Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. We’ve got a great show for you today. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haines is in the studio, and my brother Jordan's going to be joining us as well. I would usually say give us a call, but right now our phone lines are down. We’ve had some power issues this morning. So, if you want to get a comment in, a great place to do that would be either on YouTube or Rumble. Do it today. I'll make sure we have our team monitoring those comments and we can take them as if they're calls today. Again, that is on YouTube or Rumble. Yesterday, we talked about Mayor Mandami and, of course, his efforts and at least his threats, if you will, to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course, he was kind of laughed off, even a bit by President Trump, who put out a statement saying that's not going to happen. But at the same time, the mayor of New York City responded pretty aggressively. This is what President Trump had to say on Truth Social. He said, "Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested in any way, shape, or form while in the United States of America. He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters and has spent the last 47 years killing American soldiers and others. The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented spiral of death and destruction, something that should have been dealt with years ago by previous presidents. President Donald J. Trump." But Will, that wasn't where it ended because they again, once again, asked the mayor of New York City to respond to this and, once again, you've got to give it to him, he didn't back down.
Will Haines: That's right. This was in front of a bodega in New York where he was going over this small business initiative he's trying to do where it was completely unrelated. It had to do with permitting, which actually, when you think about it, he was like, "It's ridiculous if you sell hot food and cold food, you want a little nice cold treat in New York, it's ridiculous you have to get two separate permits." That's actually something a mayor should probably be looking at, an ordinance where permitting can be rolled back to make it more streamlined and simplified for a small business owner. I don't have a problem with that. But he was asked at this presser about the statements that were in that interview from the New York Times, and this is what the mayor responded with in bite ten.
Mayor Mandami: When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, we're speaking about someone who's the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. He's the subject of this arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, for war crimes, and he's the architect of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as Israel's Prime Minister. These are not facts of my personal assessment; they are facts of public record. I believe that when someone is charged with an International Criminal Court warrant, it's something that should be taken seriously, whether it's Benjamin Netanyahu or it's Vladimir Putin or whomever else. What I've also made clear is that my administration will follow all applicable local laws. That is our commitment, that is something that we will follow through on when it comes to an adherence to local law, and that's all I have to add on that.
Will Haines: He never says we'll get into this in the next segment about the reality of this, but once again, what we're looking at here from the mayor is him going very aggressively, Jordan, in trying to take the law into his own hands by going after the sitting Prime Minister of Israel.
Jordan Sekulow: That's right. One thing we do know is that his attorneys can look all they want, but there is no authority for a mayor of any city, so any municipal leader. Let's at least cut him down to what he is. It's a big city, it's an important role, but he is a mayor, no different than any other mayor. We don't agree with the Rome Statute. We're not signatories to the Rome Treaty, which is what created the International Criminal Court. It gives them any authority. No American official or municipal official has any authority to arrest someone in the United States and then hand them over to an international legal institution, which both our country and the person you're arresting does not sign onto as a legitimate court. So when he says, "I'm going to follow any local laws that I need to," that essentially means there are no local laws. He should be following other treaties the United States is a signatory on that we'll talk about in the next segment.
Logan Sekulow: All right, so much coming up. Again, phone lines are down right now, so I want you to get your comments in the chat on YouTube or on Rumble. We are live right there and I'll pull some of those today in place of calls today. I'll let you know if those phone lines do come back up. Are they back up? I don't know, they're ringing, so we'll see. All right, we'll be back in just a minute on Sekulow.
Narrator: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built. Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to aclj.org/liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled dollar for dollar to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberties. We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed. Across this country and around the world, this fight isn't just the ACLJ's, it's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at aclj.org/freedom.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Like I said, our phone lines are back open and we're going to be taking a lot more calls coming up in some future segments. So, get on hold already at 1-800-684-3110. As I said earlier, this is our "Defend the Defenseless" week. This is when we're talking about a lot of our pro-life work. Of course, we're going to give you the news of the day of what's happening and all of that and give you our coverage and our analysis of it. But I want you to understand the legal side of the ACLJ and some of the work that we've been doing even historically. This is a great piece our team put together, so I encourage you to kind of sit back, relax, enjoy this, and understand this is some of the work the ACLJ has been a part of in the pro-life world over the last few years. This stuff is still happening again right here in the United States of America. Take a look.
Jane Keeny: I'm Jane Keeny. About four years ago when I was a senior in high school, I got kicked out of the Smithsonian museum for wearing a pro-life hat.
Narrator: The Smithsonian isn't just one museum. It's 21 of them, spread across the country and visited by nearly 30 million people every single year. And it's not a private company. More than a billion dollars of its budget comes directly from the federal government, meaning it belongs in a very real sense to the American people, to all of us. But sometimes there is a question of whether an institution funded by our tax dollars can be trusted to treat every American, every student, every family the same, no matter what they believe. In the winter of 2023, under the Biden administration, that trust was exactly what was tested.
