Democrats Unleash Rallying Cry After SCOTUS Decisions

Today on Sekulow, after those two major victories at the Supreme Court yesterday, Democrats are issuing a court-packing rallying cry in response. We'll talk about that and more today on Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. I've got a packed show for you today on this broadcast. Again, we're going to talk about these two cases at the Supreme Court. Really, it's the reaction now that we're seeing. We talked about the meat of the cases yesterday on the broadcast. Now we're seeing the reaction from President Biden, from Senators, from House members on the Democrat side. We've got a Senator, Senator Markey, and Congressman Jones, who have both called for court-packing publicly. They've said we have to do this. We need to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That was their response. President Biden has said the court's decision, as harmful as it is, does not limit Congress's ability to repair the damage done today. It puts the burden back on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its intended strength.

What does he mean by that? The For the People Act, H.R. 1 or S.R. 1, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. One, because they want to reinstate pre-clearance for those states. This is a time of particular concern that the Voting Rights Act used to govern until 2013. That was one Supreme Court case where the court said no more of this pre-clearance for these states. They've been going through it enough.

There's a certain time for this to end. After yesterday's decision, they want to add in pre-clearance again, and after yesterday's decision as well, they want to really do away with states' abilities to set the rules of the game on their own. Again, when it goes back to the more liberal rules on ballot harvesting, they still want that federal takeover. They're hoping that these court cases encourage liberal activists to put pressure on people like Joe Manchin, because the only way they get this is if Joe Manchin agrees to some way limit the filibuster or do away with the filibuster altogether. There are ways to limit it.

You could pass a rule that says, like they've done for nominees, that say for voting legislation, no filibuster. You know what's interesting here to me is you read John Roberts' opinion in the cases involving the disclosure issue of donors. He writes, our cases have said that disclosures can chill association, even if there's no disclosure to the general public. He's then said, while assurance of confidentiality may reduce the burden of disclosure to the state, they do not eliminate it. So this is the idea of anonymous pamphleteering as old as our constitutional republic.

They're using that language, which has, by the way, been in Supreme Court precedent for decades, going all the way back to the NAACP cases, NAACP versus Button, NAACP versus Flowers, where they established that important principle that you don't have to disclose who you are in association with, who you're supporting or donating to, especially now in this cancel culture. But what's the irony of this is immediately they turn that into, we must expand the Supreme Court. You got Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts, saying today's ruling is another vote for a blow to voting rights. And then, of course, he ends it with, we have to get their increased numbers of justices on the Supreme Court. Their answer to everything is change the history, change the nine to increase the possibility of undoing this. That's kind of, Harry, how they view it. Absolutely. And so I think it's very, very imperative to note that although Biden claimed that the voting rights decision squarely places the burden back on Congress, it's important to keep in mind that it is the Democrats that have engaged in a pattern and practice of voter suppression historically.

And there's nothing in the voting rights decision in Arizona that suppresses the votes of minorities or anyone else. So we are now, and Jordan will explain this, we're now also broadcasting live on another social media platform, Instagram. They actually on Instagram said thank you for your broadcast. Yeah, over 100 people just watched it. It just launched today, this ability to watch the broadcast on Instagram.

It's through the JSekulow, and it's a verified account Instagram page. So you can actually watch now and comment on the broadcast there as well. So we'll start looking to Instagram as well. If that's a social media app that you like to use, well, you can actually watch the broadcast that way.

You'll get the full television broadcast and can still comment on the show. We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

Welcome back to set kill. Listen, we're going to get back to all this in just a minute, but we've got a big ACLJ victory. You can follow us up at ACLJ.org. You'll see the updated blog there. It's a good outcome in the worship band lawsuit.

Ed White, a senior counselor with the ACLJ, joining us now. And, Ed, just to walk people through, this was California's ban on singing in church during the COVID restrictions. And, by the way, for those of you who think, well, we're totally out of the woods on COVID restrictions and mask mandates and these kinds of bans.

Again, I will let you know, remember with the Delta 8 variant, there's people all over the place. It may not be in your state, but certainly a place like California where they've already put out a recommendation in LA County to go back to mask indoors. So this is, again, it's important to have these victories while we live through this unique time in world history. But, Ed, tell people, walk people through the case and how it was resolved.

Sure. Roughly a year ago, California instituted this ban that prevented singing and chanting during worship services. Now, at the same time California did this, you were able to sing and chant in indoor protests, outdoor protests, Hollywood, music industry, just churches were focused on. California was the only state to ban singing in churches. The case proceeded. We filed a lawsuit soon after the ban went into effect.

