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In this compelling episode of Sekulow, we delve into the crucial issue of judicial activism as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Maine issues a landmark ruling. This episode charts the fiercely debated territory of family planning funding and the defunding of abortion providers. We also celebrate 35 years of success with ACLJ’s tireless efforts to uphold justice, and discuss how strategic lawsuits shape public policy.
SPEAKER 08 :
We’ve got breaking news and a rare occurrence of federal judge slams judicial activism.
SPEAKER 05 :
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 08 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We’re back. Will Haines is in studio with me. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us. And my brother, Jordan Sekulow, will be joining us from our D.C. headquarters and our studio there to go over some of the new work the ACLJ is doing right now. They’ve got some amazing stuff going on. You’re going to want to stay tuned for that. That being said, you may have seen the headline, may have heard my little tease there. That’s right. There’s a federal judge out there. Well, there’s at least one who’s saying, I don’t think we should be getting involved so much in this judicial activism and so much so I’m going to put pen to paper and put it in one of my rulings because at this point we have a federal judge on Monday who denied a request by a Maine family planning provider. This was someone who said, hey, we provide abortions. We’re not Planned Parenthood. We shouldn’t be stripped of our federal fundings because we’re not Planned Parenthood. And here they are. And of course, that judge stuck his neck out quite a bit.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. So in this case, this is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. This judge put an order down on a preliminary injunction that was requested by the Maine Family Planning Association. They wanted a preliminary injunction to stop the defunding of their work, their abortion business. And what this judge goes to show in denying that preliminary injunction, so effectively saying they are still defunded by the Big Beautiful Bill, he didn’t just stop at saying, here’s my rational basis for why I’m denying this preliminary injunction. He writes at length about why it is not the role of the judiciary to do this, including lines like this. Undoubtedly, most of the public that is outraged by Congress’s defunding of, quote, prohibited entities will feel as though they do because they find the provision unwise, unfair, and illogical. In fact, much of plaintiff’s arguments turns on a public policy critique of the prohibited entities portion of the Big Beautiful Bill. However unwise the prohibition of Medicaid funding to providers best positioned to deliver Medicaid services to underserved rural populations, the judicial branch, despite much generated confusion on this basic point, does not serve as an omnibus super legislature to sit in final judgment as to which policy outcomes it prefers that judgment rests with the people we’ll get to more of this but basically throwing shade through his order at the judge in Maine, I’m sorry, in Massachusetts, which granted jumped through all these hoops to grant preliminary injunctions to not just Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts or the National Planned Parenthood Federation for America, but to all of Planned Parenthood members. This judge is saying, we’re not a super legislature here. This isn’t our job. And he also goes to show why this non-planned parenthood entity is not likely to succeed in this case on the merits. We’ll get into all that when we come back, but it’s so refreshing to read a federal judge in Maine writing these words against the colleagues in another district court in Massachusetts that is doing the very thing that he’s calling out, acting as a super legislature.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you. We are also in the final days, just the final five days of our 35 years of victory drive. And we have had some breakthrough victories and a big breakthrough victory to report in our efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, as you heard, and abortion providers. So these are the big victories the ACLJ is always getting involved in. We’ve had that federal court in Maine agree with us, refusing to block the defunding of the abortion industry and slamming judicial activism in the courts. None of this happens without you. Those rogue judges need to be put in place. Sometimes they get placed by their own other judges, which is nice to hear. But we can’t do it. We can’t submit all these incredible briefs and amicus briefs and all the things that we do here to make sure we’re involved without your help. We are up to over 210 cases just in the last year defending life. That is just on the life topic, okay? That is just pro-life work. Imagine the legal team that has to go in to manage 210 different legal instances, legal cases, if you will. You’ve got to be a part of it right now. ACLJ.org, have your gifts doubled as we wrap up this month as we’re celebrating 35 years of victory. We’ll be right back with your calls and comments coming up. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. If you want to have your voice heard on the air, we also see quite a few of you joining us today on YouTube and on Rumble. If you’re on those platforms, there’s always ways to interact. You can put in a comment, you can hit that thumbs up, and of course you can subscribe. All those are great things. One of the things I always ask you to do, if you don’t have anything to say… Let me know where you’re watching from. I’d love to see that in the comments. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us in the next segment, and then later on, again, my brother’s going to be joining us from our D.C. studio to give you a big update of what’s been happening at our Washington, D.C. headquarters. Of course, our media office is here in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and our D.C. headquarters is where, obviously, our political, legal, and government affairs offices are. exist we have lawyers all over the country we have in this office and all over the country and all over the world but of course that is where the legal headquarters is phone lines again are open for you at 1-800-684-3110 and we want to restate the topic at hand that we’re discussing right now at least well which is you finally kind of have a federal judge who uh you know says some nice things maybe says hey am i nice things i mean say hey hey other judges
