Join Sekulow for a packed episode featuring the latest from the ACLJ’s ambitious initiatives and courtroom strategies to uphold constitutional rules. We delve into the engrossing dialogue about the activism in American district courts that is shaping the legislative landscape, impacting executive directives, and the precedence of national policy. Featuring comprehensive discussions with our team stationed around the globe, listen to the pressing reports on antisemitism in universities, insights from Rick Grinnell on Trump’s first 100 days in office, and the role of ACLJ in these distinct yet interconnected realms.
SPEAKER 10 :
We got breaking news. A Trump executive order case heads to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 07 :
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. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome to Sekulow. That’s right. We got a very packed show today. My brother Jordan is here. Will Haines is here in studio. Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem is joining us. Rick Grinnell will also be on the broadcast. So I don’t know if we’ve ever had this much content to cover. And of course, we have another guest. And we teased this yesterday, and Jordan, you can talk about this because it’s a part of one of the ACLJ’s new lawsuits with the state of West Virginia. We’re going to be joined in the next segment by Attorney General of West Virginia, J.B.
SPEAKER 09 :
McCuskey. This is a big reason why I support the work of the ACLJ because this is a case where we filed at the U.S. Supreme Court, but we are representing the state of West Virginia. So that honor of not only are we representing all of our ACLJ supporters, we are representing every citizen of the state of West Virginia. And so your support to the ACLJ, I will just give people a preview of how fast this moved. This is executive orders issued by President Trump. We’re just talking about the first 100 days. So this is on an executive order he issued. You get those nationwide injunctions. We’ve talked about those issues involving immigration. There’s been over 100 executive orders. So there’s a number of these. But 67% of them have been issued against President Trump. Of all time. And when these cases are moving, yes, this is in U.S. history. In history. I think you’ve got to make sure that’s clear. In U.S. He’s only been president for four years and 100 days. Yeah. Sounds very like Abraham Lincoln would say that. And 67% of those injunctions. have been against President Trump. So what do we do? Of course, we wanted to file in this case, but we thought it would be great to partner with our good friend who’s an ACLJ alumni, the Attorney General of West Virginia, J.B. McCuskey, who’ll be joining us live next. And the issue here, of course, is should a district court, let’s say you’re watching from Oklahoma right now. should a district court judge in California be able to impact your daily life they’re not even in your circuit so they’re not even your federal circuit it doesn’t make sense right so it ultimately you can say well maybe these get resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court that’s not how we should live in the United States of America where a district court judge without a class being certified to protect a certain group of people jumping through all of the hurdles of an actual case and just saying I don’t like this so I’m going to stop you from being able to to carry out your job as the executive usually we’re talking about administrative agencies Logan at the federal level being out of control now we’re seeing that at the judicial level and people I think have been wondering what can the ACLJ do and here it goes yeah first hundred days here we go this is the first foray into preventing these judges from having the ability to impact our daily lives at a district level. These are district court judges. You can’t name them. Your senator likely can’t name them. These are guys who go through usually with confirmation with four or five people at the same time.
SPEAKER 10 :
Not even paying attention to what’s going on. And the ACLJ can get involved in this. We’ve been working on that for months to figure out the best path as we know it’s been an issue that you have all been very vocal about. Well, now we are in the last day. This is it. Final day of our life in Liberty Drive, and it’s my wife’s birthday. So you know what? If you’re looking for, happy birthday to my wife, but if you’re looking for a way to celebrate and support, we’re going to have JB coming up in the next segment. Again, Attorney General of West Virginia, someone that we have known most of our lives at this point, who again, like Jordan said, a kind of an OG ACLJ member, been with us, friends forever, and then also was a member of our team. And of course, now we’re able to work with him as the Attorney General. But right now, Before midnight, we need you to go to ACLJ.org. Don’t wait until midnight. Just do it right now. And your donation will still be doubled. You’ve heard about all the issues that we’ve got involved in. We’re going to break those down even more as the show goes on. Then we’re going to have Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem, and he’s taking it to Yale. We’re going to have some fun with that, tell you about what’s going on. And then, of course, one of our good friends, Rick Grinnell, will be joining us as well with, I’m sure, some breaking news updates, as it is now, the 101st day of, you know, it’s like 101 Dalmatians, 101st day of, president trump’s second term how are we looking how are we feeling how do you feel about that so of course we want you to call in if you support the work of the aclj because we are here to celebrate this final day of the life and liberty drive so give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 but also how do you feel 100 days in met your expectations you happy you disappointed we want to hear from you give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 once again aclj.org to support the work that the aclj we’re going to break that down so much more when we get back with jb attorney general of west virginia Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, it is a packed show. My brother Jordan Sekulow is here, and of course, Will Haines is in studio. Later on, Jeff Balaban, Rick Grinnell. It’s going to be packed, so make sure you stay tuned. But now we’re joined by a very special guest, one of our good friends, and also happens to be the Attorney General of West Virginia. Now, I’ll pitch it to Jordan, because I think, Jordan, you need to set up what we’re doing here, and then introduce our guest today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, people know about this injunction issue. They know it’s a huge issue. It involves immigration. It’s a huge issue. It involves enforcement by