Litigation ensued in other jurisdictions within California. And over time, California, I think it has something to do with Gavin Newsom up for his recall, started to change its position and started allowing more and more singing in certain circumstances in churches. Now, what was outrageous about this is rather than taking churches and looking at them individually, the size of the church, you know, how many people are singing, there was just an outright ban.

No matter what the science said, sure. I think if I got this right, wasn't the ban that no matter what the size of the worship center was, you could have no more than 25 people. If your worship center even had, or maybe it was 100 people, whatever it was, even if your worship center had room for 1,000.

Correct. And that's what's so ridiculous about it. You would have 100 people in a church that could seat 1,000 people, and these people can be yards and yards apart from each other. You're not allowed to sing. You weren't allowed to have a cantor. You weren't allowed to have one person sing. It was specifically targeted against religious services. Now, at the same time, you were having protests, the Black Lives Matter protests throughout California, indoors, masks were not required.

There was being encouraged by Gavin Newsom and other politicians of California, even though the quote-unquote science said you shouldn't do that. You know, what's so interesting here is that, and I think this is important for everybody to understand, and this ultimately took action all the way to the Supreme Court in the United States, which we'll get to in a moment. But what's important here is the singing and chanting, and that's in the Jewish faith, that is in Christian denomination, of course, singing, that is in, I mean, just about every faith. Andy, you're a chanter, and you're in the Orthodox Church.

I am, I am. So this is an integral part of worship. It is, liturgically. And it starts with the Jewish high priests in the Old Testament, which was picked up liturgically in the early church.

And is still prevalent in the high masses conducted in the Roman Catholic Church, and in all the liturgical sacraments of the Orthodox Church, where chanting and singing and intoning is just an integral part of the liturgy. So what they're trying to do is to essentially, or what California was attempting to do, was to suppress the very fundamental thing, the injunction in the Bible to raise a joyful noise unto the Lord. Again, I think it's a major victory. And Ed, you were talking about the politics of this as well. This is, again, to me, very important to point out because some of this, we saw California as the recall started getting more serious. Now there's a date for the recall vote, September 14th in California. So we have seen this shift by Newsom. How much of that do you think played into that? How much do you think politics played into these decisions in California?

Because we have seen LA County now come out with a recommended remasking because of the new variant. And so I just think, again, with all that together, is this settled and done or is this something we have to continue to fight? It looks like we dropped Ed.

Okay, so we dropped Ed on the broadcast. Let me, I think what you said, though, is, okay, if you want to talk about the politics, and by the way, if you're in California, give us a call, 800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. But of course the politics. Now, they had Supreme Court decisions. They were, like, very slow to respond to those. And then you had the politics of it. And then they set a date of September 14th for the recall, which has got Gavin Newsom nervous. So what happens?

They open things up. But like you just said, Jordan, politically they've got a problem because their own health officials are now saying, mask up. That's right. And so they haven't done a mandate yet in LA County. There's no mandate yet in LA County. But Ed, what I was asking you is, because of the shifting politics and the mandates and what you can do inside and outside, while it looked like we were in the clear, then over the last week it looks like places like LA County have already put out recommendations to re-mask inside because of the new variant, the Delta variant.

And so when we go back to that, Ed, is this something we have to continue to fight and continue to watch because we're not yet out of the woods on this yet, 100 percent? Yes, we have to keep watch on this in California and other places. I mean, California had no basis, scientific basis for this ban.

Even the CDC, the World Health Organization, none of them said you should not sing in church. And in places around the country, especially the more liberal cities, mask mandates are still in place. I live in a very liberal city. And you walk into a supermarket here, I may be the only person without a mask.

Everyone's masked up, even though the quote unquote science says you don't need to wear a mask. So I see with this new variant coming out, we may be dealing with this situation again, especially in California. Ed, when the Supreme Court issued its rulings, what was California's reaction? California's reaction at first was, I think, shock. And then they slowly, slowly started to allow more and more freedom for religion. They allowed more capacity for people. The last thing they seemed to have allowed was the singing.

They would allow one person to sing, things like that. There was no evidence that any of that was justifiable. Having said that, you know, let me go to Harry on this. They're going to use this, and I get Dan's comment too, they're going to use this as a political wedge. Like they're using the Voting Rights Act case, like they're going to use every case that the Supreme Court comes up with that they don't like and say, pack the court, change the number.