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and Logan, this also points out why it’s so important that the ACLJ engages these cases. This judge that denied this preliminary injunction request did so directly, but with some language that is very similar to the brief that we filed. Listen to this part. This is from our brief that we filed with the court in support. court of the administration and the government and the big beautiful bills provision and we wrote ordering congress to spend money it has declined to appropriate would violate the separation of powers the appropriations clause reserves power of the purse exclusively to congress courts cannot compel congress to spend money any more than congress can compel courts to decide cases The relief plaintiff seeks an injunction forcing Congress to fund its operations would transform federal judges into super legislators empowered to redirect public resources according to judicial rather than legislative priorities. I already read you that part. where the the judge said the judicial branch despite much generated confusion on the basic point does not serve as an omnibus super legislature to sit in final judgment as to which policy outcomes it prefers but also that entire point about the separation of powers the judge writes the constitution gives the congress of the united states the power of the purse the very first enumerated legislative powers of Congress are the powers to raise and spend money. And this means that Congress, not the executive branch or the judicial branch has the authority to determine how to spend or not spend the nation’s dollars for the achievement of among other things, the quote general welfare of the United States. So, why do we file in these cases even when the government has their own attorneys that are fighting this when a plaintiff is suing the government obviously we are not representing the government the department of justice and the council of hhs are there but when our attorneys i’ve read you the words those are powerful words that are echoed in this judge’s opinion Our attorneys are very good at this and they know what to write and how to write and explain the law in such a clear cut way that you start to see these things echoed in the opinions of the judges. We talked about last week where we filed in that case, in that appeal of that enormous judgment of over half a billion dollars against President Trump. one of the concurrences from one of those justices directly quoted the ACLJ. That is because we hire the best of the best. They are savvy, smart attorneys that know how to write these briefs so that it gets the attention of these judges. When they read it, they know the power of it and the weight of it, and they know it’s the law. And many times, that’s why you see it reflected in their opinions.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, a lot of times reflected, as Will said, either word for word or like someone, you know, copying your homework. Just like… slightly altering it you’re like oh i wonder where they got that idea from obviously it’s from our aclj team they have the tools and the talent to get stuff done and it is incredible work that this team does whether it’s our legal work or media work i say that as someone who is obviously your broadcast partner here someone that talks to you each and every day tries to break down what a lot of this means because we have incredible legal minds and of course we need to have people who can then take that and translate so i have people like will we have me we have uh all the people joining us on our team, my brother, Jordan, who is a lawyer and also can talk to you and explain to you what’s going on. Cause sometimes you’ll get stacks of papers. We’ll get emails and I’ll have to like, yeah, you’ll call someone and say, tell me what this means. We want to make sure we’re there for you to not only explain what’s going on in the world, but also be there in a proactive and an active way. Of course, it’s happening right now as president Trump is holding his seventh cabinet meeting of his second term. We’re looking at some of those images live right now in our studio. Uh, and you know, this is what’s, what’s happening even much more open, uh, group in terms of the white house this is not something you saw very often during uh the biden time you have seen some of trump imagery i know there’s like a giant trump banner that was like rolled out in front of the labor building and some people were giving that some grief i think it’s also because you had four years of a silent biden administration who would want you
SPEAKER 06 :
the most they would want to do or the worst thing possible scenario was be to have him show up and start making uh speeches or talking to the press uncensored that’s right and once again i want to get back to another point where this judge uh really called out these other judges remember that that judge in massachusetts jumped through all these hoops planned parenthood forum shopped to try and find the best way in light of that supreme court decision that
SPEAKER 08 :
Form shopping. Going around finding a judge that’s going to be reasonable.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. Going around trying to find the judge that will give you the maximum relief. And there was that opinion from the Supreme Court, which struck down these universal injunctions. Planned Parenthood got clever in the way that they presented to this judge. And the judge made a questionable decision and had to jump through so many hoops at the same time saying that Planned Parenthood is not one entity. for these purposes but it is one entity for the purposes of granting an injunction very confusing acrobatics that the judge had to do to give them this big relief now that didn’t affect the main family planning uh federation that is able to now seek their own relief and didn’t get it so they’re still not getting funding while planned parenthood currently is because the preliminary injunction But I want you to read this other part for this judge out of Maine and really directly taking shots at the Massachusetts judge. If you read it and it says the plaintiff’s predicament is complicated by a longstanding cultural battle over the availability of abortion spanning nearly 50 years. It was considered a constitutional right. However, three years ago, the Supreme Court held that abortion is not a right protected by any constitutional provision. And as such, quote, the permissibility of abortion and the limitations upon it are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting. That’s from the Dobbs decision. Then this judge goes on to say that is precisely the type of democratic exercise that produced the big, beautiful bill. it would be a special kind of judicial hubris to declare that the public interest has been undermined by the public. Effectively saying that our democratic process, the very thing that we are told all the time by the left is in crisis, our democracy, that democratic process is what led to Congress getting elected, President Trump getting elected, and this bill getting passed. It is a, quote, special kind of judicial hubris to try and claim that there is a public interest that is being harmed by the public because that’s how our democracy works, our democratic republic. So he sees this very clearly. The democratic process worked. The remedy, if you don’t like that, is to change the minds of your fellow people and how they vote, not to rush to the court and try to get policy decisions changed by the courts. This judge has it exactly right. I love the the very much some of the flavor to this that you can see that was probably drawn from even the brief our attorneys wrote. It lines up very directly and it just it makes me proud to be a part of the ACLJ and the legal team we have fighting here. But also that these judges are brave enough to call out other judges for a special kind of judicial hubris because that’s what we’ve been seeing for far too long.
