BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Trump Bill

We got breaking news, and no, this isn't a rerun. Federal judge blocks the Planned Parenthood defunding. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for your calls. 1-800-684-3110.

Will Haynes, Jordan Sekulow, joining me in studio. Rick Rinnell's going to be popping on a little bit later.

So stay tuned for that. And again, if you want to have your voice heard on the air as well, that's at 1-800-684-3110. You probably heard at the very beginning, and maybe this is breaking news that you didn't know. Maybe you thought the Supreme Court ruled on this. How can this keep happening?

And again, I'm glad we have Jordan here. I'm glad we're going to have Cece Heil joining us a little bit later to break down specifically how this can happen. Because you remember yesterday's show, we talked about the fact that Planned Parenthood was very upset that they're demanding that their funding be reinstated. They should not be defunded for the year after the Big Beautiful bill was passed. And now We head to Massachusetts, where it seems like where we head.

If you want to have something that is very, very pro-choice, you head to Massachusetts. They found a friendly judge. And now, once again, A temporary restraining order has been placed. The holidays. Just happened.

So why don't we break down what's going? Because what they're trying to do, and once again, has halted President Trump's plans through one of these judges. Yes, again, not surprised. I think long-term, this is a losing court battle for Planned Parenthood. But as we explained yesterday, they're just trying to survive the next really eight, nine months.

And if you can do that, the funding's not going to get cut, and then it's got to go through legislation again. And so you've survived another year. You've lived to fight that battle out in Congress. And like I said yesterday, if we don't stand up behind these members of Congress strongly who did this, and I mean, it took them going down to the final vote in the Senate. It took J.D.

Vance going to casting the top first vote. Yes. On it's because of issues like this that don't get as much attention necessarily running up to it, but July fourth this bill gets signed into law. By Monday. The first day, first working day since the holiday.

Do you think it happened? They go to Massachusetts, they find the judge, Obama appointee, not surprisingly.

Now, it's a T-R-O. Yeah, because we'll say this: the Supreme Court, we thought, ruled where they could not do this. It's not an injunction.

Okay, maybe break this all down. This is a temporary restraining order in place for two weeks. But you're saying put on hold until we can make a call. Put it on hold. Let's do some briefing on it.

And then we'll make a call on the initial. Then you would have a hearing on the preliminary injunction. They're still going to have hearings on preliminary injunctions, and you still might have judges out there who said, I still believe under that. that case that I can issue this because Planned Parenthood's in off you know 47 states. And so if they're in 47 states, I can issue it for those 47 states specifically.

That's what that's what they're relying on here. But ultimately, This is really not about the nationwide injunction issue. This is about. Planned Parenthood, how can they go into court and say We must get federal funding. It just doesn't make sense to me.

They are a private organization. If the government decides to fund a private organization, you elect the government. That's one thing. On the other hand, if the government decides not to, To say you could go into court and say we must, but They have a lot of allies. A lot of friends.

And you can see that time and time again. Don't let it be discouraging, though. This is the moment we have the court.

Well, I see that in the comments. A lot of people are fairly discouraged, thinking, well, I thought we had solved this issue, and once again, we're now back. It feels like it's at the starting line. You got to constantly fight. Did they give up when Roe versus Wade was overturned?

Did they say, oh, we're done fighting on this issue? No, they went into the States. They doubled down in their efforts. This is a time, I think, on top of the fact we talked about, we come back, the IRS clearing up that your religious leaders can now speak openly from the pulpit. Oh, yeah, this is a big one.

On politics. I think yesterday we were talking about how there has to be a resurgence of pro-life movement. This, your pastor's now, there's no excuse now not to engage on these issues. Especially if you've been preaching that for years, you can't hide away now behind your text as it says. Yeah, exactly.

So we'll discuss that. That is breaking news that we will discuss coming up in the next segments. And I want to hear from you because I know there's some frustrated people online. I understand that.

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We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, phone lines are open at 1-800-68-430-110. A lot of you got questions. I totally understand that because we have seen once again a federal judge come in and say, hey, You cannot defund Planned Parenthood.

And of course, this is on the heels of the Big Beautiful Bill passing, which one of those is having Planned Parenthood defunded for one year. And then for it to kind of reopen for negotiations. And they said, you can't do that. They put a temporary restraining order, found a judge in Massachusetts. We know we've been fighting for life in Massachusetts hardcore for the last year through our campaigns.

