supports our media team here. Like I said, if you look just beyond this camera, you’d see dozens of people that are working on this show right now to make sure we’re on the air. And of course we have our legal team, some right here in studio, some in Washington, DC and others around the world. Some places you don’t even get to know about because of how incredible their work is and how brave some of this media team and this legal team is with that. I want to tell you, let’s put the QR code back on the screen. If you’re watching, scan that QR code or just go straight to ACLJ.org and all donations made in the next 24 hours will be doubled. You’ve heard about all the cases we’re working on. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. When you get a tax-deductible gift, you are helping not just these cases. You are also helping make sure the ACLJ is still there and still there for you. And we have months that are down when the economy is down. Or hey, you may say, hey, we got President Trump. Why do we need the ACLJ? This is why. You just heard it. We got to be there even stronger. We got to have the best of the best. So I encourage you, help us expand this work. Help us continue this work. Go to ACLJ.org, scan that QR code. Second half hour coming up. This is less than a minute break.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour of the show coming up right now. Will Haynes is joining me in studio, as well as Rick Grinnell, who’ll be with us a little bit later, not via studio. He’s probably hard at work. Maybe he’s in Washington, D.C. this year, or today. Maybe he’s in Kuwait. You never know. You do never know. You never know.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s always a surprise to us, and we enjoy that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I told him, it’s where in the world is Rick Grinnell? It’s always, I can like look at the, what I’ll do is I’ll look at the plugs in the background. If he’s like a hotel room, I’m like, huh. Europe. That looks like Indonesia. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Some of you are calling in about these judges that are running wild and whether you heard about what we’re doing for the state of West Virginia. We’re going to dive into that really heavily tomorrow with my brother and special guest from West Virginia. You’ll have to see who it is. But also, we are talking about the judges that are not only defying court orders and these kind of things, are actively involved in the pursuit of injustice, if you will, I guess. The fact that they are either harboring or helping people escape, it’s just the weirdest time to be really in politics in this country because you have judges. In general, it feels like chaos is breaking up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think the important work that we’re going to be doing with this brief that we’ll be representing West Virginia, trying to make sure that these nationwide injunctions are kept in check, there’s a lot of through lines that you can see in this story of when judges feel like they have the ultimate authority to make policy effectively or to dictate how the nation is run, It’s a slippery slope to what you see in the state judges in New Mexico and Wisconsin, because they both stem from that same position of I have all the authority here. And so, one, the judges may be acting within their legal authority that they believe they have to issue nationwide injunctions on the federal level. But it’s that same concept of thinking how far they can go that leads to elected judges in Wisconsin or New Mexico that think, oh, it’s okay if I have Tren de Aragua living in my home. It’s okay if I sneak a once deported, here illegally, allegedly violent criminal out of the back of my courtroom to make sure he’s not arrested and deported. That mindset is dangerous and it does not bode well for the Constitution if that’s allowed to fester because the rule of law is important. The different branches of our government and our state governments working the way that it was designed by the founders is the good here that we are trying to preserve. And the left and rogue judges, maybe in Wisconsin or any of the political actions you’re seeing that are trying to tear that down are not good for the country. that’s why we stand for the constitution that’s why we fight for the first amendment so aggressively and we fight for the constitution every single day here because that is worth preserving that is worth fighting for and it takes Our very brilliant team of attorneys here at the ACLJ working on some of the most complex issues that we’ve ever discussed because it keeps getting more complex. It’s not getting easier law. It’s getting harder because those that want to tear down the Constitution are finding new, more clever, more insidious ways to try and tear down the very foundation that we stand for here.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s not only just harder law, it’s also harder to find the people. Let’s just be honest. There’s a lot of new lawyers and new media people that come out of either law school or film school, and this may not be their first option because they don’t want to take the heat. So we have to be able to locate and really work with a brave group of individuals. That again, maybe in the 80s and 90s, they were there. Now we got to bring up a whole new group. We have lawyers that are getting older from the original ACLJ team. We got to make sure we have new faces, new blood that can come in, knows what they’re doing, can get there. And we can do that. We’re already doing it. We have an incredible new group of lawyers, but we always are looking for more. Same with our media team. If you’re passionate about this, you should get involved. Not only just donate, if you want to come be a part of the ACLJ team, there’s ways to do that as well. Go to ACLJ.org. I think we even have a careers tab. Do that right now. Be a part of this team. We’re looking for top-notch people. Of course, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, you can do it. And Rick Grinnell is joining us in the next segment. Welcome back to Secula. We are awaiting a connection from Rick Grinnell, so we might as well take some phone calls. Can we go ahead and clear some of these just to make sure they are good to go before we go to them on air? Because we’ve got a lot happening. Let’s go to Bill who’s calling in Wyoming, watching on ACLJ.org. Thank you, Bill. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I hope I can express my question. I’m just wondering what the heck, in the last 10 years, what are all these judges and lawyers being taught in school? I mean, this doesn’t sound right, the way they’re doing their…
SPEAKER 05 :
court scenarios exactly that way Bill if you’ve seen what’s going on at Harvard and Columbia I think you know the answer that maybe some of these elite law schools that land you top clerkships and land you great judicial appointments later on aren’t really teaching you the things that they should be teaching you to be a good judge or a great attorney that maybe sometimes you become that in spite of your schooling not because of it so I think we know the answer there
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Thank you, Bill, for calling. Rick Grinnell is joining us now live. And again, it’s always where in the world is Rick Grinnell? That doesn’t look like your Kennedy Center office today. Looks a bit more like, I don’t know, Rick Grinnell in the islands, maybe. What’s happening here today?