SPEAKER 08 :
People are saying, Will, that the U.S. needs to be listening to you. It says, USA, listen to Will. There you go. Pay attention. The whole country needs to be paying attention to you. I also see some people commenting right now about our work internationally. And I do want to say, if you support the work of the ACLJ during the 35 years of victory or whatever you do, you are also supporting our international work. Some people are asking about, can we get involved in places like South Korea, North Korea, and all those things. If you feel like you are called to give and you would like to see us expand into some of those places, let us know. I’d love to know where internationally you’d like to see the ACLJ get to work. Now, obviously, there are legal laws. There are rules. There’s a lot of different barriers you’ve got to go through. It’s no simple journey. But we are always fighting for those overseas. We have the ECLJ. That’s the European Center for Law and Justice. We’ve had different entities throughout the years when it’s been needed. Throughout the world, we have the ACLJ Jerusalem, which obviously fights and supports Israel, but also gives you truly what’s going on on the ground there from an American perspective. And from their point of view, you get then an American perspective leaning in to what is happening in Israel. But maybe there’s somewhere you’d like us to work on. I would love to expand our international work. It’s one of my favorite things that we do here at the ACLJ. As though we obviously are for our safe borders, protected borders. Religious freedom should have no borders. And we want to make sure we can be able to protect it all over the world. Whether that’s in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Whether that is in France, in Europe, in the UK. Or wherever we can be. So go to ACLJ.org right now and throw that in the comments. I really would appreciate it. We’ll be back with more. And Mike Pompeo joining us next. Welcome back to Secular. We are now joined by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo, who has been joining us again for a number of years now and always been a valuable resource, someone that can provide you really an inside look into all of this and how this has all been happening. One of the things, Secretary Pompeo, we want to address is obviously the crime issue that President Trump clearly got some pushback over, but now we see a place like Washington, D.C. I was even talking to my 13-year-old son about this, who was very well aware of sort of the crime issues that happen to some of these major cities, and specifically it’s been in Washington, D.C. There are areas that have always been rough. But when you have this, you know, a week, 10 days plus now with no significant crime, no murders that have happened, it’s a pretty wild place to be in. It’s something that almost feels like it should be unthinkable, sadly, in 2025 that this could actually get done. But it also shows you that we have somewhat the resources. We have people like the National Guard. We have the brave soldiers who are ready to take on this crisis and maybe get stuff done. Maybe this has been what we’ve needed all along.
SPEAKER 01 :
Two things. First, this reminds me of the border where President Biden said, well, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t stop this. Frankly, there were Republicans who said the same thing. There’s nothing you can do. It’s inevitable. I hear the same story on crime. It is what it is. That’s just fundamentally not true. And President Trump has now demonstrated that with the right resources, the right focus, the right objectives, you can actually do provide public safety so that people can go out and enjoy their communities in the biggest cities, the most wonderful places in America. Second, you know, when I was Secretary of State, I remember what the State Department was like. I was there, drove past it, and it’s probably been a year and a half, two years ago now. And there were homeless encampments all around your Department of State where every foreign dignitary came. And it felt and looked unsafe. Not for me. I had a team with me. But, you know, for people who were trying to get there and come see government officials, it looked and felt unsafe. And now, boy, it just cleaned up materially. And this matters. It matters to ordinary citizens. It matters, frankly, to the least amongst us who are often most impacted by crime. Think about our schools. Think about the fact that they’re trying to go to after school clubs and things like that. Now we have a president who’s saying, yeah, we’re just not going to tolerate this in the United States of America. It doesn’t have to be. And this is a wonderfully good thing for the United States.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mr. Secretary, Politico put out an article with this headline, Trump is leaning in on crime. Democrats need a better response and fast. You also, you posted on X, the left wing attacks on President Trump for tackling crime are getting increasingly unhinged. These progressive mayors should consider why their policies have unleashed historic levels of crime and focus on correcting course, not bashing the president. I’m kind of at a loss for how you can be a leader of a city and choose the partisan politics game over wanting what’s best for your citizens. But it just seems like no matter what the party has decided in mass, we will push back and reject anything that the president of the United States tries to put forward, including keeping their cities safe.