We know that they are not friendly. We know that sometimes the issues come up, but. Uh We do have hope because we have seen good movement in Massachusetts on our campaign to help support pro-life pregnancy resource centers that were being attacked by who? The state, the Commonwealth. of Massachusetts.

But we've been fighting hard on that for the last year.

So it was no shock, Will, when this popped up coming out of one of our favorite markets, by the way. We have a large listenership there, a large supportership coming out of Massachusetts. That's right. And, Jordan, when you look at this, what the complaint filed by Planned Parenthood did was: one, it was a clever move by them in light of the Trump v Casa opinion, which where Justice Barrett was essentially saying you can only offer relief to the plaintiffs before you.

So, what did Planned Parenthood do? Instead of just suing as the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, which is listed as a plaintiff, also the lead plaintiff is Planned Parenthood Federation for America on behalf of itself and all 47 of its members.

So, they brought together, almost created almost like a mini class because they have an affiliate organization.

So, they came on behalf of the entire organization in almost all 50 states and said, Hmm. We need this relief. They forum shopped. They went to Massachusetts, which it appears that in Massachusetts, if you're pro-life, you're going to be silenced by the government. But if you're pro-abortion, the government must pay your bills.

And we're looking at this, and they're alleging. Three issues that they want relief on, and basically the blocking of this portion, section 71, 113 of the Big Beautiful Bill. That says they want to vindicate their rights secured by the Constitution's Bill of Attainder clause, by the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

So they're basically saying we're being punished without a trial by looking at this Bill of Attainder clause, as well as First Amendment. They're saying because we believe in the rights of abortion, we're being punished, and that's a violation of our rights. And the Fifth Amendment of Equal Protection, they went very broad here and they found a judge that was friendly to this entire cause of theirs to give them this TRO. We know there's two weeks before an injunction hearing, but this is basically where we stand. Yes, and what they always are going to argue is: well, it didn't go through the proper procedure.

You know, this is.

Now, here's the difference in this law, and the judge, there's no reasoning here. This is a. TRO.

So you don't have like an opinion at all. You would on an injunction matter, so the next phase. But the difference here is that this is grasping, like you said. They're going through their history. They're going through the right to abortion, except for the court found that there isn't a federally protected right to abortion, that that issue would go back to the states, they go state to state and issue to issue.

The court just last week said that you could defund at the state level via Medicaid.

So ultimately, here, is it a winning battle for them in court? No. The c th this is all an issue of timing. But I think we have to, and we are at the ACLJ taking action, but I do want just people to understand how important it is that we stand up on this issue strongly. And don't get discouraged.

Think about how many years we've talked about getting a defunding bill onto the desk of a President who said they would sign it, and it was impossible to get it there. We've actually gotten it there now. Plan Parrot is not going to give up. They're going to fight back. They want their $500 million.

So we have to be ready to take a stand. And you cannot be discouraged. We've had major. Victories.

So, this is the time to double down in court. Court has been actually pretty friendly, ultimately, long term, to the pro-life movement. Especially in the last, you know, five, six years.

So let's let's keep that pressure up. And, Jordan, just to piggyback off of that, you brought up that the Supreme Court, just I mean, a week and a half ago now, in the Medina versus Planned Parenthood case, ruled that South Carolina could exclude Planned Parenthood from their providers in Medicaid. And obviously, when you look at that, that's the big takeaway. But when you look at that in light of this, it's really fascinating because Justice Gorshitz wrote that opinion, and it was all about the spending power of Congress. Because the bigger picture was that he was saying that individuals could not sue the state to force Planned Parenthood back into their Medicaid program because that's not the remedy under the spending power.

That there's a contract under the spending power between the state and federal government with Medicaid. This isn't an enumerated right of Congress, it's an inferred right, the spending power. under general welfare clause and things of that nature.

So it's curious to me as I read the complaint. By Planned Parenthood, in light of Medina, where the Supreme Court said, you can't just sue the state and get your right back here, that they bring up the defund provision is a naked attempt to leverage the government's spending power to attack and penalize Planned Parenthood and impermissibly single it out for unfavorable treatment. Justice Gorsuch, in his opinion, even said that the spending power in and of itself creates benefits for some parties and not for others. It doesn't necessarily, unless enumerated, create a right for someone to receive this money. Think of them as like a government contractor, right?