Absolutely. So I think the Democrats are fundamentally committed to one thing and one thing only at the end of the day. And that is authoritarianism. And in essence, they're claiming that only left-wing elites should rule. And that underscores the policy mistakes that Governor Newsom has made in California. Imagine telling a church with a 5,000 seat capacity, you can only have, let's say, 50 individuals in the church and you cannot sing. There's no science.

There's no reasonable, rational basis for issuing such rules, those types of rules and regulations. Yep. Fan, they're going to use this though to try to get this filibuster broke, taken away, and to basically, whether they'll come up with court packing or not, they've got that commission going on right now. No question about it. It's already started, Jay. And look, I mean, our argument from the beginning has been consistent that the Constitution means that churches should be the last to have restrictions placed on them and the first to have them reversed. That, of course, was so often the exact opposite in California.

I would say this though, Jay. You asked about the political dynamics. The only reason that California has a political problem on this is because groups like ours and people in California and churches in California stood up and pushed back. So, Jay, I think this is really a perfect example of when the government goes too far, it can actually roll back on them politically and become a problem.

But in order to do that, the people have to stand up and they have to insist on our rights. That's the very reason we engaged this lawsuit. Hey, Ed, we appreciate all your hard work and your team's hard work on this case for us.

Great result. Thank you so much for being with us and, again, a great decision. But, folks, this is exactly the reason why it's important to support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice, especially when we're in a matching challenge month, which we are in July.

It has just started. Your support has doubled. Any amount of money you donate to the ACLJ, we get a matching gift for. So this is a really important time to stand with us. Yeah, and this is, again, a matching challenge month. Just to remind you, and this is so important, these are critical months to ACLJ because for resources.

Why? These are the months that you'll hear us talk about it on the broadcast. And we don't usually talk about fundraising on the broadcast except for these very important months to the ACLJ, which is our matching challenge month. And we're in one right now, the second day of a matching challenge month.

What does that mean? Again, for those of you who may be new to the ACLJ and want to support our work financially, if you made a $10 donation online right now at ACLJ.org, effectively that's $20 for us at the ACLJ. And it's because in this entire month we have a group of donors who have said we will match every donation that comes through in the month of July. We'll match all those donations. But of course you have to make the donation to trigger the match. So that's why you're doubling the impact of your donation when you support our work at ACLJ.org. Donate today.

We'll be right back. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by ACLJ's Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, as we go into the holiday weekend, it's great to have you on the broadcast. You tweeted out yesterday that America leads best when our interests and values are placed first, not last. We must be undeterred and unapologetic in our fight to protect American values. As we go into the celebration this weekend of our freedom, of our independence, it does feel like some of our American values are under threat in today's world, certainly. Well, Jordan, thanks for having me on today and happy 4th of July to you and to everyone watching and listening today.

My point was really very simple. I traveled the world these past four years, putting America first. Every place we went, it was clear we were trying to keep Americans safe, America secure, trying to help Americans find good work so we had an economy that was strong and we had partners that were trading with us in a way that was fair for the United States. And they all watched what was going on here at home. And when they saw division, when they saw Marxist-Londonist organizations like Black Lives Matter disrupting our capacity to govern, this weakens the United States of America.

And so we need to make sure that everyone is focused on the things that matter here. We shouldn't be teaching racism in our schools. We shouldn't be advocating for policies that will undermine our church institutions, our religious institutions, our religious freedom here at home. We saw churches that couldn't gather during the pandemic.

These are things that threaten our republic and we need to make sure we understand what America's values are and its deep interests and we need to be fearless and never give an inch in our pursuit to make them real for every single American. Let me ask you this also, Mike, because this is something that, you know, we're celebrating Independence Day and we've got a great piece up, by the way, at Bald Beagle, our children's channel, on the importance of Independence Day. It really explains. It's a seven-minute video.

I encourage everybody to go check it out on YouTube. But the Communist Party of China is celebrating this week its 100th year of its current regime's rule. And I go back to this because when you first came on board with us, we talked about the threat of China. It has not gotten better. It's gotten worse.

Jay, it's clearly gotten worse. They sense that America's not going to push back against what they want to do. They want to create their power and exert their power all over the world. You saw what Xi Jinping, their leader, the Chinese Communist Party's General Secretary, said yesterday. He said, anyone who challenges us will need hard steel.

Well, we need to be prepared. We need to confront them. They want to change our very way of life here.