SPEAKER 05 :
More cheerful than D.C.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you look so happy, Rick. It’s California. Yeah, exactly. You can tell that you are at peace maybe a little bit more. And it’s crazy to think that. You have to leave Washington, D.C., escape to California to find that peace. But we wanted to talk to you about many different things. But one thing that we saw you post about is that Amazon has now decided to label everything of a tariff cost. So you’re able to see what… The cost increase is now thanks to, I guess you’d say thanks in quotes, to the Trump tariffs that have gone in place. And of course, this has not come without some political scrutiny and discussion points. And you had a few options that I think need to be on the table.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, look, I saw this morning that Amazon was saying that they were going to have some information about the difference in price on products on Amazon because of the tariffs, which I’m all for having more information. But what I said to the Amazon people publicly is. That’s all well and good, but what we really want to know is very clearly if a product is made in the United States or made in China. Because I’m having a rough time on Amazon trying to find stuff that is made in America and not made in China. Everything they have is made in China. And so I just wanted an option. And what I said is, how about just a button that we can press? that allows us to see everything that’s made in America and be labeled this product is made in China. It seems to be a very popular suggestion because it’s blown up on social media. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I’ve been researching and you just can’t find the information on Amazon.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think that’s a brilliant actual move. Look, they should have that. When you suggested it, it’s like that almost feels like an obvious because at least a lot of us would at least first attempt even if you’re not going to only buy made in America made in America you at least will look and see is there an option that helps our own economy grow and I think that that is such a smart move and I hope that it’s something they can implement and I hope it’s something that they can’t implement that somebody can add a way to do it because I feel like the tech the tech is clearly there they could easily do it
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, here’s the other point that really the reason I wanted to know is I’ve purchased so many things that when I get it in the mail, it’s totally cheap. And then you see it’s made in China and it’s going to last like about two weeks. And so the information that is being shared, the marketing material is very different than the actual product. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wasted $15, $20, $25 because I think, ah, I don’t have time to send this back. This is just getting wasteful. And so I’m hesitant to buy things on Amazon if I don’t know where it’s coming from. Because if it’s made in China, then you know it’s cheap. It’s not going to last that long.
SPEAKER 05 :
Rick, another issue I want to talk about here is obviously President Trump signed an executive order that is looking at how we deal with sanctuary cities. There may or may not be a few sanctuary cities in the state you’re in currently, but I think this all ties together. We’ve been talking earlier in the broadcast about this judge in Wisconsin that decided to not follow the rule of law and instead tried to help a Criminal, illegal alien who had already once been deported escape from the court and not be taken into custody by the U.S. That’s one individual, but that’s effectively what sanctuary cities are trying to do. What that judge did on a small level for one individual, sanctuary cities are trying to make… foreign policy and immigration policy their own as opposed to allowing the executive to carry out what the constitution allows. When you look at how California is responding and they’ve already gotten a judge to get some injunctions even before anything went into place here. But what are your thoughts on this entire battle that’s moving forward with now cities in California and the Trump administration?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, we’ve heard a lot over the years about the rule of law and how important it is to follow the rule of law and don’t undermine the rule of law is what the left says. I can’t think of something that undermines the rule of law more than this idea of a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state like California. The idea that you’re trying to get comfortable and telling people, get comfortable with ignoring federal immigration law. Matter of fact, let’s call it this nice little name of sanctuary cities. It sounds like it’s a spa day. the the idea though that you you undermine federal immigration law protect people who are breaking federal immigration law and you do it in a way that you’re proud i think is outrageous it is really the end of a society if we allow people state cities to pick and choose which laws they’re going to follow. And that’s exactly what Sanctuary Cities is. It’s a concept to say, I’m just not going to follow federal immigration law, and I’m going to celebrate the fact that I’m not following immigration law, and I’m going to protect all those that break the law. And so this judge, in many ways, is just an extension of how we’ve watched sanctuary cities develop. And I’ll finish with this, Will. I think we conservatives have some of the blame here. We’ve allowed sanctuary cities to become part of society. We didn’t push back strong enough when it came out. And we all need to be talking about how terrible sanctuary cities are, a concept of undermining federal immigration law, picking and choosing which laws you want to follow. And so attacking this idea that everyone must follow the law. And by the way, if you don’t like the law, work to change it. That’s what a republic does.