So they were bidding to say, we're going to provide these services so they reimburse us through these programs and we'll be part of the larger Medicaid program. Do you think that every other company that goes before that just gets a green light? You propose a new jet to the U.S. government. Do they have to go ahead with your production of your jet?

No. So, this idea that they are entitled to this, that they must now. The idea of being entitled to any sort of government funding is pretty ridiculous. Congress could go right now. That's what I'm saying.

There's no constitutional right to getting Medicaid. You can't unfairly say, well, this person, first of all, there are rules on it. You can't, Congress can go and say, this is going to be the threshold. This is the income level. This is going to change this year.

This is going to expand this year. We're actually going to cut it back this year. And there's all those talks, right? If you can do that to the individuals actually receiving the benefit and to the taxpayers who are paying for the program. These private companies who come before it should be able to be excluded at any time.

By an act of Congress, certainly, signed by the President. I mean, so listen, it's a losing battle for Planned Parenthood unless they can run out the clock and. If we don't support these members of Congress, and the President who signs us into law. And actually, give them the credit that they deserve to fighting on it, to taking it down to the final vote. in the Senate.

When if if they were to remove this provision, It would have been that much easier to pass it. Let's take this call. Let's go to Chris, who's calling on line one in Florida. Chris, you're on the air. I'm wondering why Planned parenthood sued the Trump administration when it was Congress.

Who passed the door? Yes. Remember, the President signs the bill into law.

So Congress passes the law. The President executes the law. And so you decide as President, I'm going to sign this into law unless there's a veto override. But even then, you're the executor.

So you actually are carrying out the law. Yeah. As well as the plaintiffs aren't the United States government or Donald Trump in many cases.

Sorry, the plaintiffs direct to the defendants. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of DHS, HHS, and then also Mehmet Oz in his official capacity as administrator of centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.

So it is a directed at who would be withholding the funds or Medicaid reimbursements, not just generally at the law or the bill or the Trump administration. All right. Again, thank you, Chris, for calling in. We are going to take more calls coming up. In the next segment, Cece Hiles going to be joining us because just to tease it out a little bit, Will, this has been some big, like there was almost a moment that your church needs to wake up to and know this is happening because this has been a part of really the Ongoing fight for years and years and years.

And now the IRS has at least. And of course, this in IRS under a President Trump administration has at least started to lighten up on what churches can or can't say in terms of politics. This has always been an issue. It has always been something that we have been fighting against, even for what we do here, because you can't, as a nonprofit, you can't endorse a candidate. There's always issues with that.

But now, specifically in churches, which has always been again a point of contention, there has been some big movement.

So, Cece Hil is going to be joining us coming up in the next segment. And I do want to hear from you because after that, we're going to take some more calls. Because Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us again. And I want to make sure we give him enough time and we get to hear from you.

So that's at 1-800-684-30110. And as Will said. We have had so much movement going on. Whether what's going on with this TRO, how the ACLJ is going to get involved, we've mobilized our legal team to file in this case. And we're going to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

We've engaged over 203, that's right, 203 pro-life cases just in the last 12 months, and we're expanding our pro-life fight right now. But we can't do it without you. And that's why this 35 years of Justice Drive is happening right now. We are celebrating 35 years. 35 years of supporting the unborn.

Supporting you, the American people, your values for Israel.

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We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. Once again, phone lines are open. I do want to hear from you. 1-800-684-31-10.

Cece Hiles now joining us, senior attorney here at the ACLJ, because this is some big breaking news that is really coming out, and you're not going to hear about it very much. It's not like it's making big headlines, but for your church. As we know, a lot of you listen on Christian radio. You've been supporters of Christian values for 35 years as we've been doing this. This is a big moment that at least your church needs to be aware of because they may not even know this happened.

CC, why don't you give us sort of a history? Sure.

So yesterday there was a consent agreement entered between the IRS and two churches, and it involves the Johnson Amendment. And if you're not familiar with the Johnson Amendment, that was an amendment in 1954, which basically restricts churches from participating or intervening in campaigns for public office as a condition for their nonprofit status.

So basically what you're looking at is the Johnson Amendment. If you recall, I mean, the Revolutionary War and religious freedom, we were concerned about King George granting licensure to churches and pastors, basically controlling what they could say from the pulpit.

So this is kind of what the Johnson Amendment was doing. It was controlling what pastors could say from the pulpit, especially as related to campaigns. And so this consent agreement, the IRS has consented and saying we don't think that the Johnson Amendment reaches to churches because it does violate their First Amendment. Amendment, free speech right, their exercise of religion, due process, equal protection, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It violates all of that.

