As the new administration prepares to take charge, pressing concerns loom large, including President Trump’s planned policies regarding Mexico’s drug cartels. In this episode, we delve into the potential military actions contemplated against the cartels and the implications for U.S.-Mexico relations. Meanwhile, as Trump is positioned to transition from President-elect to President, ACLJ emphasizes the importance of utilizing these pivotal moments to push forward impactful legislative changes and secure the nation’s borders.
SPEAKER 04 :
Today on Sekulow, as the world prepares for President Trump, Mexico worries he will take military action against cartels.
SPEAKER 03 :
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, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, folks, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. If you’re just joining us since the holidays, welcome back to What’s Going On in the World. We were back yesterday, some of us. Some technical problems for me. So I’m back in the studio here, though, today. And we are taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. And you’ve already got… Really I mean because of this where President Biden is and some of the reports that have come out about President Biden that came out right before and right during the holidays about you know who is actually running things at the White House I think that you could write an entire book and do an entire investigation about that but you also really have to let’s move forward too to getting things done and I want to spend most of our time in the next four years especially these next two years with the Republican House and a Republican Senate and Trump in the White House of getting as much done legislatively, the tough stuff done, where you’ve got to take the votes, where executive order just won’t cut it, because you never know what’s going to happen in midterm elections. Usually you lose one of the houses. Maybe you don’t, but let’s try and get as much done as we can in the first hundred days and not be just looking back. At the same time, though, because of this situation, it’s like, President Trump is a president-elect, but it’s almost like the world is treating him like the president and is already starting to maneuver, even though he has no presidential power at this moment. Technically, he has a lot of power by who he appoints. and what he decides to weigh in on and not weigh in on before he actually takes the oath of office on the 20th of January in Washington, D.C. And so now we’ve got our neighbor to the south, Mexico, putting out concerns that we may launch air campaigns and airstrikes against drug cartels. I would ask two questions, I guess, to our friends to the south. One is… If we could coordinate with your government, why would you be against the United States helping you take out the terrorists who are terrorizing your country? Because remember, they’re not only killing Americans with the drugs and the violence, the extreme violence is hurting Mexico’s tourism and business community. It makes it a place you have to think twice about going to, even in some of the more popular vacation spots. because the cartels have overrun some of those areas, some of those towns have been taken off the list, why not welcome the use of America’s military force from the air, probably likely, and some on-the-ground intelligence to do as much damage to these cartels as possible? Or is it because these politicians there are working with different cartels? They’re always, you know, and that’s why there’s cartel wars going on. So it makes you, again, think twice like, wow, what country’s leader wouldn’t want help in rooting out these dangerous cartels from their country that also gives them a bad look all around the world? Not just here, not just in this region of the world, but all around the world. And so again, by the way, there’s been nothing to confirm that any of this is going to be done. This is all based off the fact that… President Trump has said, you know, we’ve got to get rid of these cartels. We’ve got to do what we can to stop killing because of the violence they’re bringing to America’s streets and the amount of Americans they’re killing with fentanyl. But that we also at the same time have to look to our southern neighbor and of course the border and realize this is part of securing the border is securing the border because these cartels are utilizing the border as the poorest border as a way to make money. So when people pay those coyotes, those coyotes, guess who they work for? Those coyotes work for the cartels. They’re running all of that. So when people take their life savings to try and get their family across into the U.S. illegally with these coyotes, it’s cartels running them. Why do you think they’ll toss a baby across and over a 10-foot fence? fence or wall or 20-foot wall well it’s because they’re drug cartels and a lot of times those people don’t know it but they’re carrying drugs in their bags they’re told hey by the way you got to carry this in too with you and some guy will take it from you when you cross over or call this person when you get there one and if you don’t we’ll kill you So, we’ll take your calls on that. 1-800-684-3110. All the things that we’ve got to get done. Support the work of the ACLJ. We are really busy. We come back. We’ll go through with all the work that we’re doing right now. Donate today. Triple match. ACLJ.org. Donate today. All right, welcome back to Seculo. Remember, we are taking your calls, too. We are live 1-800-684-3110. Whether you’re watching or listening to this broadcast, if you are where we are, I’ll tell you, if we’re live, we’re live noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. So if you’re listening right now or watching right now, you can be on this show, 1-800-684-3110. You know, folks, At the ACLJ, we are up against some really big numbers today when it comes to fundraising, when it comes to these final four days of the year being so important. As you know, this month, as we’ve said it the entire month of December, it’s still December for a few more days until we get to the new