the executive branch of basically carrying out their functions. Usually we’re talking about executive agencies and bureaucrats out of control. But now it’s our court system. And people, I think, in this first hundred days have said, What are groups going to do? What can West Virginia do? What can the Attorney General do in West Virginia to stop these judges who are issuing orders to affect all of our lives when their jurisdiction is in a district of a state? For instance, in this case, before we go to JB, Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts are affecting how the federal government is able to carry out its job in West Virginia and nationwide. So let’s go to our good friend J.B. McCuskey. I always like to say this. General McCuskey, this is, I think, was a great example of how your team and our team were able to work together in a matter of days to go before the court to honestly put forward what these issues are really about. And it’s about these out-of-control judicial—we talk about judicial activism all the time. We are now seeing it in real time.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think one of the most interesting parts of this, Jordan, and it was interesting that Logan brought up the confirmation process of district court judges. If we’re going to allow district court judges to act like Supreme Court justices, their confirmation proceedings are not going to be like that anymore. And, you know, if you say every president has to appoint, you know, 75 or 100 district court judges. Right. If every single one of them takes three weeks like a Supreme Court justice, we will run out of judges pretty soon. Right. But on a more important note, I mean, I think the point here is. is that district courts are set up under our constitution to resolve issues and controversy that are in front of them. And what they’re now doing is they are resolving constitutional issues where there isn’t an actual plaintiff. They are resolving questions that are not designed for their courts to be resolving. And it has really dangerous precedent setting um it it almost doesn’t matter the topic right and and to be fair i don’t want republican judges doing this when there’s a democrat president either right the system works beautifully and it works in the way that our framers set it up and what our office and what we’re so grateful for your help in doing is arguing is that district courts need to get back to what it is that they do, and that is resolving issues and controversy with actual plaintiffs in front of them and leaving the constitutional review that affects every American, not just the Americans that are in their districts, should be left to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 08 :
JB, when you look at this, I’m sorry, Attorney General McCuskey, I’m so used to just calling you JB. All right, thanks. When you look at this issue, judges were never meant to be policymakers. And what we have effectively now are… hundreds if not thousands of potential policy makers in the united states that aren’t constitutionally equipped to be policy makers they’re not elected they don’t have a mandate from the people to affect policy on the united states but we’re seeing individuals and you see the percentage it’s like 92 of those that have issued these injunctions against president trump were appointed by democrats you’re seeing that they are now carrying out policy of even prior administrations, if you want to take it to that level, by blocking moves that they don’t believe, because of their political ideology, should be the policy of the United States. And I think that’s what really should hit home with every single American, especially if you did vote for this current president, and even if you didn’t, That’s not how this works in the United States. And that’s one of the main things I think that we, along with the state of West Virginia, are trying to put a stop to.
SPEAKER 06 :
yeah and i think you know there’s an important distinction to be made here right we have a supreme court and we have appeals courts for a reason and that is to determine whether the application of the law to a specific instance was done properly and when that application of the law is being done improperly or the law in and of itself is unconstitutional that is a question for a circuit judge or for the supreme court and what we’re finding now is that district court judges in the interest of political expediency are overstepping, in my opinion, their bounds and what our brief says also. They’re overstepping in order to stop things that they find politically untoward. And that isn’t their role. And, you know, if these things get to the U.S. Supreme Court and those nine judges make a determination that these Trump executive orders, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m hopeful it doesn’t happen. But at least we know that the venue was correct to determine whether or not the federal government’s actions were constitutional. That is that is not in these instances the place of a district court. And it is. is the place of our circuit courts and our Supreme Court. And they are skipping what is generally the most important step. And the reason why it’s so important is that’s where you build the record so that the appeals courts can start to understand the totality of the issue and make an informed decision about the policy that they’re reviewing.
SPEAKER 09 :
You bring up an interesting point because these cases had no trials. And when I say trials, I mean they weren’t fully briefed. They weren’t fully before the court. These were injunctions issued that then can try to, what they tried to do is stop the executive branch for carrying out its lawful duties, how they interpret laws that have been passed by your elected officials, by Congress. to empower the executive branch to carry out those laws and a judge in a random district says I don’t agree with the interpretation of the executive branch on how to carry out this law and just to put into example this is not normal JB 67 percent of all federal injunctions issued by these courts have been against President Trump that is in the the history of the United States of America 67% and then you have to get into the politics unfortunately we know when we talk about judicial activism politics plays a role 92% of those were issued by Democratic-appointed judges, and you talked about the confirmation process. We want to get back to a place in the United States of America where we aren’t politically identifying a district court judge and saying, well, they were appointed by a Democrat, so they’re going to be able to stop the President of the United States from carrying out action that officials we elect at the level of Congress, so at your district level, and then at your state level with the Senate, because they don’t like the way it’s being carried out.