So here we have the IRS under this Trump administration acknowledging they are not going to enforce the Johnson Amendment against churches, which tells churches you can now say what you want and engage, even endorsing, going far as endorsing a political candidate in a campaign. And CC, this is obviously something we've followed for a long time. The Johnson Amendment we've had issues with. It even ties into with how we push back against the IRS in the Tea Party cases, the fact that the IRS was heavy-handed in denying the applications of Tea Party groups, trying to effectively weaponize the IRS against conservative thought and speech at the time. But now is a moment because, wow, it's in a dissent decree, and that only affects those two churches in that lawsuit.

However, the language of the IRS. And it is a wonderful step forward and basically saying we are not going to be doing this going forward. Here's the crux of it, though, that we have to look forward to: how we can continue to fight this because we have a friendly IRS that's not going to put up a big defense if you have to go after something like the Johnson Amendment. We have a friendly legislature and we have an executive branch that would sign something like this into law. This is a moment that could be seized upon where it could end this bar on speech, individuals, groups, First Amendment rights to speak freely about issues, because this is a chilling effect.

Even for churches, if they knew it wasn't going to be enforced against them, they would be very cautious not to even talk about issues that are going on in the world because they're afraid that the heavy hand of the IRS would come after them and try to shut them down. Yeah, tax exempt status is very much a coveted thing for churches. And so, absolutely, this Johnson Amendment went further from just endorsing. You know, somebody who's running for a political office, it literally, like you said, had a chilling effect where if a church deemed anything might be termed political, and that's you know, a lot of things. If you're a church, you want to tell people about pro-life stances.

You want to tell people about what you think the Bible says is moral and immoral. The worldview and political view sometimes can be very much intermingled, but also that becomes an issue. And I'm sure there are a lot of churches who would like to speak more, who are just afraid. Absolutely.

Well, I think it's also we get to tear this around too: is that you now, as a pastor or as the leaders of the church, cannot hide. Yeah. It doesn't mean that every pastor has to be the most political and whatnot. I get that. But if you're somebody who's talked about these issues, but you've been able to skirt the issue about, well, we're not going to directly engage that.

We can't because we don't want to. You can't do that anymore.

So, I actually think this is a time where we probably need to double down our efforts. It's only been a few hours, but double down our efforts to educate people about what they can do in the upcoming midterm elections and then what they can do in the next Presidential election. That's how long this. This interpretation could last if we don't get this done. uh via Congress.

But another reason why to Get behind our legislators. There's so much negativity on both sides of the aisle about what our Congress is doing. And think about it: we're getting defunding plan parents of the desk, we're getting the IRS clearing the way for churches to speak out. You know, this is giving you every opportunity possible. What's the next step now for the ACLJ supporters and for the ACLJ team on those two issues, whether it's Planned Parenthood being defunded and now the TRO and everything that's come into that?

And then also on this to make sure this, like, is this permanent? Is this locked in? What's the next step and how can our people engage? Yeah, I think the permanent plan would be to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which President Trump has stated several times that he would like to do. That comes from, though, Congress.

They need to do that.

So, you know, maybe writing your congressman, getting a note to the congressman saying this is something that we stand for. We want churches to have the freedom and liberty to preach the sermons they want to preach. We don't want to go back to King George where, you know, the government is controlling what a pastor can say and just really push that let's now go for repealing the Johnson Amendment in its entirety. And that would be great. And that's something that people can do all the time is write your congressman.

Yeah, absolutely. And as a member of the ACLJ team, as a supporter of the ACLJ team, Team, we're going to figure out ways for you to easily engage in these both of these big issues. Because a lot of you have questions related to this. I understand that because now, like you said, maybe you're a pastor who said, I couldn't talk about this before.

Now, can I? Maybe they're nervous to go out and still do it because they don't understand the permanence of the law, how this all works. But also, in the other situation, they're concerned about the Planned Parenthood defunding, thinking we finally got a big win and that get to take a big step back. We actually have a call I want to take before this half hour is over. Let's go to David real quick in Ohio on line two.

Okay. David, do you there? Go ahead. Yes. Um You're one of my main sources for news, and I appreciate you guys.

My question is, how much Does Planned Parenthood donate to the Democratic Party? Sure, will.