year. It’s the most important month for the ACLJ financially. of 2025 because it is not only for the work that we are doing right now, which is very busy still. Our work doesn’t really stop because of Christmas. These courts are right open again. And yesterday, filings come in and attorneys are back to work and legislation, government, all of this starts right up again. And then, of course, you prepare for the transfer of government, which is also very busy. But it is the most important time, not just for now, but it’s how we kind of budget for the first half of this coming year. So it’s the most important month financially to the ACLJ. During this right now, we have decided to open up a triple match today at ACLJ.org. So if you donate $20, it’s not like $40 to the ACLJ. It’s like $60 to the ACLJ. So we’ve got a group of donors that said, let’s do it. Let’s make these days some of the biggest days for the ACLJ so we’re ready to go and don’t have to turn down any case that we want to take, any issue we need to work on. ever because it’s going to cost too much that’s always my goal is that we always have the resources to say yes when we want to take on an issue or we need to take on a case whether it’s from you whether it’s from a governor whether it’s a federal issue a state issue I always want and we always want to be in that position at the aclj to say yes we can take that case we don’t have to be concerned about the cost because we have donors who understand and are ready to go who have provided us resources that are already in the bank so we can start immediately and that’s why today think about that hundred dollars a hundred dollar donation today at aclj.org is like three hundred dollars to the organization and this is just what we’ve done in 2024 okay so when 152 briefs and demand letters defending, that’s just the state of Israel. When it comes to the U.S., 126 legal actions battling the deep state. Those are going to continue, by the way, with the Trump administration. You think Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are going to be walking into a friendly Department of Justice and FBI? No. They have to drain the swamp, right? We have to reform these institutions. That’s not easy. And we saw what happens when you fight those institutions. They are the swamp. They’re full of alligators. They bite back, and they try to bite back and distract you so that you can’t get the rest of your agenda done while you’re focused on them. We’re not going to let that happen, and we’re going to, of course, fight to continue all of that work. 175 pro-life legal matters. You may think, well, Jordan, we won Roe versus Wade. Is there much to do? Yes. Launching a huge campaign in Massachusetts because the new target is now pro-life activists who are on the front line of helping women with pregnancies that have questions and are scared and are concerned about economics and resources. Pro-life pregnancy resource centers, which have come under attack since the days of Attorney General Kamala Harris in California, but they’re really coming under a media assault. campaign like a defamation campaign really is what’s being launched saying how horrible they are in blue states like the commonwealth of Massachusetts we want to launch there and once we launch in Massachusetts we want to take it to other states as well because we know the most effective way to fight abortion is making sure But women in difficult situations know there are other options and people can help you, whether that’s adoption, whether you’re worried that you don’t have enough resources for diapers or the doctor or the economic issues. They’re there to help you. And the abortion industry, well, that hurts their bottom line because they make money off of how many abortions they get to do or how many abortion pills they get to sell. So get to those pro-life legal matters. We did 175. So if you think overturning Roe versus Wade stopped the work on the pro-life issue, it actually took the pro-life issue from the federal government, so kind of one place, to 50 places. All 50 states. Now, when it comes to free speech matters, we know that’s a huge topic of concern, whether it’s school board meetings, parents who are being harassed. That, by the way, continues. We’ll talk about some of those cases today. Also, just your free speech, where does that line draw on? At the workplace, at your place of business. Again, ACLJ, just last year, 197 free speech cases and controversies handled. When it comes to religious liberty, 142 cases. And again, people think, how is that in the United States these days? Well, if you listen to the broadcast regularly, you know, there’s so many of these institutions and organizations, states, governments, and companies that want to deny people because they think it’s safer, their religious liberty rights, rather than protect the constitutional rights of those who work for them or live in their properties. And the list goes on. So What can you do? Well, we know we’re going to have work at the United States Supreme Court, and we had a lot of work. We had hundreds of other cases, too. Think about the cases involving the election. Those really go in their own category. Keeping President Trump on the ballot went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in our case, and we won 9-0. That case started out of Colorado. So all the way there. The left, the deep state, they are going to try and engage in as many battles as they can next year to try and derail the Republican House, Senate, and White House. Because they know that’s the time you can get the most real legislative work done. You can get people appointed who are great into the cabinet. And so they want to make as much controversy as they possibly can. Remember when it all started with Jim Comey was like day two at the White House. So we know they’ve got a plan that they’re going to try again to derail Republicans, to try to throw us off course, throw us off focusing on the issues that matter to us and the American people and why President Trump and J.D. Vance were elected. And again, we’ve got to be ready to fight not on day one. We have