Guest (Male): Anti-abortion activists gathered on the National Mall today for the annual March for Life. It was the first time the march has been held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Jane Keeny: My sister, myself, and then a couple other students from our school, Our Lady of the Rosary, were very much passionate about the pro-life cause and so we went up to DC. This was the first year where we actually were fighting in a post-Roe era, and so we were all super excited to go and be a part of this huge group of Christians and pro-life activists. It was packed. It was totally slammed. There were so many students from so many different groups, and we weren't the only group that used neon beanies to identify each other. That's a pretty common thing that they do. So we had these beanies that our group wore. We figured that would be a good way to keep each other together. You can see each other in a crowd with this neon blue. We kept each other together in a group, and we also got to say, "Hey, we're here for the March for Life" by putting Rosary Pro-Life on the beanie. The day that we went to the Smithsonian, that was a little bit of free time that we got after the big programming of the March for Life. So there were about a dozen of us in the Air and Space Museum, a couple more who were checking out other museums in the area. We initially walked through security. We were in a pretty big group, about a dozen students total wearing these pro-life beanies. We walked through security. We were told, "Remove your hat for a second" to get through the metal detector. It sounded like normal procedure. And then we put our hats back on, walked through the museum just fine. And then into a couple different areas, it was like the Wright brothers area of the Air and Space Museum, we had a different security guard circle back to myself and my group while we were sitting by the escalator figuring out what we wanted to do next. He walked up to us, rubbed his hands together, and said, "Y'all are about to make my day. Take the hats off. This is a neutral zone. You can't have that kind of inflammatory message on, or you need to leave."
Narrator: What is so egregious about what happened at the museum is that while these students were singled out and targeted, told to remove their hats because they said the words "pro-life" on them, people all around the museum were wearing other hats, many of which contained what you might consider to be political speech.
Jane Keeny: We just wanted to look at the Air and Space Museum. We weren't even there to protest. We weren't doing anything. We were just walking around looking at the exhibits, enjoying our nation's capital, and we were made to feel like delinquents for having a Christian message on a piece of clothing.
Narrator: What set this case apart is one, this was the federal government, and they're actually tasked with protecting the rights of Americans. However, here, they targeted Americans and engaged in illegal activity.
Jane Keeny: Our parents, instead of saying, "Oh, well, it's not a big deal, whatever, you got to see most of the museum," they were outraged. And so my mom posted a picture on social media. It went viral, of our beanies, our story, and the ACLJ helped us out and we started the fight.
Narrator: At least one student from two separate groups reached out to the ACLJ, indicating that this actually took place at two different federal buildings on the same day within hours of one another. That signaled to us that this was a coordinated attack. This was not a single mistake. We immediately filed lawsuits. One lawsuit was filed against the National Air and Space Museum, one of the Smithsonians. We alleged violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees protection of free speech. The second is the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law. And the third claim alleged in the lawsuit was the violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or RFRA, which restricts or prohibits the federal government from placing a substantial burden on religious exercise. And that is precisely what happened here.
Jane Keeny: They dragged this issue on. That's kind of what the government does. They try to tire you out with the legal battle. They want you to give up.
Narrator: Our lawsuit served several important purposes. The first is to create a record of what occurred so that in the future, there's no dispute. This happened, and it was a violation.
Jane Keeny: I feel like the desire for answers and the desire for clarity of that situation and what really happened there and why they came after us like that, that was one thing that motivated me to keep through the fight.
Narrator: And so the settlement agreement that we reached in this case, the Smithsonian will maintain a policy that ensures that their visitors are allowed to wear clothing and hats and other attire that contain religious and political speech and that they will not be targeted or singled out for that speech or discriminated against.
Jane Keeny: We did get an apology, and we were told that we could come back and that we would never have this problem again and that students who wear these hats will never be asked to leave. I will never let my speech be chilled by local, federal, or any government official because it is absolutely my right as an American to express my speech in the way that I see fit, especially the pro-life message, which is one of the most, if not the most, important messages in modern America.
Narrator: This lawsuit protects the rights of future Americans who visit federal buildings every single day. If this thing ever happens again or anything like this ever happens again, ACLJ stands ready to address it immediately and to protect the rights of American citizens.
Logan Sekulow: Again, that's the incredible work the ACLJ team has done over the years. That's just a small sampling. That's just one story of the work in the pro-life world that our team has been doing for decades. But remember that this stuff is still happening.
Will Haines: And once again, I like seeing work like that and videos like that where you get to actually hear from the client like that. That was a teenage girl, a high school student that was targeted because of a hat that she wore to the March for Life. And when we talk about how you stand with these people when you give to the ACLJ, when you support this work, it's not just standing with the organization and our attorneys, but it is standing with that young girl who was brave and courageous and knew her rights and knew that this is not okay for the Smithsonian to be targeting us like this. That is who you are standing with when you give to the ACLJ.
Logan Sekulow: So I'm going to ask you in this last minute of our first half hour, I know some of you lose us after the half hour, but I encourage you, if you want to enjoy a full hour, maybe a television-style presentation, join us on aclj.org, on YouTube, or on Rumble. We're there right now, Facebook, broadcasting live right now. However you get your podcast, that's at 12:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Work your way back from there and of course, archived as soon as the show is over. But I'm going to ask you, when we take this really short break, which is just a minute, let's put up that QR code on the screen right now. Scan that QR code or go to aclj.org right now. All donations are matched. So right now, double your impact, be a part of the ACLJ "Defend the Defenseless" during this special week dedicated to our pro-life work. I encourage you to go to aclj.org right now and make any donation of any kind and it will be effectively doubled right now. And if you become a champion, someone who gives monthly, your first donation will still be matched. We'll be right back. Second half hour coming up, less than a minute.