SPEAKER 01 :
The good news is the citizens of America, the people who live in these cities, they get it. So while progressive politicians may not, you know, and I’m always careful, I try not to provide political advice to the to the left. Sure. I’m not well situated to do that. But common sense would tell you that public safety, the so that your kids can go walk to school and not worry that they’re going to get mugged so that you and your. Friends can go out and have a glass of wine at a bar or you can go out with your husband and have dinner and you can feel like I can go to my car, I can park in the parking garage and get in and I don’t have to worry. That’s probably fantastic politics, but I know for sure that it’s really good policy. It’ll lead to economic prosperity. Restaurants, local establishments will be more successful. All good things flow from this. And so when I hear these progressives, it does feel like Trump derangement syndrome or something akin to that, where you have to attack the president of the United States because he’s your political enemy. And that is that is a mistake both politically, I think, and practically because folks, ordinary folks get that this matters to them and improves their lives.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think when you visit those cities, you visit the cities that have those safety and those protocols in place, you can feel it. You can feel it on the streets. Typically, you spend a lot of time in a lot of the major cities across America, as a lot of us do. I’ll be in New York very soon. You go to San Francisco. You go to these places that at one point were just, again, these are our greatest cities, if you will, in that case, where these are where people want to go to. These are our tourist destinations. This is what people think of America. They think of Washington, D.C., New York City, California. Los Angeles, San Francisco. Obviously, you can fill in the rest of the map, but those are probably the top five that people think of. Florida, maybe. But You want those areas not only to feel safe, but of course we want to protect human rights, human dignity. So there was a big uproar even with what we’re going to do, except with these homeless encampments and the things that have happened. But from all I can see for President Trump’s, what he’s been doing, it’s not been, hey, we’re just going to kick him out. Like I’ve seen a lot in California where they just say, hey, get him off of Hollywood Boulevard. Get him off of Hollywood Boulevard and move him a mile away where the tourists don’t see it. it’s been no let’s get these people help let’s let’s get them in housing let’s get them into uh you know shelters places they could be taken care of and hopefully you know somewhat rehabbed back into society in a way that actually has a plan and the fact that that is being attacked is really where you said the derangement syndrome goes too far because the christian side of us that does go of course we need to protect the homeless people that need uh help but protecting them doesn’t just mean uh run wild in your city and see what happens
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. And remember, some of those same people, the people who are struggling, they might have an addiction problem. They may they may not have a place to stay. They’re often the victims of this violent crime. Right.
SPEAKER 1 :
Right.
SPEAKER 01 :
And so, yes, it is a wonderful thing to say, no, we’re gonna try to provide good sound solutions. We’re gonna try to take care of you, whether it’s medical or psychological, whatever it is you need, but we’re not gonna tolerate the risk of violence on our streets. I’ve gone to cities all across the world. You can see those that have decided, no, we’re gonna make these safe, wonderful places where people can go and visit and want to be. And you can see places like, frankly, like London and Paris, where large parts of the city have just been given up. That that is that is really bad for the people that live in those areas, both from a safety perspective and from a commercial perspective. And the United States should lead the way. We do have these remarkable places where people from all across the world want to come spend their money and spend their time to see the greatness of our nation. We can’t have them say, you know, I think I won’t go to Chicago because they’ve got a murder rate that exceeds anything anywhere in the world. We’re better than that. And President Trump’s trying to get us there. We all think about those things, even as American travelers.
SPEAKER 08 :
My son is a big UFC fan and he’s been begging for me to take him to a fight. And he’s like, so my choices are Las Vegas or Chicago. I’m like, I’m not quite sure. I don’t know which one. One is only like a few hours from here, by the way, like 90 minutes up the road on an airplane would be to Chicago. And I’m like, I don’t know, maybe Vegas is a safer option. That is a wild time to be here. Take them to Wichita, my hometown. There you go. Wichita, there are different kind of fights going on that you can see there. Thank you, Secretary Pompeo. I appreciate you joining us today. It’s always enlightening to hear from you. And I know that our listenership and our viewership they love to chime in and chat because it’s something that you have an insider’s perspective and I really appreciate it. And that’s why we celebrate 35 years of the ACLJ. And again, that’s the branded ACLJ. I always say that because that is 35 years of the American Center for Law and Justice. That is not 35 years of the work we’ve been doing. We’ve been doing work far beyond 35 years. That’s just since it’s been branded the American Center for Law and Justice. And that’s why we have these opportunities and they don’t come up very often. That’s what someone said, Logan, I love the work you’re doing, but you’re talking too much about fundraising. We have these very important months where donations can be doubled. And by the way, If you give throughout the year, I wouldn’t have to do this this much. So you know what? Maybe there’s a new way we can look at this. I know a lot of you are new, and a lot of you have never donated to anything much less to us. And you say, why would I donate to a television show, a radio show, even a law firm? It doesn’t make any sense. We’re there for you when you need it for free when it comes to legal help, as long as it’s with our scope of the work we do here. And of course, this show is broadcast available without any kind of paywall or behind any kind of things you have to pay for or sign up for. You can watch it for free anywhere in the whole world. And that is because people like you support the work of the ACLJ, which supports all of this. If you hear an advertisement… That’s not going to us. It’s going to your network. Give a donation right now at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with the second half hour.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Second half hour of the broadcast coming up. My brother, Jordan Sekulow, is going to be joining us in the next segment live from our Washington, D.C. headquarters. He’s got some big announcements going on with sort of a whole new look at the way the ACLJ is going to be working in Washington, D.C. And I look forward to him sharing that vision with all of you as we celebrate these 35 years of victory. There are a lot of people calling in, and I want to hear from you as well. We do a few lines open at 1-800-684-3110. I usually take as many of those calls and hold them until the last segment because I always like to think that the last voice should be yours. So give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. The last words. Not his last voice. You always should have the last words. I do have to say, I want to back up for Secretary Pompeo that was on, and he made a reference to the professional fighting being in Wichita, Kansas. I thought that was just some random poll, but what I found out quickly from Will and my son is that there is an annual professional fighting event that happens in Wichita, Kansas. So you know what? Maybe that’s where we’ll make it out to. Maybe a little different than the crowd going into Vegas or into Chicago. However, I look forward to those days as well. Let’s go to Rhonda, who’s calling in North Carolina. online too. Rhonda, North Carolina, go ahead. Come on, raise up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, Serge. How are you?