to be ready to fight now. And we’ve all learned from that eight years ago. So I think we’ve got a much better opportunity here to fight back aggressively. And the left knows that as well. So whether it’s our $500,000 ad campaign to stop the mass deception that we talked about in Massachusetts and help mothers and babies, whether it’s the preparations we’re in right now to file a case at the U.S. Supreme Court that was just granted that could defund Planned Parenthood, this would finally allow states across the country to say, you know what? We are not going to send our state tax dollars to Planned Parenthood to kill babies. That, again, is back at the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s been there before. And we have not won, but that was all before Dobbs. So we live in a different time. And the way it’s analyzed is very differently. So huge opportunities. If you can donate today financially to the ACLJ, this is the time to do it at ACLJ.org, and it will be tripled. We have not pulled a triple match out in a very long time. And folks, so if you’re saying, is that for real? Yes. We’re not one of these groups that does those crazy texts where it’s 100 times match. No. For us, this is very real. But think about that. $50 is $150. $100 is $300. $200 is $600. You get $500, which is a big donation. That’s $1,500 today, CLJ. So make that donation today. Be part of the triple match. If you want to talk to us on the air, 1-800-684-3110. And, Will, there’s a lot of ongoing work. There’s plenty of work coming up, too, in 2025.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right, and we will get into more of that in the segments ahead, as well as a big victory we secured yesterday, the day after Christmas, for a client out of Kentucky. We’ll tell you about that in the next segment. But also, as we talked about at the beginning of the show, the world that is preparing for a President Trump – We at the ACLJ prepare for what is ahead in America and abroad as we do that work to defend Israel. As we talked about yesterday on the broadcast that Poland has said that if Bibi Netanyahu went to the Auschwitz memorial, they would have to arrest him because of their ties to the ICC in the Rome statute. We have to keep that fight ahead in 2025. We also think about the things here at home. We talk about that southern border that President Trump has throughout the campaign talked about taking direct action against the cartels. He even considered it, according to Mark Esper, but was talked out of it by Mark Esper, of bombing drug facilities in Mexico during his first term. But he was talked out of it. I have a feeling that a lot of those people that could talk him out of the things that would actually do very good impact on Americans, like taking out drug facilities in Mexico, he won’t be talked out of so easily this time around.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re always going to have people who are going to say, OK, these are the positives. This is the potential negative. So this is what happens if we do it. This is what happens if we don’t do it. So consider the options, Mr. President. Make sure you know there could be fallout here and fallout there. Is that fallout, though? Enough to where protecting those Americans so that you take out that many drug facilities so that many Americans won’t be killed by overdosing on Fentanyl. Some kid who thinks they’re taking some other, you know, it was drug. one time that they buy from a friend or a friend gives them and it’s fake and it’s laced with fentanyl and doesn’t wake up and their parents find them the next morning. How many of those stories of these kids who, again, make one bad decision and end up dead because we’re not doing enough to keep these drug cartels, illegal drugs, off the streets and out of the hands of the American people So, again, I think when you see the numbers and the statistics, it’s going to be a lot harder to talk a president out of taking action if these countries, who are supposed to be our allies, are unwilling to do it themselves. Donate today. We’re ready to fight. ACLJ.org, triple match. Donate now. All right, welcome back to Secular. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. We’re live again. I know there’s a lot to take in right now, kind of getting caught up from the holidays with the world that continues going on. And especially as we prepare for a new White House, working with the Republican House and Senate and a president who is. on his way out, who is really, I think, letting President Trump, in many ways, dictate kind of the conversations, the stories, and we’re learning more and more about how uninvolved he was as a president these last four years. At least that’s what is being reported a lot in the news. But I think right now we want to be forward-looking, and we also want to tell you about ACLJ victories. I mean, we actually, just yesterday, so this is the day after Christmas, you might think, yeah, people are kind of hazy, But the ACLJ, remember, has been working with this hospital with these nurses. It started with one and more additional medical staff there added on. And we sent a demand letter. It was a hospital that got bought by a bigger company. And one of the first things they did was send out a notice that the conscious protections on you being able to decide not to participate in an abortion procedure was as a nurse or a medical professional, were done away with. They were no longer going to allow you to have that choice to make. And we wrote a very serious demand letter to the new ownership of the hospital on behalf of those nurses and other medical professionals we represented. And the day after Christmas will, victory for life and victory for conscience protections, which are important at every level, whether it’s in a private business or or and also how the federal government really can set the stage for that which we know is going to be a change yet again with the Trump administration.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right now this is a thing that you would have thought was no longer an issue because we’ve won these many times.