And you can see it. You can see how they treat their citizens at home. They don't give a rip for human life. A million Uyghurs being held. They've hoisted a virus on the world.

The list of their activities is long, but make no mistake. They have both the intention and they will build out the capabilities that will put at risk the very Republican, the way of life that the West has, we the United States have. When you think of our founding and you lay it against, right? You lay it against the Chinese Communist Party's history, its Marxist line in its history.

You know who must prevail. And it's simply going to require leaders who are prepared to confront it in the serious way that the United States did when the Soviet Union threatened to impose the same kind of communist ideology, not only on us, but on the world. Andy Cahnemore, our colleague, has a comment for you, a question. Yes, Mr. Secretary, talking about China. This week the Republicans in Congress attempted to hold a hearing to get to the bottom of the origin of the coronavirus. The Democrats, of course, did not show up. And Speaker Pelosi is not going to support the Republican effort. Are you concerned that this apparent obvious Democratic effort at division is going to assist in giving China a pass on its responsibility for this virus and this pandemic? That's a great question. It sure looked like a pass for sure from the Democrat leadership in the House of Representatives who clearly must have instructed these folks not to show up at this.

Which is odd. This is not a partisan issue, finding out where the virus began and how we had 600,000 Americans that have ultimately passed away, billions of dollars in wealth destroyed here in the United States, a country that we know exported the virus when they knew it was both highly contagious and highly lethal. They allowed sick people to travel outside of their country. So this is something that every leader owes America. We have to do our best to get to the answer and we could see foreshadowing of the boycott of this hearing when they rejoined the World Health Organization.

That was the indicator that they were going to cave, they were going to accede to the globalists and allow China to skate on this Wuhan virus. Another piece you've got up, it's brand new at ACLJ.org, and it's called Protecting Our Second Amendment is Essential to Liberty. I think that's so important going into the July 4th weekend and the celebration of Independence Day. I think this is a very important message to hear. Tell people again what they will learn about this new piece up at ACLJ.org by you.

Well, the timing of this was intentional, right? We're doing this on Independence Day, right? We know the story of the revolution where they were quartering soldiers and making folks pay taxes.

They didn't get a chance to be represented and vote on these. These were the things that our founders said, nope, that's enough. And one of the things that came out of that was this glorious Bill of Rights, this singular document that said to every American, our Creator gave us these rights and we're going to put them inside our Constitution. One of those is the capacity to carry a firearm to make sure that you have the ability to do the things you need to do to secure your own family.

My wife and I had concealed carry permits when we lived back in Kansas back in the day. This is something that really matters and I hope every American will think about the rights that we have, the power that we have because we're Americans and our government can never take these rights away from us and we need to both value that and fight to protect it every day. Mike, as you know, we're in our, this year we kind of have a theme of the ACLJ now more than ever and I think about these issues that we've talked about just today, whether it's the second member, whether it's China, whether earlier in the broadcast before you were on we were dealing with the reaction of the Democrats to the Supreme Court's great decisions the last few days, which of course is pack the court, that's the reaction, we're getting that in the second half of the broadcast. But when I think about our work at the ACLJ on so many of these issues and you're joining us as such a big part of this and helping us to hone in on this, if you don't fight for freedoms, they don't defend themselves so to speak, I mean we have to stand up for them.

Oh, Jay, it's so true, the ACLJ has been a big part of this. Now this document, the Constitution, is not self-executing. Our founders knew that it took human beings with virtue and character committed to advance this republic.

What Ronald Reagan talked about, it can go away in a generation, we've seen that happening just these last six months. We've seen this abrogation of our fundamental rights. Now it's going to take every one of us, and the ACLJ I am confident will be a big part of that, but every American's got to go make sure every place they go, the PTA meeting, the school board meeting, that they're defending those basic rights. Well we appreciate it, we're thrilled you're part of our team, happy Independence Day and thank you for all of your efforts. Thank you all, so long. Alright, bye-bye. I'm going to say this at the outset, I want to thank our ACLJ members, we're on the second day of a matching challenge in July, and this is the perfect example, and I want to set the stage for you here.

You're seeing this broadcast, or listening to this broadcast on radio around the country, frankly, around the world. We have, you see there's four of us on this set, fans in our studio in Washington, there's probably seven people, eight people in our control room behind there. Your support of the ACLJ keeps all of this going, and then we can bring on people on our team.