SPEAKER 08 :
Doing well. Doing well. Rhonda, how are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m great. I just wanted to thank you for the work that you’re doing. I’ve been an avid listener for several years. I’ve even contributed to the fund. But I wanted to thank your dad. I had called maybe a month ago and the screener wouldn’t let me get through. I guess she thought that I was going to be antagonistic. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you’ve made it on, so you know what? Prove them wrong.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, your dad was talking about the policies Before President Trump got elected, even with the Ukraine war, he was saying that Ukraine was not as innocent as they claimed. He spoke about Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, the involvement of rice, all of these topics. And no one really listened to him. Now is the topic of. And everybody’s just regurgitating it over and over again when he was the first one that brought it to the light.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Rhonda, I will make sure he knows that and hears this. I’m sure he’s listening right now. And of course, he’s on the show every week or so. He’ll pop in and do a segment here or there. But I will make sure that that gets told to him because it’s true. The work of the ACLJ, and I’m glad you brought that up. We don’t try to be reactionary. We always try to make sure we are on top of what’s going on right now. So if it’s a hot topic that’s happening, sure, we’re going to cover the news. We’re going to tell you what’s going on today. That’s part of doing a broadcast in 2025. But when it comes to the issues we get involved in, we are looking to the future continually. We’re looking at what’s going to happen three years, four years, five years. That’s why when I bring up a topic and you go, hey, you’re kind of going against maybe what President Trump is saying. A lot of that is not me going against President Trump. It’s going, okay, I’ve lived enough life. to see what a president can do and how that then can affect the next administration. And then that can affect us as people who fight for religious freedom, the fight for the freedom of speech, because when the pendulum swings, you want to make sure that you are still protected and that you haven’t let a president or anyone who has, you know, interest in their hearts for right this moment, uh, make decisions that could have lasting negative impacts. You’ve got to make sure that your voice is being heard. And Rhonda, when you say that all those topics were topics that we talked about years ago and now they’re the number one topics, I am not surprised because that is how we do it here. And sometimes that comes with a little bit of a detriment. That is why when we push for fundraising, a lot of times I say you’ve got to be looking towards that next generation and what we do here because we are thinking towards the future and not just reacting. You don’t hear us just going on and saying, oh, Cracker Barrel.
SPEAKER 06 :
You don’t hear that, Will. Well, and to Rhonda’s point as well, we were the organization that represented a host of Tea Party groups. When the mainstream media and the Obama administration were calling it a conspiracy theory, that there was a smidgen of corruption. Remember, the President of the United States said that. And we fought. And we took on those cases so much so that the IRS got slapped down by a federal judge and had to enter into a consent agreement admitting everything they did wrong, violating the rights of Tea Party groups. That was a long time ago. But that same corruption still exists, and we have to keep fighting.
SPEAKER 08 :
And that is why my brother is going to be joining us next to talk about sort of the revamp, the relaunch of what’s going on in Washington, D.C., why this new next generation is going to lead that way, and how you can get involved. So make sure you stay tuned. We’re going to have him in just a minute. And phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you. In the next segment, I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. We actually have a full bank of lines open. So right now, if you want to get on the air, this is a perfect time to call. My brother, Jordan Sekulow, is joining us live from Washington, D.C. with a big update of what’s going on in our D.C. headquarters. We are expanding, we are changing, revamping, relaunching, however you want to say it, because there is so much going on in Washington, D.C., and the next generation is bringing it forward.