SPEAKER 04 :
I always have to remind people right you wonder why do we have to keep fighting well there’s new companies who come in and they think well We’re a private company. We can do away with these policies we don’t like. Well, not always the case because these are protected rights that we have as Americans. Go ahead, Will.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And we have these cases actually ongoing currently for multiple health care providers around the country. This specific one is out of a place you would think may be unlikely, but out of Kentucky. this nurse when she received the policies outlining the the conscience protections and things it had new language that was subjective and vague such as that they were given accommodations like they didn’t have to perform these abortions unless there was quote staffing challenges or emergent situations so the conscience protection was only granted so far where if there was an emergency abortion or if there were what they deemed to be staffing challenges about maybe pulling a nurse from another area They would not accommodate your conscience protection. But we sent the letter. And many times the letter doesn’t resolve this. We have to go through and use federal law to fight in court when the hospital or the health care provider doesn’t listen as they should to what the law is. But we got a great victory for this client that our demand letter was sent. And since then, our client was granted full accommodation, no exceptions. This decision ensures her ability to continue her nursing career while staying true to her moral convictions. But there’s a ripple effect here too. The hospital didn’t just say, okay, we’ll make this nurse go away. We’ll give the accommodations, but just no one else is raising concern maybe. But there were other hospital nurses that had also requested accommodations. And the hospital has since informed us that all of those that requested accommodations were granted automatically. full conscience protections to work their career in nursing, an honorable, noble career. and that their conscience won’t be violated. And there are no exceptions, like we’re having staffing challenges to those nurses’ conscience protections. So this is a big victory. But as I said, we have another case like this out in New Mexico that we’re fighting for multiple staffers at a hospital as well. So this doesn’t just go away with this one out of Kentucky. It’s a big victory, but the fight remains ahead. And that’s one of the reasons why we started our campaign to support and give education about and fight back against the government censorship and targeting of pro-life pregnancy resource centers in Massachusetts. And we want to take this across the nation if we can. But I think we should play for people to add that we’ll be running in early 2025. And this is the first ad of many. We got one done so we could show you, the ACLJ audience, what kind of work we’ll be going forward, what kind of voice you will have to showcase the work of these pro-life pregnancy resource centers. And this is just the first ad of many as we go forward. It’s a big campaign. Half a million dollars, $500,000 is what we are planning on putting into this effort. And so let’s go ahead and show the ad of what you can be a part of if you have your donation tripled today by going to aclj.org and donating. But let’s run this ad, the first of many, that we will be exposing the truth of what joy and wonderful resources these pregnancy resource centers are.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’ll never forget that day. scariest moment of my life. I had just started my business and then this. Pregnant? Really? I just thought about all of my dreams falling apart. I needed help, I needed answers. Places I heard of, they seemed to only offer one option. Then I found a pregnancy resource center and they talked to me about my options. She listened, she actually cared about me. No shame, no judgment. I’ll never forget that day either. The day that I realized, maybe this wasn’t the end of my dreams, but just the start of one I hadn’t even imagined. To find a pregnancy resource center near you, go to choicebeginshere.org.
SPEAKER 04 :
Again, folks, that is just one of the ads that we’ve already prepared that will be set to run in 2025. And we will be able to expand that campaign based on your financial support. We want to launch what to really kind of blanket the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and respond to the $8 million campaign being run by the state. The Commonwealth using taxpayer dollars. And they have partnered with a pro-abortion organization who I think threw in a million dollars. But we, again, we are a little bit better with our resources. And because we’ve got our own studios and things like that, we can do better with less. So for about $500,000, we figured out that we can blanket the state with all different kinds of ads and information campaigns. It’s not all going to be TV. Some is web. Some is traditional. Some are billboards, as you’ve seen images of this, to fight back. And if, again, if we can do it successfully in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we look to the other first blue states, where these pregnancy resource centers are on the front lines. They’ve tried to be closed down before. We fought back to make sure that didn’t happen in places like California. When Harris was AG there, she tried to basically have them shut down. The law they wanted to pass said that they either have to advertise where people can get a free abortion from the state, where the state will pay for it, or they can no longer operate their pregnancy resource center. Now, we won that, of course, but we had to fight it. So there’s more than Massachusetts, but this was the state that we wanted to launch first because they launched first this attack on pro-life pregnancy resource centers. That’s just a bit of what we can do with your financial support. So by supporting the ACLJ and being part of the triple match today, it will also go to running that campaign. So donate to ACLJ right now at ACLJ.org to make sure we can run this in all the states that need it. ACLJ.org. Donate.