Like Mike Pompeo, and Rick Grenell, people with tremendous, former cabinet members. We have two former cabinet members of the Trump administration on the ACLJ team because of your support of the American Center for Law and Justice. Yeah, and I'll tell you too, something we're working on, just to give you a little peek on, is getting more active through maybe new entities as well in the election cycles themselves, and issues and things like that, so the ACLJ has been able to continue to grow, continue to offer you new ways to engage, and we've got more of that coming. Because of your support for the ACLJ, double the impact your donation today, support us, ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live. And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, welcome back to Sekulow Live, and I just think that that first half hour of the broadcast, if you've ever been listening to the broadcast so far, and by the way, you can now watch the broadcast, the full television quality broadcast on Instagram as well, the JSekulow Instagram page, which is a verified account, so you know it's the right place. You'll be watching us right now. We're taking comments from that as well. So that's a new place. You can then see the broadcast each day.

We are live Monday through Friday at noon Eastern time. But I think if you watched or listened to that first half hour of our broadcast, and you heard Ed White come on and talk about the ACLJ victory on that California singing band, and then switch to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also like Ed White, part of the ACLJ team as a senior counsel to the ACLJ, as a former Secretary of State, former CIA director, talking about the importance of what we should be celebrating this July 4th, what dangers lurk ahead, like China celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. You saw President Xi back in the Mao Zedong kind of uniform. He looked kind of like the North Korean style, but he put that back on.

In the celebration, they put back out kind of the hardline former kind of Soviet style imagery, and they're utilizing as well. So I think when you put all that together, that was just the first half hour of our broadcast. We're doing those for you every single day of the week, Monday through Friday, talking about things that break in the news, talking about what the ACLJ is doing, and bringing in people not only as guests, which we do, like yesterday we had a congressman on as a guest, to talk about the issue with Ilhan Omar.

We were able to do that simultaneously. Again, I just think it's important for you to realize the resources and what we're able to pour into you every day, to help you think through the issues, to help you get activated when you want to get active on an issue, we're able to do all of that because of your support for the ACLJ. Now, we're going to get right into the court cases, the response from the court cases. We've got the full half hour coming up to do that, and to take your phone calls about it, 1-800-684-3110, or anything that was discussed in the first half hour, the growing threat from China, the importance of celebrating our rights, and making sure that, again, I think Mike Pompeo said it great, the Constitution isn't self-executing.

Your rights stay protected, you have those rights because you utilize them, because you constantly fight for them, and you stand up for what you believe in. So I think all of that together puts it together as why it's a great time to support the work of the ACLJ. And I want to thank those of you who continue to support us.

During the pandemic, we were able to expand. And I don't say that to brag, I say that as a thank you, because a lot of companies, a lot of organizations were not able to do that. And you kept donating, you kept sticking with us, we kept fighting the battles, we used new technology to continue broadcasting, even when we had to be at home, even when we weren't able to be in the studio. We were able to do all of that, bring on Mike Pompeo, bring on Rick Renell, expanding our team too, it's not just the names that you know, but being able to expand our ACLJ court team as well, it's because of your financial support to the American Center for Law and Justice. We are in the second day of the Matching Challenge month of July.

What does that mean? Again, if you donate right now to the ACLJ, if you're in a place, and I always say this, for those of you donating, it's because you're in a place where you can financially contribute and it's not going to hurt you. Whether it's for you that's $10 or $100 or $250, right now if you make those donations online, ACLJ.org is doubled, so a $250 donation is like $500 for the ACLJ, $100 is like $200, and because we have a group of donors that will match every donation that comes through in the month of July, it's a Matching Challenge month, but to get their match, you, the donor, has to take that initial step. As a member of the ACLJ, you can take that initial step to support our work and donate at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back on Secular. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow. We'll take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. We'll get to those in just a minute.

You know, I was thinking about this probably during the break. You know, they couldn't get Senate Bill 1 through, right? They're redoing of the federalizing the elections. There is no doubt that they're using all of this. And every Supreme Court decision that comes out next term, Harry, that they don't like is going to be the next basis for a court packing and, fan also, doing away with the filibuster. That is what this play is.

I think you're precisely correct. And so I think most of us are prepared to conclude that the Democrats are often incompetent. But you have to give them credit.

They are great marketers. And so they are prepared to use each and every setback at the Supreme Court as the basis for changing laws forever. And so I think it's very, very important to look carefully at President Joe Biden's statement that he put out yesterday with respect to the two Supreme Court decisions. Essentially, Joe Biden has made himself clear. First, Democrats oppose the Constitution, which gives states the power and the right to determine election security, election integrity, and election rules.