Well, it's a broad question because they donate to Democrats ongoing. But I will just give you this figure: that Planned Parenthood set aside for the Presidential election last year, the general election, $40 million to spend on Democrats that support abortion rights in that cycle.

So whether it be for what would have been Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris when they first laid this out, or whether it be congressional candidates and on down the line. Another way they cycle it. $40 million for one election. Maybe half a billion for elections. Remember, when you go back to the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, they were the only non-government party represented at these White House meetings.

So, I mean, they are, in effect, they have become like a. A pseudo political man. That's changed in the last right, like decade. And so they're fighting to get that back. And they want you all to just say, You know what?

We've been fighting this. We think we've won this issue and just go away and not follow it closely. And also, it's the issue of, I don't want to talk about this issue because it's abortion. Yeah, it's a tough one. Just real quickly, in New York in 2010, when we sued the, went after the New York Council for a law that they implemented, every single one of the Democrat New York Council members had endorsements and money from Planned Parenthood.

Every single one of them. Every single one of them. All right. Hey, we have a second half hour coming up.

Some of you and your local stations don't get us, but if you're watching online, stay tuned. We take a very short break just for like station ID on radios. That again, we'll be back in less than a minute during this break. But during this break, it's a great time to support the ACLJ. We got a pack back half coming on.

Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us, and we're going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. But if you've ever considered. becoming an ACLJ champion or a one-time donor. This month. during the ACLJ's 35th.

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We'll be right back less than a minute. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Second half hour of Sekulow. Here we are, Will Haynes joining me in studio.

Rick Rinnell's coming up in the next segment. We're going to restate some of the news that's been going on as we have seen a now, a TRO, a temporary restraining order, be put in place on that defunding of Planned Parenthood. First, when you sent it to me, Will, last night, I was driving and my wife was next to me. I go, see what Will's texting me because we were all the way to a movie. And she's like, I think it says that there's a restraining order from Planned Parenthood against RFK Jr.

I think, what's going on here?

Well, and that is effectively what it is. It is in his official capacity as HHS secretary, as well as the Mehmet Oz, who's in charge of Medicaid and Medicare distributions. But what happened is this lawsuit that was filed and we knew it was coming, Planned Parenthood said they were going to sue. They filed the lawsuit and immediately got a temporary restraining order from this judge out of Massachusetts. And they were clever because they presented themselves before.

The court as this nationwide organization, and therefore got relief for the nationwide organization. This temporary restraining order only lasts two weeks, and then there will be a hearing on preliminary injunction. And we're not just waiting around, by the way, for those two weeks to see what happens. Our attorneys, I was on calls all afternoon and into the night with attorneys from the ACLJ, hearing what the strategy is. They are already crafting the language to get us into this case as a part of this to file our briefs to lay out why there should not be a preliminary injunction.

There should not be this case that is able to take what Congress duly wrote and passed. The President signed into law. And now, Planned Parenthood is claiming some existential right that they have to federal dollars and that they cannot be defunded. And the irony of all ironies is that when they forum shopped, of course, they went to Massachusetts Logan. This is exactly where, just over a year ago, you were in Boston and you saw these attack ads.

That were against pregnancy resource centers, pro-life centers that said it's exactly a year ago, this week, exactly a year ago, this week, was when I was walking around the streets of Boston, saw the Avoid Anti-Abortion Center campaign being run by the state. They say Commonwealth, but we're going to make sure you understand what we're talking about. Of Massachusetts, state-run, state-run campaigns saying these pro-life centers are bad news. I don't know why. Maybe because they provide formula, maybe because they provide clothes, maybe because they provide prenatal visits and ultrasounds.

We don't want that. We want you to walk in, get your abortion, and get out of here. Mm-hmm. But of course, that's exactly where Planned Parenthood turned. Because though the people, and the people have spoken out in Massachusetts en masse for us.

They were not happy with his campaign. I didn't see one of those posters that wasn't vandalized by someone who was pro-life. You know why? Because even in the state of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, even if they're very liberal, there is a large. Pro-life base, a large Catholic base.

Look, you go back to Joe Biden pre-running for President, vice President. This guy was not a pro-choice advocate. He was actually one of the people who you'd say was one of the pro-lifers on the Democrat side. That's what comes out of that area, from that Irish Catholic background. A lot of that happens there.