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rick, I always appreciate your insight. I see a lot of people who are joining us right now. We have a large audience on YouTube that we have more than double than what we’ve had this week. So a lot of people are interested in these kind of topics and they are now subscribing. A lot of times we know when these numbers hit about 50 percent or more have never seen us before. So welcome. Welcome to secular. Welcome to the ACLJ. But I think it’s important. We also are in our last day, 24 hours. It ends tomorrow night, the end of the month, for our Life and Liberty Drive. And of course, this is an important time for us. I don’t want to waste that opportunity. If you are brand new to this broadcast, I’m not going to ask you to donate. If you want to donate, great. But if you’re brand new, I’m going to ask you to subscribe. Hit that thumbs up. That’s what’s really important because you know what? It’s free and you’re going to get updates from us and hopefully one day you’ll be comfortable with us and we’ll win you over to make that donation to know that we are not funded by some big corporate sponsors or anything like that. So I’m going to encourage you to subscribe if you’re watching right now. Nearly or over 473,000 on just YouTube do that. But Rick, as we only have about two minutes left, I did want you to take time for those people who are watching right now, who have enjoyed your content, who have been following the ACLJ for years, because it’s time as we wrap up this life and liberty drive.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, let’s be clear. It’s called the American Center for Law and Justice. And we are a group of activists, attorneys, government, former government officials, experts on the process that actually take action And we don’t just sit around and talk about these issues, but we actually do something about it. And that’s one of the reasons that I love being a part of ACLJ is that we’re filing cases. We’re trying to work in the court system. We’re doing it through the political system. We’re filing FOIA requests. We’re outing and using the laws to be transparent. I love the action of it. And I think we could change American to action today. uh center for law and justice because we we don’t just sit around and talk i know people will get addicted if you just hit the like button and try to watch us every single day you’ll you’ll get a lot of information you’ll see us being activists and using the system to to push common sense conservative ideas
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Rick, for joining us again. As we have a minute left, I want to encourage two different things. One, we have some phone lines open. If you’ve been inspired, you’ve been moved today, or hey, you have some questions or comments on the issues that we brought up, it’s a great time to call. You can still get in line. You can still get on the air in the next 15 minutes. You’ll probably be talking to one of us at 1-800-684-3110. Do that right now. But of course, again, it’s the last 24 hours, folks. You’re going to hear it from me a lot. You need to scan that QR code. You need to go to ACLJ.org. You need to support the Life and Liberty Drive, whether that’s a grandmother who told she can’t have a Bible study or whether that is going with activist judges trying to stop them from really shutting down all the positive that can be done because we don’t believe that that is something that is really constitutional. So again, some sound big, some sound small, but no, we’re involved because there is no big or small case. ACLJ matters right now. I’m gonna encourage you to do it. We got one minute till we’re back with your calls. Make that donation right now. All right. Welcome back to Secular. I want to hear from you. We got two lines, three lines open right now. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. As we wrap up and head to the final 24 hours of our life in Liberty Drive, we need your support. Let’s go ahead and take some calls. A lot of questions are coming in about these judges. Let’s go ahead and go to Ann, who’s calling, watching on YouTube. Welcome, Ann. A lot of people watching on YouTube today. We appreciate all our YouTube viewers. Go ahead, Ann.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes. My question is, what is the difference between a federal judge and a district judge? Because in these last few months, the judges who’ve been challenging Donald Trump, sometimes they’re a federal judge, sometimes they’re a district judge, or even in the Same narrative, they might switch between those two names, you know, too.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we’ll give you sort of a 101 breakdown. So depending on how the media is describing them, it’s really a federal judge. A district judge can be a federal judge, but not all federal judges are district judges. So effectively, when you’re using the federal term, descriptor you’re either talking about a federal judge or a state judge because there’s two different systems your state has its own system in Nebraska set of laws most criminal trials and things are happening within the state system because it’s the state bringing charges or the locality but then the federal court system which is brought forth by article three of the constitution has three different levels it has the district courts which which is the lowest level where things begin, where it initiates. And those are district judges. Those are federal district judges. Then there are federal circuit judges for the courts of appeals. And then there are justices at the Supreme court. So when you read it or you hear it, most of these that are issuing the nationwide injunctions are federal district judges at the lowest level of the court within the article three courts, the federal system.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Hopefully that answers your question. And we got a lot of calls coming in right now. Hopefully our phone screener can get those up quick because we are going to run out of time and hopefully get to as many as we can. Let’s go to Tamara, who’s calling, watching on ACLJ.org. Tamara, go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, Jordan, just a couple of things. I think it’d be very interesting with Wisconsin Judge Dugan to see how her record has been when people have been brought before her on obstruction charges.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I would like to see also on, you know, violent crime because she was willing to help a potential alleged violent criminal backdoor escape. That’s right. I mean, I don’t know what else to say.