Second, Democrats do not believe that minority voters are sufficiently competent to figure out the election rules without the help and assistance of Washington, D.C. elites. And third, the American people should now expect a tidal wave of incoherent nonsense from the Democrats in Washington who will now claim that the Supreme Court is doing what? Undermining our democracy when the Supreme Court is doing no such thing. All right. So then it brings a question, Than. The filibuster is hanging in there by a thread to begin with.

We know that. The Supreme Court decisions come out starting, you know, September, October. They'll hear cases by November, December. Now, this time of year, next year, you get all the decisions. You know they're going to use this to try to undo the filibuster.

Every single time, Jay. I mean, the playbook is already starting to play out. I think it's a one two punch right now. The first one is the one you already mentioned that they're asking, demanding really for court packing. And by the way, Jay, they're doing that even though the grassroots organizations on the left that organize like groups like the ACLJ do say that the Supreme Court got it correct yesterday. So they've got a little bit of a tricky political issue to wade through there. But yeah, the pressure on both the filibuster and the Voting Rights Act piece of legislation on Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and others is only going to intensify.

And Jay, I want to give people just a very quick peek behind the curtain. Joe Manchin is going to try to hide behind the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And Jordan talked about how that would take us back to preclearance days where the Department of Justice has authority to look at changes in state laws that are made in states with a history of discrimination. But Jay, here's what Joe Manchin supports when it comes to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He supports going back to preclearance, not just for those states. He supports going back to it for all 50 states.

So that's just another form of federalizing and bringing the power for all state elections to Washington, D.C. That's going to be the playbook, Jay, and it's going to be used on every single piece of legislation that comes forward moving forward. You know, what's interesting, too, I want to go right to the phones. Julie in California online one. Hey, Julie, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, Julie.

Hi, Jordan and team. My question is, at what point do state legislatures start saying if the government forces things like this down the throat, it says you must vote this way. But they say, no, the Constitution says we have the right to set. At what point do they just start disobeying them?

I think we're, Julie, this is Jay, I think we're at that point. I think we're at the point where state legislatures need to read the election clauses and the electors clauses of the United States Constitution and understand that they have, as legislators and legislatures, certain rights. And that includes setting up the basis upon which they're elected.

I'm going to use George as an example. Now, Georgia gets sued by the Department of Justice, Andy, we know that. They get sued, and yet two days after the lawsuit, the Supreme Court of the United States with an almost identical fact pattern on some of the issues, ballot harvesting in particular, which Jordan said is like one of the most dangerous things, that the Supreme Court in a six to three decision said, no, you can ban that kind of stuff. Well, that's exactly right. Legislatures need to realize that they have a constitutional right to set the time, place, and manner of electing persons to office in their jurisdictions in their states. Okay, we know that. That's the case.

It's always been the case. That's what our Constitution sets forth. Now, what legislatures have to do, for example, in the Georgia case, the Attorney General of the state of Georgia and the governor have got to really vigorously defend this lawsuit that has been brought in the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, which is in many ways essential to what the Bronovich v. Democratic National Committee lawsuit was about in Arizona, in which they challenged the reasonable restrictions, the reasonable manner, the reasonable things that the Arizona legislature did. The Arizona legislature had placed on electorates. Georgia did the same thing.

There's no difference. We talk about absentee ballots. We talk about ballot harvesting. We talk about not counting votes cast in the wrong precinct. And in that regard, let me say this. It is demeaning, demeaning to an African American to say that you're too stupid to know where to go to cast your ballot. And that is an outrage to make that statement.

It is the perpetuation of a dependent culture that we did away with. And now they're trying to go back to that. And I resent that on behalf of my friends who are black Americans. Well, the Supreme Court has said back to 2013, we're not going to have those laws in place anymore, the preclearance. But that is what they want. That is where Joe Biden's statement is, Congress has the role to fix all this. And it's interesting because Allen on Facebook wrote in, the Democrats, they have the White House right now, the House and the Senate, and yet they're still trying to change the voting rules as the DNC filed the lawsuit against Arizona, DOJ filed the lawsuit against Georgia. Because they saw in 2020, hey, if we have free for all elections where everybody just gets a ballot, we don't even know if you still live there anymore, this is good for Democrats. If you can do massive ballot harvesting, this is good for Democrats. And so the one branch of government they don't have full control over, the judicial branch, is the one that they of course have demonized now, which they have. It said that now that's who they've got to deal with, and so we're going to change the makeup of the court. I mean, this is when your power is at its highest point politically, but it's still not enough for them.