SPEAKER 07 :
We are. We are relaunching our government affairs department here in Washington, D.C. for the entire ACLJ nationally, bringing on a new director of government affairs who has got serious experience, Logan, both in law and on Capitol Hill. He’s actually a Regent Law grad, graduated well before my time, so he’s got serious experience on the Hill. He’s been a chief of staff to four different members of Congress with a career that spanned over 20 years on Capitol Hill. So you can understand the level of contacts he’s had that he does have. His name, Mark Kelly, is someone we’ve actually worked with very closely at the ACLJ with our government affairs teams in the past and with folks like Than Bennett and others. And he has been brought on to really rebuild a brand new kind of ACLJ Government Affairs 3.0 to work with both our legal team here, our policy team here, building out his own team here as we expand in Washington, D.C., to, again, increase those relationships with members of Congress, bring them back onto the ACLJ briefs, make sure we’re going through legislation and making sure it’s the right legislation, the right terminology. Of course, we’ve been doing a lot of this work, but we’ve been doing it without a government affairs department because most of our previous government affairs department… It is in the Trump administration right now. That’s not a bad thing, by the way. You have a lot of contacts in the administration. But what we wanted to make sure with this is that we wanted to bring someone who had the same level of experience in government affairs, Logan, as someone who, if we brought on a senior attorney, not someone who is starting at, you know, kind of starting at A, but has really had a full career already on Capitol Hill financially. four times by being a chief of staff to four different members of Congress, in times when Republicans were in control of Congress, in times when Democrats were in control of Congress, through different presidents, through different styles of members of Congress that he’s worked with. So I think, again, you’ll likely meet him on this broadcast show, At some point, it’s just his, I think, day two here in Washington. So we came up to kind of welcome him with the team that’s based here, the legal team. But we’re really excited about reengaging that effort, bringing more members over, of course, to the ACLJ. office. And as there’s new members of Congress constantly making sure that we’re reaching out to their office offices so that their staff know that we are a resource for them, that they can trust and they can trust and they can go to leaders in Congress and go to the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, say, you know, is this the group that we should really trust? trust with legal analysis or analysis of proposed legislation, even a phrase in proposed legislation, or signing on to a brief. And so we’ve got the top leaders who will say, of course, absolutely, go with the ACLJ. But there’s new members, especially in the House, coming every two years. So you’ve got to stay on that. You’ve got meetings and legislative meetings going on throughout the week here in Washington, even when Congress isn’t in session. And so having someone who is not just an expert in the policy, not just an expert in our issues at the ACLJ, but is an expert in how Capitol Hill works. And that is a kind of expertise you only get after spending 20 plus years really dedicating your life’s work to working with those members of Congress and getting legislation passed, knowing what it takes to get things done. And so we’re really excited, as you can tell, about this next step for the ACLJ. And of course, resources here, Logan. One, we were able to set the hiring level differently. So instead of looking at kind of someone younger that we would train into the ACLJ, we said, let’s start by spending real time. And we did about a year, year and a half online. I’m finding someone who’s got just as much experience, like I said, as someone who is a top litigator at the ACLJ. Let’s bring them on and then let them kind of mentor their own team. Now, the size of that team is going to be dictated by the support of our ACLJ donors. So again, donating to the ACLJ this week while you can match your donation, Logan, that’s critical because we know that that team can continue to grow, whether it’s through ACLJ or ACLJ Action. We now have this fully functioning government affairs operation backed in action now. and dedicated to government affairs. We want that to grow. We want that to expand our reach in Washington, D.C., but also in state capitals across the country. We’re only able to do that with resources, Logan. We have to have the resources of our supporters and our donors. And I can’t think of a better way or another reason to donate. I just gave you one. We are launching a brand new department that, again, is a department that we’ve had before, but we’re launching it in a new way with someone that has serious experience, and I really want that team to be able to grow, and that team grows with your financial support.
SPEAKER 08 :
Not only bringing people experience, I think it’s a different time it’s a different age you have a different group of uh senators a different group of congressmen and congresswomen who are coming in uh who may not be as familiar you know a lot of the people who are very familiar with the work of the aclj have started to get older started to age out it’s just how the nature of this goes when you’ve had 35 plus years of work on capitol hill so to bring in that you said not just fresh faces which i think is always going to be needed but also people that can talk and can explain and can can really show what the aclj does On this sort of level, it’s going to be very helpful as you have a different administration also in office and how each time that there is a shift, it’s obviously a shift in how you can get things done in Washington, D.C. And right now is one of those times we have to be able to jump on it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that’s right. And so having that team, remember, we’ve been doing it kind of with, I’ve been doing some of the government affairs, some of our other top attorneys have been doing some of the government affairs, but we really wanted, because we wanted to take the time, even though that was more work for us, and we wanted to spend the time to get the right person, like you said, Logan, to really kind of do something different with this department, to have that senior leadership, someone who can pick up the phone and reach any member of Congress, but also know, not just the member, Because a lot of times we can do that. It’s the key staff person on a committee, on like the Judiciary Committee. It’s the key legal advisor. And knowing who those individuals are, having that personal relationship already is so key. Knowing about the different congressional meetings going on and being someone that’s going to be welcome into those. So again, we