SPEAKER 03 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Jordan Seculo.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, folks, welcome back to Sekulow. If you want to talk to us on the air, 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. And I do think we want to make clear, too, there’s a lot going on as we prepare for a new administration. An administration, of course, has a lot of figures that we have worked with before, including President Trump, of course, and these people that are going to go through confirmation hearings, whether it’s Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel. I mean, the list goes on and on as we can go through. So there’s going to be a lot of work to do, of course, initially on making sure all those people are in place and you make sure that they can get their teams in place. There’s really two important issues there that I want to spend a second on because you do have to spend resources on this. So you go through the inauguration. Everyone’s excited. Then you’ve got to get people in these agencies. Because while they’re not there, they’re being run by the bureaucracy as kind of placeholders. And by the way, placeholders can still make a lot of decisions that don’t make it easy for when the actual nominee to be the head of those, whether it’s departments or cabinet member, come in. So we have to get them quickly confirmed so that we can get things back on track in Washington, D.C. and these agencies back on track. But we often forget their teams, right? And they’re deputies. And I recall it was Ben Carson, Dr. Carson, who said he went into HUD, but his five deputies… took four to five additional months to get confirmed. Okay, so who was he working with? A bunch of people who didn’t like his policies, who wanted to try and undermine. Remember how they went after him when he was HUD secretary? Right off the bat. This is someone famous for being this amazing doctor and not even a partisan issue there. Just his work had been known around the world for what he could do as a pediatric neurosurgeon. and right when he of course takes that position at hud and his people aren’t there and they know your people aren’t there you’re having to rely on the advice and advice of people that may not like you at all and are trying to undermine you and in his case they were so it’s not acceptable to have to wait as a cabinet secretary four and five months to have your deputies in place the deputies that you’ve chosen that are presidentially appointed that can actually, one, advise you, but also protect you from these massive bureaucracies trying to stop you and get rid of you before you’ve been able to even get any work done. And let me tell you, folks, they’ve got their targets this time. It’s easy to see, and you’ll see it very quickly when those hearings begin. But never forget, It doesn’t stop at the first person. If they don’t get their teams in place, it’s very tough for them to become effective. And that’s DOJ. You look at all those different department heads, the criminal division, the civil division, the civil rights division. You could go through the list. That is all work that the ACLJ government affairs team is going to be working on. And we don’t just do it at the, again, top level where you know the person’s name because that’s going to be the secretary, that’s going to be the attorney general or the top person there. We understand the importance of those deputies. and even the deputies’ deputies who are presidentially appointed, if you’re actually going to get control, which you have to do first of these agencies to then make changes.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And I think these bureaucrats, unfortunately, have forgotten who they work for. You know, you’ve seen the images in movies where they’re inside an executive branch agency, maybe it’s the IRS, maybe it’s the FBI, and they always have the picture of the director and the current president. It’s supposed to be there to remind them who they work for, But the problem is, is that they’ve forgotten. They forgot they work ultimately for the president that was elected by the people because they are an executive branch. But then they also have forgotten that ultimately they work for the American people. But these bureaucrats, they’re experts at the bureaucratic red tape. So even if they don’t undermine you directly, they know how to stall out the agenda. through their own systems of bureaucratic red tape to try and make sure that reforms and the agenda of the mandated president by the American people don’t go through. We can’t let that happen. That’s why we need, as you said, the top tier and the deputies to get in there and get to work right away.