They may be Democrats, they may be voting for unions, they may be voting for all of these different things that are not conservative, but they're religious people who are not happy that the Commonwealth has done this. And I'm sure when they see this again, now when they've defunded Planned Parenthood, to see that Massachusetts has once again stuck their neck into this, it's going to be a problem.

Well, and Logan, you even said last year when you were explaining to everyone, when we started this campaign, this two-pronged effort, one, to sue the state and the abortion organization Wren for their silencing and their attack campaign and their smear campaign against these PRCs. You said. This is going to be the battleground. They're doing it there so they can test how it will work across the nation. Once again, you were right because now we know that that's where Planned Parenthood Forum shopped to try to find a judge that would give them this national relief, even in spite of the Trump v.

Casa decision. Hey, we only got 35 seconds here until we get to break. Rick Rinnell's gonna be joining us. And then after that segment, I want to hear from you. There are thousands of you watching live right now.

And again, if you don't watch live, you can watch us live every day from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, on our YouTube channel, on Rumble, and of course on ACLJ.org. But right now I'd love for you to get online. Get on the phone, give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. We'll take as many of you can.

If you are an ACLJ champion, you got to make sure, tell our phone screener because you get bumped up to the very front of the line. That again is 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are still waiting to connect with Rick Rinnell.

As you know, he's special envoy to President Trump for a lot of different things, and sometimes. you know, he's on the show uh mini multiple times a week, but you know.

Sometimes things happen. You can't blame him. That sometimes is just part of the deal.

So, I actually encourage you to call in right now at 1-800-68-430-110. If you're watching during the break, it's because you saw Gavin Newsom called out Rick Rennell specifically. on the six-month anniversary of the Palisades fires. We're going to talk about that when we get in touch with Rick. Hopefully, it's today.

You never know, things change. But I want to hear from you right now.

So, give me a call. If you're a supporter of the ACLJ, I want to hear from you. I want to hear from why. Why do you feel like it's important for you to make a financial and even just a mental donation? What I say mean by that is.

Someone just called in and said, hey, you're our number one news source. We're not a news organization. But I understand we have become that for a lot of people. When I talk with my team here at the ACLJ, we talk to some of the finance team. They go, hey guys, you're talking a lot about the news.

You've got to talk about what's going on in the ACLJ. And we go, yeah, but those two things go together because the media side of this, look at what we're covering. And we know for over half a million subscribers on just YouTube alone, Millions overall that watch every week on even just on YouTube. That we sometimes are your hour source, so you can tune out. The rest of the day.

You can do your work. You can go spend time with your family.

So we will always give you a bit of what's going on. We're always going to tell you about breaking news items and items that we feel are very important. Today happen to be two items that are not necessarily going to be The front page story. because they don't necessarily want them to be. And they also don't want them to overtake media.

Because who cares? People are going, hey, the churches? Are we talking about the churches? What's going on? That they can now endorse political candidates?

Yeah, they don't want that to be seen because they know what's going to happen then. What else do they not want? Oh, Planned Parenthood has been defunded and another radical judge has come in and stopped that? They don't want that either. But we're connecting with Rick Rinnell here soon, I believe.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get in touch with him. We got Rick? All right, Rick, you're joining us. We just showed a video package. From what happened the last few months, obviously it was the six-month anniversary of the Palisades fires in California.

And someone got called out by name by. your favorite person, Gavin Newsome.

So I want to know how that feels. Yeah, it's a Look, um when gavinism attacks Someone, you know that that person is right over the target. And yesterday, Gavin Newsom was big mad, very mad, that I had called him out. on his lack of leadership. Look, the reality is, is that Gavin Newsome is in charge of water management and forest management in the state of California.

Those two issues alone. are toxic. in our Great Safe. The Golden State is not that golden right now. And the reason why is is we We had a massive fire, which, by the way, we have wildfires in California all the time.

And people were watching a fire come up the hill. And all they wanted to do was turn on the pumps so that they had water to fight the fire. They wanted the hydrants to have water. They wanted to have their hoses to have water, and there was no water. Imagine watching a fire come racing towards your house.

And you don't have water. This is like a basic thing of a politician. Trash pickup, water, safety. Gavin Newsom is not even doing the basics. Homelessness is out of control.

We have homeless in all of the public spaces. Our Fortune five hundred companies have abandoned us. you I could go on and on. It doesn't matter what the issue is. In California, we are failing.