are really excited. It is an… First of all, you’re always dealing with kind of a new generation of legislators in Washington, D.C., but you’re also dealing with, again, very thin margins. We’re, of course, coming up on midterm election year. So this was all done strategically. We knew we wanted to take our time, but we also knew when we wanted to be able to get someone in place to start building the team ahead. And so we’re really excited to announce this to everybody, not because we haven’t done government affairs before, not because you haven’t heard about what ACLJ Action does as our C4, but because of who we’re bringing in and the level and the quality of government affairs director that we are bringing in to represent the ACLJ. in the halls of Congress directly. It’s very exciting to me because there’s a lot of opportunities we’re getting. We look down at our phone. We get lots of opportunities every day. One attorney, two attorneys can’t do it. We’ve got other obligations. But now to have that dedicated team back that will grow is going to be great for the ACLJ, great for our supporters, great on the issues that you care about. And again, we can expand that team. It’s kind of an endless amount of expansion. There’s an endless amount of work and issues to engage in Washington, D.C. And what I want to start hearing more from people, Logan, would be great too, is on the legislative side, are there issues that maybe they don’t hear us talking about as much, that maybe they want us to get involved in more, or maybe we just need to talk about it more. But I certainly think that from our new government affairs director, there will also be new expertise in issues in the past that you may not have heard us discuss as much. Even if we were doing it kind of behind the scenes, we will do it more publicly and let your voice be heard more publicly as well. I’m talking some of those financial issues, economic issues, budgetary issues, to really get down in that as, again, they kind of are dominating the news. And, of course, spending and immigration. So anything… that’s moving in Washington, D.C. You know, we’ve got our executive branch side, our legal side. It’s kind of the three branches of government. The ACLJ has our three branches as well. And to launch this new government affairs team with someone with this kind of senior level experience, it’s something we’ve never really gotten to do, Logan. So it’s really cool to bring someone in who has been the leader of so many different congressional offices.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. We’ll have him on later on, I’m sure, throughout the year now. We’re looking for new voices, like I’ve told you, all as many of you have suggested. I’ve even had people email me, hey, what about me? And some of them, look, by the way, I’ve looked at a lot of you, a lot of you who have said, hey, I have some experience in this. It is nice to have someone there now in Washington, D.C., who is not just a broadcast voice, by the way. I see a lot of people saying they miss the days of having some of the government affairs team on. This is going to be a little bit, as Jordan said, a revamp of that. It does help. When you have an administration in power who is willing to work with you a lot more than was during the Biden years, even during the Obama years was different than the Biden years. I think that’s what we got to remember, too, is it was a very different country even just a decade ago. So now we are fighting very different battles. I asked you for where you want us to work in terms of international work. Jordan’s asked, what topics would you like us to get involved in that maybe you haven’t heard us talk about? Put those in the comments as well. You can give us a call. We do have phone lines open for you right now. I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110 as we wrap up. our final five days of 35 years of victory, then you have to hear about me saying it again until Christmas, okay? So do it right now. Make your donation if you can. Again, we’ve done hundreds of cases just this last year. We’re going to do even more with your help and get involved in that new government affairs department. Welcome back to Secular. We do have full-maker lines open. I don’t know what happened today. I don’t know if you decided. You know what, Logan? I don’t want to call you. I’m bored with you. It was probably my fault. I read too much from an opinion. It was a lot. But it was good words.
SPEAKER 06 :
I barely spoke on the show. It was a great opinion. I don’t know. I really enjoyed it. My opinion was… That I spoke too much. That it was…
SPEAKER 08 :
too much of an opinion too much of it i wish you had less of an opinion yeah it’s like a new yorker article right like tldr man it’s too much you gotta put it through you never read them when i send them to you never never that or some documentary series like it’s eight episodes no i sent you one documentary and it was a couple hours long wonderful yeah critically acclaimed won’t watch after decades i don’t know if they still have queues Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Again, you heard from Jordan. These are the kind of things we’re working on here. When you think about what the work that Jordan and I both do and Will and everyone here in this group, we all are taking on different facets of the ACLJ as we’ve been growing and evolving and moving over the last few years. We have tried to see where our audience is. So many of you… Just on YouTube, that’s 517,000. I… 517,000 people to subscribe, millions to watch each week. I would assume that most of you who’ve just joined us on this YouTube journey over the last couple of years had never heard of us before, had never seen us before in these 35 years, who maybe don’t understand the legacy of the ACLJ. Maybe you don’t care about the legacy. Maybe you’re just here for the entertainment, and that’s okay. But we’re having to really think about the way that we talk to our supporters because this is essentially, if you think about it, crowdfunded. Listener-supported, viewer-supported broadcast media, user-listener-supported legal work, government affairs work. Like I said, if you’re watching on YouTube, you may be getting an ad. You have no idea how little money that is that actually ends up at the ACLJ. If you have an ad and you’re listening on a terrestrial radio station or you’re watching it on Salem News Channel or maybe you’re watching it on or you’re listening to it on Sirius XM. When we go to commercial break, unless you hear it be a commercial for the ACLJ, none of that ad revenue, by the way, there’s no revenue in that one, none of that ad revenue is going to us. That’s going to your local station. And we do that, by the way. We make those specific deals to where we have control of the airtime while we’re on. So no one Even the network that you’re listening to, I mean, sure, they could decide not to carry us anymore, but they don’t decide what we talk about. The only people that are