Jordan, it should be pretty telling for everybody. The Democrats hold the levers of all three mechanisms that are elected through the elections, and yet they still, using those mechanisms, can't make a compelling case to the American people that they're confident to take to the ballot box the next time around. I mean, that's why you would look to seize control of how elections are run if you don't think you can win under the existing rules or under the rules that are put in place by the state legislatures. And I just want to reiterate something that Andy said.

I don't think we can say this enough. He used this phrase, time, places, and manner. He's not just making that up, Jordan. I mean, those are literally the words used in Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, where it says the time, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof. Jordan, that's the authority that Washington, D.C. is trying to take over. They don't trust state legislatures. They don't trust the American people to choose their representatives. Look, the Senate bill is totally unconstitutional. I mean, it cuts against a provision of the United States Constitution. But rest assured that they will still try to ram it through and use the political machinery, maybe it's getting rid of the filibuster, maybe it's packing the Supreme Court, whatever it might be, to get the end result. And then they figure, well, you have to litigate it. It's going to take five years anyways.

Absolutely. One of the things that the Democrats are good at is understanding whether or not their particular policies are popular with the American people. And if you actually look at Democrat policies and proposals, they are unpopular with the American people. So what's the best way of ensuring the passage of unpopular legislation?

Ensuring that the Democrats have a permanent majority in the House, the Senate, and they control the White House. So that, in essence, is their long-term objective, and they basically want to control and federalize every single thing from Washington, D.C. So they want to federalize elections, they want to federalize gun control, you name it, they want to control it.

Why? Because they think that they are better than average working-class Americans who live in what they call flyover country. You know, this is, again, I think it's so key that we keep fighting because, Than, as you pointed out, as the caller said, you know, when will states stand up? Arizona stood up, they fought it all the way to the Supreme Court, they won 6-3. This is the time to stand up and fight. It's time for state legislators to take a look at their election laws, to make improvements where necessary, to look at the ruling that just came out of the Supreme Court involving Arizona, and understand they're going to win when it goes to the Supreme Court. They've got the authority to write these laws, it's time for them to take that. This is serious business, Jordan. I mean, the American people of all political stripes deserve to have confidence in their elections, and the Constitution says it is the state legislature's job to do that.

Now's the time, Jordan. You know, and I think if we come back to, we'll tell you about this idea that how do they want to resolve all this to the left? Add more justice to the court when they're in charge, when they get to pick who they are and they get to control the confirmation process.

Is it a pipe dream for them or not? I think we need to get into all that yet again because the calls are growing after the Supreme Court decision yesterday. Let's do it. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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We are going to take your phone calls, comments 1-800-684-3110. The new video up at baldbeagle.com. We're going to play the song for that video as we enter July 4th, holiday weekend. It's about the importance of Independence Day. Yeah, it does. It walks through and it's got, again, the video itself. You've got puppets, animation, interacting together.

The words are up there so you can follow along. Again, it's the why do we celebrate Independence Day. So it's great to watch with your kids if you've got your grandkids over on this weekend as Americans are coming together and celebrating our country and our Declaration of Independence and our freedom.

It's important to talk about it with your kids as well. What are we doing on this holiday? What are we actually celebrating on this specific holiday? You know what I really appreciate about this whole project, this Bald Beagle project, is we're trying to, you know, we're talking about complicated issues at the Supreme Court. We're dealing with China and we're handling that and all these issues that we discussed. And we're also trying to reach for parents, for their kids, in creative ways. And this is a very creative project of the ACL. It's part of our Now More Than Ever campaign. It all fits together. And now more than ever we want to reach young people and help parents explain the importance of these holidays. So at the end of the broadcast we're going to have, we're going to play, so those of you that are watching, which you can now watch on Instagram as well as Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, ACLJ.org, Twitter, we've just added Instagram to that group.

You'll be able to catch, we're going to play at least the song portion of this video so you'll hear it on radio, but you'll also get to see it on those that are watching it on our social media platforms. Can we talk about this court packing? Because if you, in our preparation for today we looked at some of the statements coming out. Today's ruling is another blow to voting rights. This is coming from Senate Democrat Ed Markey from Massachusetts. We must abolish the filibuster, pass the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and we must expand the Supreme Court.

This is Representative Jones out of New York. We must expand the expletive deleted court. So I mean this is becoming the rallying cry for every decision that comes the wrong way or legislation not going through.