SPEAKER 04 :
expand and we’re working on expanding our government affairs team in washington dc because there’s so many good things we can get done it’s not just having to push back against the bad this is when we can actually get the positive change done legislatively bureaucratically through these agencies as well but we’ve got to get the people in place first and that takes resources aclj.org donate today triple match aclj.org All right, welcome back to Seculo. We are, again, just excited to be back and, again, preparing for a lot of positive work that’s going to be able to get done. So, you know, it’s an awesome time because you want to have those resources ready to do all the good work and take advantage of these time periods, especially, you know, our Washington team. And when they know that you’ve got friends in charge at the House level, the Senate level, and the White House, that this is when you’ve got to work. Now, again, the margins are slim. So the first order of business, of course, is getting the cabinet in. then getting their deputies in, those first 100-day priorities, what can be done by executive order. There’s a lot of those that are important. We’ve talked about putting these conscience protections back in federally that RFK Jr. said he will get done, and he made that promise to Senator Hawley. And so that’s important to, again, what can be done at the cabinet level. But of course, you got to get them there to be able to put those policies in and you got to get their staff in really so that those policies get executed correctly. The second part of this, of course, though, is the legislative battles. This is when you can get the legislation done at the federal level. And this is a time when, again, is it always easy? No, it’s slim. Slim margins. But there are margins that we are in charge. So it’s the time to get it done. And so whether it’s our legal team, Our government affairs team, this is a very important time, especially for the American Center for Law and Justice, based all across the country here in the United States.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And we talked yesterday as well about the fact that many times when you have an administration… that shares conservative values, shares the desire to protect the constitutional protections that we have, which it almost seems ridiculous that we should have to say we have to protect our protections, but that’s the world we live in. But many times you start to see the local level, the state level, get more aggressive against the values that we hold. And we are going to show something. This is from the film project for the love of God, save our country. That was kind of Logan’s vision. And we put together at a breakneck speed to put out by Halloween this year, but it showcases some of the heroes, some of the people that have courage enough to stand up for what’s right. And many times they don’t know what to do or where to go, but they look to the ACLJ and we’re able to go alongside them and stand up with them to defend these heroes. They have the courage to take that step to say, I know what is right. I know what my rights are and I need help defending them. But without the courage to stand up, these cases never happen. And we know that the next case could come in today from someone that is having their rights violated, but no, they want to stand up for what’s right. And the ACLJ is there to stand up with them at no cost. No cost to the client. Now, these cases are very expensive. Sometimes they take years to complete. Thousands of hours of legal teams flying around the country, doing depositions, filing briefs, writing briefs, staying up all night many times to make sure they make that deadline to stand up for the rights of our clients here at the ACLJ. So I want to showcase, this is just a snippet from the film. You can watch the full thing at acljfilms.com. at no cost, beautiful production by the video and film production team here at ACLJ, put it together and showcases some of these heroes that we are privileged to fight with every day at the ACLJ. But take a look at just one story. And my fear is that you will see many more stories like this where we have to step up as the local entities and the state entities in a reactionary way, try to take on the values that we hold dear. But we’ll play this two minute clip and then we’ll be right back after that.
SPEAKER 05 :
One of the things we learned from sports is that it teaches you to deal with perseverance just for the glory of God, not for others to see you, to applaud you, but more in a sense of just others seeing you work hard, but it’s all for God’s glory. So if you don’t get the applause, you’re still okay because you know who it’s for.
SPEAKER 07 :
Last season track, we usually warm up a little bit before the actual events start. All of us, including distance, sprinters, throwers, we all came together. This girl asked us, she was like, hey, you want to pray?
SPEAKER 06 :
Everyone, they gathered in a big circle. We held hands. And then the other seniors, she started praying. And then as soon as we finished praying, we looked up and then we saw our coach. He was looking really angry at us.
SPEAKER 09 :
And immediately the response was, he yelled at us. He wouldn’t let us pray. He yelled at us for praying. They’ve always felt the peace that prayer brings, the comfort that prayer brings. So for them to be faced with this, you want to make your coach happy because they’re the key to you running the events that you want to run, being in the relays, all those things. They get to dictate everything.
SPEAKER 06 :
I did have some fear that he might take me out of races.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so we’re trying to explain to them about their rights, understanding your constitutional rights. He can’t stop you from praying. So we’re going through all those things.
SPEAKER 09 :
God did put it on my heart to call the ACLJ. We sat down with the girls and said, hey, we want to make this call. How do you feel about it? And they were like, okay, sounds good. Sounds like this is the help that we need. The school did put something on their website saying that they would not restrict prayer for any of the students at the school on any team. Once that came out, then everybody felt more comfortable coming together again, knowing that they had the backing of the school, that the school would support them praying.