deciding what we talk about is a few of us that are sitting in this room right here. That doesn’t happen for most mainstream news, mainstream media. It is not controlled. It’s controlled by overlords and by people who are wanting their point of view and their perspective out there. We say, even in our meetings yesterday, we talked about the burning of the flag situation. Before we said, we may make a lot of people mad with our views. That our view is that maybe that alone desecrating the flag it’s a bad thing we all just we all agree that it is a disturbing and gross thing that i think is uh is terrible but should it be uh illegal or should we fight for free speech we heard from marines that called in and said we got to fight for free speech at all costs you can’t have that kind of point of view and be untraditional even conservative talk radio even conservative media because they go oh you disagree you disagree with what the president has to say oh well then i’m not sure if you’re allowed on conservative talk Oh, you’re disagreeing or you’re agreeing with what President Trump said? Oh, you’re definitely not allowed on liberal shows or liberal media outlets. We don’t have to play those games because people like you support the work. And I only have five minutes left of this show today. I’m not going to give you a five minute lecture. But if you’ve never supported and you’ve been watching this show for years, please consider it. We have a huge group of new people who just are not used to the idea of donating and financially supporting what we do here. So we have seen record breaking numbers in terms of the amount of people that are ingesting our content each and every day. But we have also seen a big turnover in people that no longer or never have given. Because as 35 years have gone, if you were 55 when we started this and you were one of those donors, there’s a good chance you are no longer donating anymore. Just Father Time is undefeated. But you can support the work of the ACLJ right now by going to ACLJ.org. Be a part of the new crop of champions, the new crop of donors. Be a part of that new government affairs office. Because we are carrying that flag, continuing on. Your donations are doubled as we celebrate 35 years of victory, but only through the end of the month. And then we give you a little bit of breather. Talk about the ACLJ work, sure. We don’t have these opportunities all year round. We only have opportunities a few months a year. You will have this another opportunity again until closer to Christmas. And we know that it’s going to get busy. So right now, especially when this weekend is a holiday weekend and it ends on a Sunday, that’s very difficult for us in the fundraising world. So do it right now while you’re thinking of it. I want to go ahead and take a couple phone calls before we wrap up this show. Let’s go to Irene who’s calling on line three who is watching on one of our newer homes, the Salem News Channel, which is where we’re available again live 12 to 1 p.m. with a great lineup of other hosts. But again, we are there because you are supporting this show. Thank you, Irene, for supporting. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. I wanted to just tell you I’ve been watching you for years and you’ve been doing a wonderful job. Thank you. I’ve been watching since your dad had it, okay?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, of course. Thank you, Irene. I appreciate that. I mean, obviously, this all started with my dad and my mom together, and me and my brother, we were little kids, and we’ve continued that going. And, of course, things have evolved. The show has evolved. People have changed. I certainly have always leaned towards being more the broadcast voice of this ACLJ. because I think that maybe my lack of lawyering, Will, gives me a bit of an easier way to explain what’s going on. And people have Will as well, be able to break down these complicated things that we have been involved in our entire lives. I was once on, I’m not sure I’m allowed to say this, but I was once on a jury that was not, I didn’t get picked. But they said, Because they knew who I was in the working day with ACLJ, they go, we may want you on this jury because you know more about the law than probably anyone that’s sitting in here that’s not a lawyer.
SPEAKER 06 :
Comfort on Rumble actually asked, did I start working by stuffing envelopes as a kid for ACLJ as well? I mean, pretty close. We’ve known each other since we were two years old. And my first jobs were helping out with things with the ACLJ, stuffing envelopes, logging tape. uh of of old interviews in a spreadsheet right i mean i think we have them actually but i mean yes i’ve been around this for a long time as well and grew up around this organization so yeah exactly we’ve been at this for our entire lives and that’s why it’s immensely important and we hope for multiple generations to come i don’t know if it’ll be my kids i don’t be will’s kids you know they get to make that decision
SPEAKER 08 :
uh on what they get to do with their lives but you know what we’re gonna foster this next generation i’m already excited to see that by the way i’m looking at some of these old faces in there but i’m like you know some of these guys have been with me for 10 15 20 years but now i’m seeing a new crop of people that are coming up that were born like in 2002 i’m like these are this is a very different time We’re living in a different age and we are bringing up a new level of supporters and a new level of incredible talent. I want to continue on, take one more phone call. Hey, we only got about 30 seconds. So William in New York, I thought William, because if you will, I would take this call. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. I’ve concluded that the best way to try to tackle a housing crisis is not only construction, though freedom to build is important, but also to do so in areas that will promote responsibility for Excellent example of seeing square one villages in Eugene, Oregon, and Community First Village in Austin, Texas.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, William, I’m not necessarily, you broke up a little bit of specifically what you’re saying, but I think you are right. There’s a lot that can be done when it comes to the homeless situation and where we can plant new housing developments and things like that. Maybe you’re not thinking, we got to think outside the box. Maybe that’s something you want us to get involved in, by the way. And I would love to, by the way, as someone who certainly supports doing what we can for our homeless brothers and sisters, let’s figure out ways for the ACLJ to get involved in that. You don’t want to just be known as these uptight conservatives who only care about money and do all those things. No, no, no. At the end of the day, we’re a Christian organization and you got to be respectful, responsible with that care. Go to ACLJ.org, support the work right now. If you can, talk to you tomorrow.