This is what they're going to do. Yes, but I do think we have to dispel kind of how big of a pipe dream is this for the Democrats. It does not take a constitutional amendment. The Constitution, we celebrate the Constitution this weekend and our rights under the Constitution. When it comes to the courts it establishes that there will be a Supreme Court and the inferior courts which Congress determines. We have the appellate courts, district courts, we have other federal courts for specific issues. But the number of justices on the Supreme Court has changed over time, has increased, decreased, it started off as an even number, that didn't work out so well. So make it an odd number. It just takes having the votes.

It does. And that, it's a serious change and a serious move, but it is just regular legislation. You could tip the balance of separation of powers so easily that if your party's in control of all three branches, two of the branches of government, and you can change the balance of power by saying, well, these, we've got a six to three conservative majority right now even though we've got a more liberal White House and House and Senate. Well, we can fix that easy, Andy. We just add more numbers to it. It's interesting, Justice Ginsburg said nine is the right number.

And so did Breyer. So they, you know, look, the number was set by the Judiciary Act of 1869 at one chief justice and eight associate justices. That has worked for a long time and it has worked well. Even liberal justices recognize that that is an appropriate number that has been set by, you know, statute. But the key is that it only takes an act of Congress signed by a President to change that.

Absolutely. So I think everyone should know that Supreme Court judicial independence is now plainly at risk. Number two, I think everyone should note that the Democrats are opportunists. Historically, they have used the Supreme Court to advance their agenda, their agenda with respect to abortion rights, for instance. The Democrats have also used the filibuster to their advantage. They used the filibuster something like 300 times during the last year or so of the Trump administration. But now they claim that the filibuster is what?

Racist. They claim that the Supreme Court essentially is racist. So at the end of the day, the American people should see through all of these claims as transparent power grabs by the Democrats. They want nothing more than power.

They do not care about principle. It's all about opportunism all the way down. You know, I just think that when it all comes down to it, we have to realize with the issue, you know, we're going into a midterm election. A lot of this will be talking that they're going to be pumping all this up to the left going into the midterms. So they're looking for these cases out of Georgia, out of Arizona. They're looking for reasons why to point to court packing the idea that wasn't just about the confirmation of Justice Barrett. Now it's about they don't like the way the court's coming down on issues. And so, which by the way, Justice Barrett or not, they would have lost both these cases.

That's exactly right. They would have lost both these cases. And there's no indication that Justice Breyer's resigning, which was the left's big... Doesn't change anything. And it would change nothing if they did.

So thank you quickly because we got to do this quickly. But you've got a court packing commission going on right now, basically. Yeah, the President's got a court packing commission and Jay, there's also a bill introduced in the House.

I mean, it's not like we're making this up. Hank Johnson has the bill and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, is a co-sponsor. So, you know, people like Bernie Sanders can say, well, I'm not for court packing, but I do want to maybe look at the filibuster. Jay, those issues overlap.

So Bernie Sanders is in league with this as well. All right. So let me tell you what we're going to do here at the end of the broadcast. We're going to play a portion of our special that we've done for kids, our bald beagle.

This one's on Independence Day because it really gives you an understanding of the way in which you can learn a lot about our nation's history in a fun way for kids. Now, if you want to see the entire video, it's all on YouTube. But you can also just go to baldbeagle.com.

That's baldbeagle.com. And you can see it there. And there's a whole... I think there's up to... I think, what do we have, 10 videos now?

I think there's about 10 videos now that have been done. So everybody have a great holiday. Here we go.

I still don't see why we have parties and barbecues just because they signed a piece of paper. Oh, son, it was so much more than just a piece of paper. Actually, I think I can be of assistance. Who are you? My name's Cabana Charlie. I take care of this beach and I love Independence Day. I've also been known to play a song or two. So you know why we have big parties on the 4th of July?

Well, sure I do. It's because we're free. And let me tell you something, freedom is worth celebrating. Let's go. If this country was to be the sweet land of liberty They'd have to break away from the crown The fight would be hard and the road would be long From under England's thumb we had to get out So although they were scared of freedom they declared And that's what Independence Day is all about Freedom should be celebrated And that's just what we do So come on down to Freedom Beach For our Independence barbecue Come on down to Freedom Beach For our Independence barbecue At the American Center for Law and Justice We're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad For a limited time you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge For every dollar you donate it will be matched A $10 gift becomes $20 A $50 gift becomes $100 You can make a difference in the work we do Protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms That are most important to you and your family Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org