SPEAKER 06 :
or they find a lawyer that they’re friends with, or it is a politically… Honestly, I think some of these judges are trying to get famous, and that stinks to say, but I think a lot of these folks love to see their name at the bottom of these rulings because it makes them feel like they are a part of a process that they don’t like. The problem is that they’ve all sworn an oath. They’re all lawyers, they’re all good lawyers, or they wouldn’t be district court judges, right? And there’s a level of importance that they end up feeling for issuing these kind of things. But we don’t live in a world of fields and we don’t live in a world of importance. We live in a world of rules and we live in a world with a constitution. And we cannot allow this piecemeal system to continue or it will completely halt the all executive actions from now on and it’ll hold it for democrats too right we don’t want a world where our judges are doing this either we’re looking for a world where these courts have the same function no matter what party the president’s in and the president is allowed to do the things that they’re constitutionally um asked to uh in a in an expedient way and if those if those actions do end up crossing a line We want that process to be heard in the appropriate courts. And that is very clearly the United States Supreme Court. And that is very clearly what’s not what’s happening now.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that’s why we’re headed there, JB. And the ACLJ team has been working with you, working with other people to try to figure out what’s our best method here, because we see the outpouring of voices from our audience that says this is an issue we care about. We didn’t even know judges could do this. And of course, there’s obviously the nerves of, like you said, What happens when it does go after our smaller cases, our Bible school cases, our Bible study cases, the home churches, all those things that could be easily almost re weaponized this way. And if you allow, if we allow this to continue on this way, that is why the ACLJ team has to get involved.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, and we have to do it quickly. So we have to have the resources to be able to work with the team in West Virginia and JB’s team, the Attorney General of West Virginia, to represent the people of West Virginia. And JB, I think that’s an important note, the final question to you is… We are in a state, you are standing up for all of your constituents to say we are not going to be bound in West Virginia by what a judge decides at the district court level in Maryland. It does not make sense. It is not how our founding fathers decided to set up our judiciary. Based off, we could go through a long history there. This is judicial activism at its worst.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. And I mean, I have you know, I live in a state that believes in the Constitution. And so it’s easy for me to stand up for my constituents in this way. And thankfully, the way that attorney generals, the way that our offices are set up is that we can represent both our constituents. But we also when we use the proper channels, which we’re using. are able to stand up for people outside of our borders as well, because we are challenging the constitutionality of actions in the proper format that was delineated by the Constitution. And we’re doing it in sort of an ironic way in this instance to fight against people doing it the opposite way.
SPEAKER 10 :
all right well jb thank you for joining us time to stand up everybody this is our last day of our life in liberty drive you heard about the new uh case we are taking on with the state of west virginia you heard from jb we know this is a issue that you have felt really passionate about and now we have a road map a path we can’t do it without you tonight the midnight deadline to have your donations doubled at aclj.org or scan the qr code if you’re watching we’ll be right back with more on seculo Welcome back to Secula. We’re getting Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem lined up. He’s actually on the air right now. We got him. Sorry. It was a little bit of a technical issue there. If you’re watching online, by the way, we know that YouTube has had sort of this ongoing glitch this week and we’re working on it, but we know that a lot of you are watching what I encourage you to do. If you are seeing us right now and it’s working well, hit that thumbs up. That really helps us. It’ll help us get reengaged with the people that maybe we’ve lost as well, but still thousands of you are watching it. We appreciate it. Jeff Balaban, I know people wanted to hear an update from you. This is obviously our last day of life in Liberty Drive. This is a big deal. But you are actually getting involved, if you want to say, on the front lines, if you will, of the college situation, the universities, really their anti-Semitic demonstrations that have been happening over the last couple of years, how extreme it’s gotten. But now you’re doing something about it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, uh, we talked about it last week on air, what’s happening at Yale university. There was a very alarming video that we showed of a Jewish student, conspicuously Jewish wearing the yarmulke, uh, trying to walk across campus and being blocked by a group of kefir clad, maybe students, but certainly protesting, yelling antisemitic slogans. And, uh, and this made the news. Um, And this resulted in a series of conversations that I’ve had from that time to this with a number of different stakeholders on the university, faculty members, students. And, uh, the situation is, is very uncomfortable for a lot of them. And, uh, you know, Yale has taken some measures, some things that they should be applauded. Others feel like it’s not enough. And obviously our responsibilities first do no harm. So here, because of my own connection to the institution, uh, actually just pulled up on campus right now. I’m meeting with a number of stakeholders from now through the night, actually through late into the night, of all different points of view about how best we may be able to help to make the situation better. It is very complicated, and there’s a big division of opinion, and that’s why I’m here, really to listen. Even on the way up here, I was listening to a number of professors on both sides of the issue. What we do know is that the external pressures, the anti-Semitism, the hostility, the hate, the culture genocide, the signs, the attacks on individual students and faculty have led to internal stress and pressure, obviously, within this much smaller Jewish community here at Yale. And so, yeah, that’s what we’re here to find out how we can help.