SPEAKER 04 :
So there you go, folks. I mean, that is, again, just one of the stories and just a little bit of the stories. And you see how it takes the parents, the students, talking to their young people, say, you know, listen, I think we can write this wrong. We could contact the ACLJ and get this done. And that, again… There are hundreds of those every year, those stories. And we want to, with the technology that’s available now, be able to show you more of those stories in real time with those who are willing to come on, talk about it, let people hear about it. But you see, it takes going there and saying, you know what, they’re willing to fight, which means hopefully we can get this done without a long court case. But like I said, When we take one of those issues on, we have to imagine, okay, if we’re going to take this on, we know we can win it. Is the school always going to do the right thing right off the bat, though, and respond to the letter to kind of negotiate it out? No. Sometimes. you’re going to have to take the school to court. And so you have to be ready to commit those resources the moment that you take those individuals on and the parents and their students on as clients. You have to be ready to go all the way through the court system and have the resources available. to go all the way. It’s great when you don’t have to. It’s great when you can win and get it done more quickly. That’s not always the case. We know we can win, but you have to be ready to go all the way, which can be state Supreme Courts. It can be the US Supreme Court to make sure that people’s rights are vindicated. And that’s why your financial support to the ACLJ is so important. One, they have to know who to call. So the broadcast like this, whether you watch it, on various places online, television, whether you listen to it on terrestrial radio or Sirius or XM and satellite radio, however you know about us. Remember, that’s important because we have to make sure that those individuals know I can contact the ACLJ at no cost. You can always go to ACLJ.org slash help. It does not cost a thing. If you think that there’s something that you’re dealing with that the ACLJ can assist you on, there’s no bad questions. If it’s happening to you or it was happening to one of your kids, Contact us. And if we can help, we will. And if we can’t, if it’s not the right case for us, that’s okay too. We’ll let you know. So don’t always go on the side of we want more information than less. And again, maybe you come to us three or four times and the third time is when you notice that this is the case actually the ACLJ can handle directly for you. So that’s important that people have to know who we are. so that they can come to us. And then we have to have the resources ready so that when they come to us, I don’t have to think very long and our teams don’t have to think very long about whether or not we can take their case will. We have to have those resources already in the bank. It can’t be, okay, now today I need to raise it because I’ve got to be ready to go to war with that school district if we have to legally from day one that I say yes to taking that client.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Jordan, one of the other things to point out about this as we go into a new year is that some of the cases we’ve talked about today, the nurse in Kentucky, the high school students that were on a track team, that was in Indiana. These are traditionally red states. It’s not always California and Washington State or New York where people are having their rights violated. It’s sometimes in the places you least expect. And so many times it gets overlooked. It doesn’t get seen. But we’re here to make a noise about it. And we’re going to make sure that no matter where you are in the United States, that your constitutional rights are protected. And that’s why you can go, no matter where you live, to ACLJ.org slash help, and you will be put in touch with an attorney. It’s not just an automated system. An attorney will review the contact. So that’s an important way if you feel like your rights are being violated to reach out. But if you want to support more people that are having their rights violated and we stand up to fight, ACLJ.org. It’s no cost to them, but your donation makes it happen. ACLJ.org. Donate today.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think this is important to point out, and Will, I’ll thank you for going through these dates just to remind people where we were last year. December 19th, so right before, again, you kind of got the holidays are totally in swing and people are still engaged, of course, and courts are still engaged. We had the Colorado Supreme Court rule against the Colorado Republican Party and President Trump and say that the Secretary of State could keep him off the ballot. That was on December 19th, just a year ago. And then this day last year, December 27th of 2023, the ACLJ filed our cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court appealing that decision out of the Colorado Supreme Court because once you’ve worked through the state court system and the state Supreme Court, you have a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. And we filed that today, a year ago. Now that was, again, just one year ago. Think about the fact that, again, it was granted on January 5th, the Supreme Court said they would take the case. A year later, President Trump is about to take the oath of office. Last year, we were fighting a multi-state national campaign by mega-group, mega-liberal groups to keep him off the ballot so that he could not even be nominated as the Republican Party’s nominee. So he couldn’t even win primaries. And because we fought, we had all those resources all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. At one time, we were representing I think 14 different states and state parties and because it was just like legal maneuvers we had to stick with Colorado and we let some others take on those cases so remember all those different states we were representing because they also had the interest in the fact that wait our people are going to vote and you’re going to then say that in this other state that the person that they choose can’t even be on the ballot though they’ve done everything that they have to do to be on the ballot And, of course, we won at the U.S. Supreme Court, which gave the opportunity for President Trump to win the nomination, which he did. And then ultimately, he’ll be taking the oath of office as President of the United States. Think about how, again, a year ago. A year ago we were asking the US Supreme Court to take the case and just a few days after the new year it was January 5th that they decided and said yes we will hear this case and we won nine to zero at the US Supreme Court to make sure that every state Donald Trump was on the ballot and of course he won the Republican nomination easily and will now be taking the oath of office to become president of the United States and will again you think about all of that in just one year and you can imagine all of the other things that we could put in there about all the other cases fights battles legal issues that President Trump was facing all of these issues and we went from a president they were trying to a former president they were trying to literally put behind bars and take away his business to a former president who is about to become the current president and take the oath of office a second time in just a few weeks.