SPEAKER 05 :
But that is what you’ve seen is that many of these illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities or areas that districts that may be more liberal, you have these individuals that are here illegally that have been charged with criminal offenses and are receiving light sentences. and then aren’t necessarily tipped off to immigration that, hey, by the way, this person who committed a violent crime, ICE, they’re over here doing violent crime, many times getting convicted, but not receiving harsh punishments. And then you see it over and over and over again. That’s where even the tragedy of Lake and Riley, who was an illegal immigrant who had a criminal record in the United States, but yet was still here. still committing crime and ultimately murders an American citizen tragically. And that’s the pattern that we’ve been seeing. And right there in Wisconsin, ICE figures it out. They get a ping on his fingerprint. from uh immigration databases that he has been arrested for uh allegedly a violent crime a domestic assault and a battery type of crime and they go to do the right thing they get the warrant they go through the entire process but yet the judge there the state court judge decides that she is above all that and tries to help him escape
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. It’s insane. I can’t believe we’re having these discussions and like this is happening. It feels like a movie. Let’s go to Deborah in DC who is watching on YouTube. Deborah, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. I’d be here. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Deborah, we can hear you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. So yeah, I am an African American female and I have, I was a Democrat for all of my life until the first Trump, um, Trump one Oh one. When the Democrats left me about 15 miles back as they were headed for a cliff. And I guess, um, my question is, is there any way that we, as United States citizens can have the DOJ force these judges to recuse themselves from cases where there’s a clear and obvious bias? You know, none of them have done that and they should be held accountable for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, Debra, we are looking at ways and I’ll only cut you off because we’re running out of a little bit of time here. But look, your story is not unlike a lot of people who call in and now listen to the show and watch this show and understand what we do here at the ACLJ as well in the legal work. Because a lot of you were moderate Democrats or common sense Democrats, if you will, and felt like your party abandoned you. Of course, we’re even talking about people who are part of our team like Tulsi Gabbard. who now is director of national intelligence. And of course, you’ve seen that with many of the different cabinet members this administration has brought in. They were not afraid to talk to former Democrats because it became a very common story. But Will, we are fighting back at the ACLJ. There may not be ways specifically like Debra said, but there are ways that we can interact. And we’re doing that right now and we’re doing it in West Virginia. We’re going to really get into that tomorrow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, the Department of Justice can’t force a judge to recuse himself. Now, a party in a lawsuit or the DOJ, if they’re a part of it, could ask the judge to recuse themselves. That doesn’t mean that they have to or are going to. But really, the important thing here is like what you brought up, the fact that we are filing in this case representing a state at the U.S. Supreme Court to say, listen, Supreme Court, manage the judiciary. Get rid of these nationwide injunctions. Take this away from the district court judges that are using their bench to issue nationwide injunctions on everything the president is doing. Allow the courts to work. and allow the policymakers to make policy and if there are issues that are judiciable and they go through the court system and they are decided on but just saying that a district court can issue a blanket nationwide injunction before any briefing is even done before they’ve heard any facts of the case has to stop and that’s the best way to put it into that is by what we are doing going to the supreme court representing a state and laying out the constitutionality of what we believe should happen that’s right and tomorrow we’re going to have on my brother as well as someone from the state of west virginia are we allowed to say who or do we want to tease it out let’s just wait you’ll see tomorrow we’re going to have one of our friends from west virginia who’s involved and again
SPEAKER 03 :
The ACLJ is involved in all of these battles. We are trying to figure out creative ways. And that’s the great thing about our team is that there’s no box. There’s no red tape. We are able to get creative and figure out where we can go after these kinds of situations, whether that’s in the media or that’s in the law, both of them hand in hand, understand they have to both live because there are some times where, you know, if you’re going up against in a certain state, that you have to have the media on your side. You have to at least be talking about it publicly, making a good case to the public to win. And that’s why we have an incredible media team here. That’s why we have a media center here. But we also have our legal center as well because we make sure we have great legal minds who also can do both and are ready to act. So right now, with 35 seconds left and only a day left in our life in Liberty Drive, this is it. One day remains. And I urge you, the window is closing on your chance to have your gifts doubled. And I’m not just telling you that. It’s just the truth. Tomorrow is it. But don’t wait until tomorrow. Do it today. Go to ACLJ.org. Have your gifts doubled. Thank you so much for listening today. We’re going to have a packed show again tomorrow. Get my brothers joining us at ACLJ.org. Make sure you’re subscribing. Until next time, we’ll see you tomorrow.