SPEAKER 08 :
And Jeff, as we’ve talked about, obviously Harvard has been kind of the front, out front and center because of the funding fight and the issues that we’ve seen there. And actually that president’s report from Harvard, the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Bias, was released last night. And we saw what we, I think, had all seen the imagery and how bad it was publicly, but reading through that as a 300-page report and seeing just how bad it was at Harvard, how… how much bias from faculty, from other students, from the administration towards these Jewish students. It was shocking at the level that it went. And I think that’s, what’s also important to show people here is that we don’t just talk about these things is that you’re going to Yale, uh, uh, uh, big portion of this is to listen and find out what is going on there and how we can get involved not just seeing the headlines and just hearing what’s saying and taking the videos and just talking about it actually going to your alma mater and trying to do something about it and find out what it’s like there beyond just what we see uh in the news and that’s important for our audience to know as well that we do work as well
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that’s, that’s true. I mean, look, honestly, nowadays I would really today, especially I would really be in Jerusalem. I’d really be in Israel where, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s the week of, of from their Memorial day to the day of independence, a lot’s going on, but this, this seems to be a crisis here. And that video of that student really revealed it and digging into it. There’s a difference here, which is to say that there’s an impasse about how to approach it. But the fact that ACLJ is, both as a law firm and as having its influence in Washington, can potentially make a difference. Lots of times universities just don’t understand what their responsibilities are. Sometimes they understand, but there’s no pressure. I don’t know yet. We don’t know yet. That’s what we’re here to find out. What’s the best way to help here? Because the current situation really is intolerable and it has to be changed. And so we’re here to do that. And that is, as you say, that is uniquely something that ACLJ is able to do.
SPEAKER 10 :
Jeff, we know you’re hard at work. We know you’re there on campus. I want you to get back to work. Get what you need to get done done as we are wrapping up today. Our life and liberty drive. So many of you have already supported the work of the ACLJ, but know we’re there. Whether that is for support of Israel, whether you hear about the case that we’re doing with our friends in West Virginia to make sure that these justice or these judges don’t. control everything that a president can do so nothing can get done and of course this has been alarming a lot of people have just been awoken to what’s happening and that this can happen and of course it’s happening so much so under this administration and then later on we’ll be joining by rick grinnell i can’t underscore though how much this means to us today It is a moment. Many of the cases we are gauged in are right now having historic impact and it’s gonna determine the future of our nation. Now you may see, hey, we got President Trump, we got conservatives in the White House, why do we need the ACLJ? Because as you’ve heard, maybe it’s even more so that you need us. You need us now more than ever because we are amping up because there are so many issues happening right now, so many roadblocks coming. We need you. Over the past year alone, We’ve had 1,200 people and organizations reach out for legal help, even more than that. We’ve been engaged in 193 pro-life matters. We have 225 free speech matters, 96 religious liberty matters, 158 actions battling back against the deep state and everything that goes on in the corrupt nature of Washington, D.C. Your support not only determines those fights that we engage in, it also brings you this amazing show. We’ve been doing this show now for close to 30 years. We have been doing this broadcast, of course, in different eras and different iterations, but we’ve always been there for you. And we continue to do it and we hope to do it for another 30 plus years and continue on. But we can’t do that without your support. This is the time here. Go to ACLJ.org and hey, flip it back to me actually right now. I just want to take the next two minutes here. Phone lines are open for you. Some of you lose us here. And you lose us here in the first half hour. This is where a lot of terrestrial radio stations, if you’re listening on Christian radio, a good number picked up the first half hour. Maybe they pick up the second half hour later. You can always find us for free, available live, noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. And that is available on ACLJ.org. That’s available on YouTube. That’s available on Rumble. We are there broadcasting live. And of course, you can pick us up later on. However you get your podcasts, we are there archived later on. But you can do that at ACLJ.org or through the ACLJ app, which is really a great experience if you haven’t done it yet. And none of that happens without you. None of it happens without you. We are well in this final day of our life in Liberty Drive. You’re going to hear me talk about it. You’re probably going to get some emails in your inbox today, and I hope you do at least. And I hope you support the work.