SPEAKER 02 :
And in this show today, I hope people have seen really how broad the scope of the ACLJ can be. Whether it be for an individual nurse wanting her conscience protections that are protected by law to be recognized by her employer and so that she’s not punished or loses her job or given demerits so that she can’t grow in that career. We will fight for that individual and they get the same lawyers, the same attorneys work on that case that were, this time last year, from December 19th until December 27th, so just eight days, over the Christmas holiday, furiously writing a brief for a cert petition to the United States Supreme Court representing a state Republican party on a case that had tremendous impact, not just on the election, but American history. That’s the scope of what, because of those of you, the ACLJ champions and the individual gifts that come in, especially at a time like this when it’s triple matched. That’s how much of an impact you make. We are able to do both. We are able to fight for individual nurses who, other than us bringing up the case, people would never even hear about. This isn’t even something that would make the local news many times, but it’s just as important as the historic cases at the Supreme Court that the ACLJ takes on as well. We have upcoming cases that are ongoing that we are already looking at how to strategize, to plan. The Supreme Court just granted a case that would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood. We’ll be filing in that very soon. We have a sidewalk counselor case that’s pending at the Supreme Court. That’s the Turco case you’ve heard us talk about. We’re working on a second major amicus brief to the International Criminal Court to defend Israel after the arrest warrants were issued for Bibi Netanyahu and the former defense minister. The case of a teacher who was banned from praying anywhere students could see in Texas. That goes to trial next year. and a public prayer band case in Ocala, Florida. We are fighting at the 11th Circuit. Just a few of the things we already have that we’re fighting in 2025, just a few days away. But Jordan, I think we should take a call here from Annabelle in California on line one. You’re on Seculo.
SPEAKER 01 :
Being an ACLJ champion encompasses the essential and dual criteria as to where my financial resources will be placed through the new year. I desire always to do God’s work and also protect human rights through the legal realm. The ACLJ has had a throbbing heart for the unborn for decades and, of course, a fervent commitment to employ their experience for the protection of all whose liberty is in peril. Especially this time of year, we are continually tempted with purchases that are frankly disposable. Instead, please become an ACLJ champion. Give generously and redirect your dollars to an organization that timelessly works to lift up humanity in myriad ways, often one individual at a time, as you just said, Will. They are the ultimate BOGO. God bless them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you, Annabelle. And listen, I think… It’s a great time. If you’ve got, again, if you’ve got the financial ability to do it, when you have a triple match, which we rarely do at the ACLJ, and we’re not one of those organizations where you get texted 10 times, 100 times match. This is real for us. We’ve got to make sure we have the resources pledged, ready to go, where we can make good on the triple match. And this is one of those days we can do it. So literally, if you’ve got $10 that you can donate, That becomes $30 to the ACLJ. That’s it. An organization, as you know, we’re very grassroots. So we’re an organization where the average donation is between $30 and $50. That’s where the average… So, I mean, a $10 donation becomes the lower side of an average donation. You donate $20, you’re right, that becomes $60 during the triple match. Even I’m not used to doing that math in my head because it’s not normal for us to do it. So, ACLJ.org. These final four days, it’s the most important four days, it’s the most important month for us of the year financially at the ACLJ. So again, I just encourage you, if you’ve got the ability and you’ve got the financial resources, Go to ACLJ.org right now. You’ll see where you can donate. You can see the QR code if you see it on your screen now. And you can do it quickly. It’s safe. It’s secure. And as Will said, we’ve already got places to go with your resources. We know what we can do if we have the resources available. So go to ACLJ.org right now. Taking part in that triple match is so key. The next four days. Again, the work doesn’t stop. But we also want to prepare for what can we do in 2025 that’s even bigger. How can we get more done? ACLJ.org. Donate today. Be part of the triple match. Four days left.