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And if you don’t get those emails as well, go to ACLJ.org and you can sign up right there on the homepage. Because it also gives you updates on other cases that we’re involved in. Because so much is going on that we can’t cover everything that the ACLJ is doing every single day. So go there. You’ll get direct emails. And become a champion if you can. That’s also a way that you can support the ACLJ on a monthly recurring basis. It is very important at this time. When we talk about this case that we are now taking with West Virginia, where we represent them on this brief of the Supreme Court, you think about the power that these district court judges have assumed for themselves. that they can issue these nationwide injunction. And just think of the ramifications when you see the bias against which president is sitting. That percentage Jordan gave, that 67% of injunctions, nationwide injunctions from the federal bench over the last hundred years have been against President Trump. And think about what they could do to any of those causes that you hold dear if they just decide that I’m putting it into this nationally. And that’s why we have to fight back. We have to stand up for the Constitution, stand up for the rule of law, and your ACLJ is doing that.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. We’ll be back with the second half hour coming up. Less than a minute break. Be a part of it right now at ACLJ.org. keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo and now your host logan seculo welcome back to seculo seems like the fastest hour today as we are wrapping up our life and liberty drive we decided let’s pack it out of course you had on earlier in the show my brother jordan seculo coming in when it’s important it came in when it was important today will because we are involved on a high level supreme court battle we are doing what you’ve been asking us for to do for the last few months as we’ve been working out the best method to do so. We have partnered with the Attorney General in the state of West Virginia. Of course, that is J.B. McCuskey, who is also on earlier today on the show. You want to make sure you go back and listen to what he had to say. He’s an ACLJ alumni. He said he’s J.B., the O-G-A-G, part of the ACLJ team. So you know what? You’ve been working on that one. I have been. It’s been spinning in my head. I just keep spinning. 1-800-684-3110 to get on the air today. But Will, this is important. I want to make sure people hear this and know that we are taking action and we are taking action today. So though today ends our life in Liberty Drive, it really kicks off this brand new journey.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. So when you talk about this brief that we’re filing, this case, it’s… at the supreme court now and there is an oral argument uh in just a few weeks before the supreme court on this now there was an injunction issued against an executive order and this case has nothing to do with the executive order itself it’s not even at that point what it has to do with is whether or not the district judge can issue a nationwide injunction even though this covers districts way outside of his jurisdiction And we at the ACLJ, along with the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the state of West Virginia, believe that that needs to be put on hold, that we should not be seeing these district court judges being able to make policy by blocking The actions of the president nationally, they could put it on hold in their district. They could have injunctions. But there’s also the problem that they’re making these decisions to put these nationwide injunctions in effect. Before even the briefing is completed on this, when you have a case before the court, there’s the initial lawsuit, there’s the respondent’s brief, and then many times the original plaintiff can respond again, and then you get amicus briefs in many cases. And that builds the record for the court to make their decision upon. And then you have the oral argument as well. And now… The judge then takes all that into account in how to rule on the underlying issue. They’re putting the heart before the course, the cart before the horse, so to speak. I like the heart before the course. The heart before the course. Yes. It’s for golfers out there. Exactly, yeah. They’re putting the cart before the horse in this by saying we’re going to go and put a hold on it before we even get to the issue at hand. And that’s what we’re seeing across the country. The statistics that Jordan shared are shocking that 67 percent of these nationwide injunctions have gone against one president. President Trump in his four years and a hundred days of being the president. And that goes back a hundred years. And 90% of those injunctions, 92% were by judges appointed by Democrats. And they say there’s not a problem with judicial activism. That’s what we see right there. And it’s time to fight back.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that’s what we’re doing here. It’s front and center. And a lot of people are taking notice. And look, a lot of you are commenting, heart before the course. Well, so I say, if you believe in that, Throw a heart emoji into the chat. Do it right now. Or maybe even a golf. If there’s a golf one, do a golf one.
SPEAKER 01 :
Either one of those.
SPEAKER 10 :
Do it for Will, okay? Because look, it’s my wife’s birthday. It’s the last day of the Life and Liberty Drive. We are getting engaged with so many important things. We need your help right now. And look, even throwing in a simple emoji in the chat gets more people to see this. And I know that’s crazy. And it’s the new world we live in. But trust me, our team knows the ins and outs of this right now. But I encourage you to do that. Put a little heart in the chat. We really appreciate that. Or golf, as Will said. Phone lines are open for you. We’re going to take your calls towards the end of the show. 1-800-684-3110. If you’re online right now, Charles and Christine, stay on hold. We’ll get to you coming up next up. We’ve got another great team member of the ACLJ, someone we cannot have without you. He’s a special envoy, former ambassador, former director of national intelligence. Of course, I’m talking about our friend Rick Grinnell. We’re going to break down those 100 days, now 101 days of the Trump presidency. Of course, that interview, the ABC interview that showed up where? On Disney+. We said that was pretty interesting. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Once again, give us a call today. Get in line, 1-800-684-3110. Go to ACLJ.org. Right back with Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Secular again. Last day of our life in Liberty Drive. So you’re going to hear me talk about it quite a bit. It’s our final day. We’re counting down the hours. If you want to donate and have your donation doubled, matched, ready to go. The biggest day you can do it for the next little bit at least is today. There will be a few months before this opportunity comes back again. If it does come back. Thankfully, there are ACLJ champions, ACLJ donors right now that are ready to support this. That doesn’t mean they’re always going to be there. It doesn’t mean we can always offer these kind of matches. So we’re only doing it through the end of today. And I mean it. At midnight, you’ll probably get in some emails. You’ll probably get in a lot of texts, a lot of calls. Yeah, maybe not calls. We get a lot of messages because it’s a very important time for us during this life in Liberty Drive. And the midnight deadline is tonight. We are now joined again by an ACLJ team member for the last number of years. Somebody who has been deeply involved in what’s been going on in Washington, D.C., whether he likes it or not. And that is our friend Rick Grinnell. Rick, 100 days in to this, or 101 days now, if you want to say, into this Trump presidency. How are you feeling?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think we’ve accomplished so much already, Logan. It’s just been really unbelievable in terms of the pace. I haven’t seen… anyone work so hard and so broadly on a variety of issues, whether you’re looking at domestic issues like the border, whether you’re looking at international issues like launching peace initiatives, bringing hostages home, the economy of really tackling what I think the Democrats have wanted us to tackle for a long time, which is this tariff problem where other countries are literally putting currency manipulation and tariffs on us at the same time we’re losing the supply chain if you remember we had this whole discussion after covid everybody agreed we’ve got to bring home the supply chains back to america nothing’s really been done about it until president trump decided to confront it and so confronting that and then watching as literally trillions of dollars have been promised by CEOs and international companies to say, we’re going to bring trillions of dollars to the United States. Now, that is an enormous accomplishment. It’s going to take a little time for the stock market to recognize that. But as soon as we start building up the manufacturing and supply chain here, obviously it’s going to create jobs here. But more importantly, our economy is going to just take off and we’re going to really fix this. I predict that in one year from now, people are going to be saying, what a genius idea to really tackle the tariff issue. And I think President Trump will get credit for that because he did it in the first 100 days.
SPEAKER 08 :
Rick, one of the other issues that we’ve seen is really almost a continuation of the lawfare that President Trump received before he was president for the second term while he was running for president. But you’re seeing the issue of the nationwide injunctions issued by district courts trying to block basically everything the president does. And it’s remarkable the ability on the border, how well they’ve been able to shut it down and to get that under control in spite of all these nationwide injunctions and things of that nature. But we at the ACLJ, we just filed a brief yesterday with the Supreme Court representing the state of West Virginia to try to tackle this issue of nationwide injunctions by district courts. And I just want to get your opinion. Is this what, as you travel, is Is this one of the issues that you’re hearing people concerned about the most of how the left is using the courts and activist judges to try and affect and manipulate policy while the president is just trying to move forward with the mandate from the people?
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, this is a difficult question because we all recognize that lawfare is a huge problem. We have the courts that have become politicized. We see it constantly. We see what they did to President Trump. And yet, you know, we have a process where our judges are appointed by politicians. And we have U.S. attorneys who are prosecuting cases who are appointed by politicians. That’s the system we have. What we need to be able to do is hire the people that are just. rejecting politics. And I have to say, I think the conservatives and Republicans are doing a much better job of hiring people who are focused on crime and not politics than the Democrats. The Democrats seem to get very aggressive about having their judges manipulate policy through these injunctions. And more times than nothing, they get overturned. So it’s an activist judge who then just delays the policy because it’s so egregious in what they’re saying and how they’re trying to stop the policy that they get overturned. And so I think that we should have this system where we’re very transparent about the judges who are getting overturned. We show their record. We mock them because they’re being an activist and they’re missing the law and that their colleagues… through the appellate process, are mocking them to say, you got it wrong. And trying to use the power of the bully pulpit and transparency, information, public education, all of that, the power of that, to showcase the judges who are activists, who are bringing politics into this. Because I think if you could see how many times a judge is overturned, You know, the public then loses their confidence in these judges. And then we see who’s playing politics.
SPEAKER 10 :
Rick, I also wanted to talk about sort of the hundred day celebration, if you will, of this and how the news has rolled out and how President Trump is accepting a lot of interviews. The Biden administration barely did any interviews, never really any press conferences. We know how that all ran out. But of course, you have President Trump not only taking friendly interviews, but he did a special with ABC that aired. And of course, that special aired not only on ABC, it aired on Disney+. It’s available there. It’s available on Hulu. It is a different world than we’re living in. And of course, we have President Trump also accepting the invitation from the Atlantic after that whole situation. So you have a president, maybe for the first time in a while, saying, okay, I know I’m not necessarily going into a friendly room here. I know I may not even win people over. but I’m willing to still sit for these interviews. That’s important.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s incredibly important to have a system where you can calmly debate. And if that means disagreeing sharply, so be it. I mean, we looked at the interview with Terry Moran in the Oval Office. I think everyone would agree that Terry Moran was incredibly aggressive and partisan and and really wasn’t starting off by being an unbiased journalist. He was being an activist for the Democratic Party. You could see it. And so, President Trump, you know, pushes back. And when you see this process, you recognize that Donald Trump is somebody who is not afraid to go in and have a debate with somebody. Look at his conversation with Bill Maher. And Bill Maher came out and said, wow, like I was able to disagree with him. And, you know, we’re not being canceled. It’s one of those things that’s really important.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I think that that is important. I think it’s important for people to see all the different sides of what’s happening. And right now there’s even a cabinet meeting happening and we see obviously a very creative group of different people, including Elon Musk, who’s right there right now. I mean, the Trump administration has been willing to show that not only are they willing to work with outsiders, they are able to embrace them. Now, of course, it doesn’t come without difficulties because I think you have, when you have a group, Rick, and we’ve talked about Washington, D.C. a lot, when you have a group of people who are Even the ones who are someone like Elon, who has the biggest businesses in the world, is the richest man in the world. There’s still nothing like Washington, D.C. There’s still nothing like the quote unquote swamp. And you have to learn pretty quick how to navigate.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, look, we’ve talked a lot about this in the past, that there’s a huge difference between what happens in Washington, D.C. and what happens in the rest of the country. And I think conservatives have to stop expecting that those people who live, work, go to church in Washington, D.C., are ever going to want their city to be less powerful. They don’t want fewer employees. They don’t want people being cut. They don’t want smaller budgets. They want a more powerful city. And so when we’re talking about waste, fraud and abuse and cutting it, the people in Washington, D.C. hear an existential threat. And so we have to be able to recognize that we got to keep pushing because what Trump is doing, what Elon is doing is good for the rest of America, but it’s not good for Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, Rick, thank you so much for joining us today again. Look, I see some of your comments right now. And of course, we’re able to have incredible people like Rick and Rick. Hey, if you’re still there, do we drop? Rick, you’re there for next a little bit. We got one minute left. I just want to give you 30 seconds. It’s the last day of our life in Liberty Drive. You know, there’s some comments saying, hey, Logan, you’re overdoing it right now. It’s too much of this fundraising pitch. But guys, this is the last day and we can’t have people like Rick and Rick. I’ll let you speak for a second. We we can’t have people like you without people’s support.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, look, I understand that people, you know, you go to church, you hate to be told you got to tithe. You hate to listen to radio and say, you know, support us, support us. But I think we’re different in that we’re activists. We’re doing things. We’re actually pushing back. And so if you believe in what we’re doing, if you like it, it would be great to support us.
SPEAKER 10 :
Rick, so much for joining us. In the next segment, we’re going to take as many calls as we can, including we’ve got a couple ACLJ champions lined up. Of course, they get to the front of the line because they support the ACLJ on an ongoing monthly basis. They create a great baseline. You can become a champion today, and if you do that, your first gift is still doubled, and then it’ll roll in to normal donations. And, of course, that helps us out for our next drive that helps us out in general. So go to ACLJ.org, or you can give us a call right now at 1-800-684-3110. Still one line open. We’ll get you on the air. Welcome back to Seculo. Last segment of the day. Jordan’s here. Will’s here. We’re going to take some of your calls. A lot of you have been on hold for a long time. And as we say, if you’re an ACLJ champion, you get bumped up to the front. Anne’s calling. And though she’s an ACLJ champion, you’ve been on hold for a very long time. We just haven’t taken a call yet today. Anne, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Logan. And I just say, ACLJ has been 30 years of blessing in our country. And I’ve been with you most of those. I’m so thankful you’re taking on this district court judge issue. I’ve actually been praying about that ever since I heard it. It’s just, it’s so heartbreaking. And even all of the deplorables, myself included, know that a private or a lieutenant doesn’t issue commands or orders to the general. And so I’m thankful you’re doing this, and I want to support. Even though I’m a champion, and as a senior, I have this. privilege of donating for my retirement through QCD. I know I just have to give more and what time better than now when 500 can equal a thousand. So this is not a paid advertisement. This is truly from the heart blessing ACLJ for all the blessings they’ve given us. So I encourage fellow Americans to do this. If they can join me in this campaign, because this is really important.
SPEAKER 10 :
As Ann said, that wasn’t some sort of scheduled call. Ann, I can feel it. I can feel your heart through the phone lines. I really appreciate all of your support and know that it does not go unnoticed and that everyone that’s an ACLJ supporter and champion, we are also praying for you as well. And we are also doing our best to be there for you when you need us. And we appreciate if you can give, we obviously appreciate that. If you can’t give, we also understand there’s a lot of free ways you can get involved. Just go to the website, subscribe, do those things on YouTube. All those things help us out a lot. But Ann, thank you so much. We know this is an issue that people cared about. We just needed to take the proper time and proper action. That’s what we do here at the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and Jordan, that’s a kind of a question I wanted to take from Ann’s call is, you know, we knew people like Ann were praying about this. We’re concerned about this. And we at the ACLJ wait for the right time when we know we can make the impact. We don’t just rush into it where you could immediately get slapped down by a judge or have some issue. No, we knew that the right time is partnering with someone like the Attorney General of West Virginia. to put our brief in when there is an issue that’s pertinent at the Supreme Court and laying out the law that way. So it’s strategic. It’s a lot of hard work by the legal team, but this is the right time to get involved. And sometimes you do have to have that patience to know when to strategically strike.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and we’re still talking about the first hundred days. of this of this administration I know it could seem longer than that because we’ve been in kind of a we’ve been in a non-stop campaign to get to this point but if you if you stop fighting now so if we start like sitting on our hands now what was the point of those last four years? What was the point of the first four years of the first Trump administration? What was the point of fighting back against impeachment? What is the point of getting these officials elected if you have a president who then can’t act? And I want to tell you how general these laws are. For instance, on immigration, you’ll have thousands of pages of US code and then at the end it says and the president can execute this so these judges will pick from one page the White House will pick from you know other pages it is ultimately these big decisions they can be decided by the Supreme Court in the meantime you should not be have to wait on your hands as president of the United States elected by the people a Congress that has enacted these laws. So you’ve got the separation of powers there. He should not have to wait to be able to then execute those laws or else all of those battles, all of those fights are for naught.
SPEAKER 10 :
There’s no reason to engage. We got to remember this is a second term presidency. It doesn’t sometimes feel like that. You got to remember what’s happening here. Four years we know goes by lightning fast and things have to get done. If they don’t get done now, they probably won’t get done at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
I was with the Speaker of the House yesterday. We’re already into midterm elections. There are big budget bills, but the next step is going to be, we’ve gotten, I think, used to in these hundred days, we start to see the Republican infighting, conservatives fighting conservatives. This is exactly what the left wants. You think the Democrat party is unorganized? You think the left is unorganized? Right now on paper, they win and Donald Trump gets impeached. That is what we’re looking at in the House of Representatives right now. So we have got to fight back. And on this judicial activism front, We’ve talked about that for years, but we talk about it usually at the Supreme Court level. This is now happening at your district court where there are over 600 district court judges. And we talked about before, we can’t allow those 600 to decide our policy of the United States government.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. Let’s go actually have a question related to that from West Virginia. Christine’s calling. She is also an ACLJ champion. Know that we really appreciate that. Christine, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, thank you both. Thanks, Jordan. Thank you. I’m glad you guys had… And Logan, thank you. I’m glad you had your dad on earlier this week. Are there any other states besides West Virginia who are bold enough to…
SPEAKER 09 :
take the same stance against these district judges any other states going to join us there are there are other states that have joined now there are separate briefings so you’ve got probably over 20 so it’s a pretty much look at your map of divided government and you get the red states in right and so that that is very key but the second part of this is remember the trump administration has to defend this usually we’re on the side of an overpowered bureaucracy This is the executive trying to tell the bureaucracy this is how we’re going to enforce the laws. And then you’ve got a judge, so another part of our separation of powers, saying you can’t tell the bureaucracy how to enforce the law.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let’s go ahead and take one more call for the day. Charles is calling in Georgia, listening on the radio. Charles, go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Logan, for my question. My question is, what would happen if President Trump just decided that he was not going to respond to any district court judge injunction. And even if they issued a contempt order, what practical effect would it have on the presidency? I mean, the separation of powers has no meaning if some low court judge can overrule the president in any way.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think where we have to be careful in the United States of America is what makes us different. from the rest of the world is our rule of law. So we have a respect for these institutions. That’s why we have to correct them. So the idea is you don’t want to get into a situation where the president of the United States is saying, I’m not going to reply. And here they have. So the Trump administration knows and here’s where the problem lies the president can issue these orders to act but if the bureaucracy then goes and says well a judge told us we can’t you see you get into one of those issues where there’s ultimately this is what makes America great what makes America great is ultimately we have a rule of law that you can trust if we lose that we are no different than China we’re no different than Russia and it may sound like hey for the two years you want your guy to have that kind of power when the other guys come in do you really want them to have the kind of power where an ACLJ goes into court to stop one of their actions let’s say at the at the supreme court level and they say no I don’t care then what is the what is the United States of America anymore and what makes us unique that is what we are fighting to save here and ultimately that is bigger than one president that’s right and with just a minute left
SPEAKER 10 :
This is it, folks. This is the last day and the last time you’re going to hear from me about the Life and Liberty Drive. So right now, throw that QR code up on the screen. It’s very serious that we get involved in these issues right now. We’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve talked about it. We’ve had a lot of great guests on today. And I want to thank all the ACLJ champions. And tomorrow you’re going to hear me hopefully thanking you for us hitting our goal, us hitting our budgets. We need your support right now. This is the Life and Liberty Drive. It does end tonight at midnight. It’s your final chance to have your gifts doubled. at aclj.org scan that qr code if you can see it on the screen you’ve heard about the thousands of cases that we are involved in around the country that we do all year long that we do overseas internationally at the eclj at the aclj jerusalem you don’t need me to remind you how important it is right now but look around you’re going to want the aclj there and we can’t do it without you so right now i can’t underscore how important this is Go to ACLJ.org, scan the QR code that’s on your screen, take a minute, pray, and if you can, support the work. We’ll be back tomorrow with more on Sekulow.