And yet, we're the most beautiful state Of all fifty states. Rick, I know that you're not used to getting criticism, so I just want to let you know that our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time that you were attacked by the sitting governor of California. But we also know that he's at the same time that he has done such a wonderful job with all these things, as you just laid out, he's taken a trip to South Carolina to tour through that state. That obviously was the state that secured the nomination, actually turned the tables around for Joe Biden when he was running. And that is where we see that the governor of California will be going to spend some time.

Do you think that he's focused a little bit too much about something that's going to happen three and a half years from now instead of paying attention to what's happening there at home right now?

Okay. Let me tell you what the people of Los Angeles are absolutely furious about. The Palisades and Malibu burned down. And they can't rebuild because the local government can't get their act together on simple permitting. People are not rebuilding.

It's six months later, and Gavin Newsome and Karen Bass yesterday had a press conference. Right before Gavin got on a plane to go to South Carolina to campaign, he had a press conference touting how great the last six months has been and how amazing. Karen Bass has done and what great work he's done. This is an alternative reality. People in California, Democrats in California are furious with this guy.

She is vapid. He is a robot. I pray to God that the Democrats nominate him. Because Democrats in South Carolina, if they are so partisan, where they think that somebody like Gavin Newsome is going to do well in a swing state of Ohio or Pennsylvania, I say double down and go for it. Because when this guy, Gavin Newsome, walks into a swing state, regular common sense Americans are going to be so turned off by his hair gel, his robotic personality, his contrived voice And his failed policies.

The guy is a disaster. It's a red light screaming for the Democrats. to avoid him and yet South Carolina Democrats want to roll out the red carpet for the worst governor in America. I don't understand it.

Well, Rick, I know that you're saying that he's trying to tout that they've done good work in rebuilding, but I also heard that he said it's partially they haven't done enough work because it's actually Donald Trump's fault because they're so reliant on illegal immigrant construction workers to be able to build that. If it weren't for the border policies of the current administration, they'd be able to do things a lot faster if we would just stay away from the illegal immigrant population.

Well, let me be clear on something. Gavin Newsom and the Democrats in Sacramento have spent. More than six billion dollars. to give health care to illegal immigrants. This is this sanctuary city idea that Gavin Newsom is the godfather of.

He's literally the godfather of sanctuary cities. is a slow insurrection. It is telling people that you get to ignore federal immigration laws. And you get to have this safety from the rule of law. You don't have to follow law enforcement.

You don't have to follow the rule of law. You get to do whatever you want. This is what Gavin Newsom wants to bring to the rest of America. is a lawless Insurrection, pick and choose which laws you want to follow. Rick, I want to make sure people actually get to see this, and we just made sure we got it pulled.

For those who are watching, if you're watching during the break and you're on YouTube or Rumble, you did get to see it already. But for those who are listening on radio or maybe the podcast later on, this again, a member of the ACLJ team, someone who's been a longtime commentator, getting called out, of course, for his work. In California. By the governor of California. And again, you should wear this as a badge of honor, like you said, when Gavin Newsom comes after you.

But let's actually hear from the governor himself. Gavin Newsom. Rick Grunnell, his so-called czar. Had the audacity today to attack this state. On this anniversary, For not raking its forest when we have a federal forest fire over 80,000 acres on Donald Trump's forests?

Yeah. Still not really answering the question, though, that you presented there, Rick. Just clearly stating a fact and then diverting. I literally said, Gavin, we live on the ocean. We shouldn't have a water problem.

And you'll notice that what he did there is he said Rick Gridill is attacking the state of California. I'm attacking Gavin Neustom, not the state of California. The state of California can't stand him. And we're tired of the excuse making and the victimization that he always pulled out. He's always the victim.

And again, I just want to finish by saying this. I pray to God that the Democrats nominate this guy. He barely works in a radical state like California, where the entire state, remember, Sacramento is run. Yeah. Republicans are not in control of anything in the state.

The Democrats can do whatever they want, which is why we have billions of dollars going to illegal immigrants, the homeless taking over, and Fortune 500 companies leaving. It's not common sense in California, and this won't work in a single swing state. Rick Rinnell, thank you so much for joining us again, Senior Advisor for National Security Foreign Policy. But always also good to hear about his thoughts when he's getting called out by the state of California, not the state of California, by the governor of California, Gavin Newsome, you know, someone who's easy to pick on, who ends up becoming sort of the butt of a lot of jokes, but a guy who actually has a lot of power. And when you hear them, again, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you're supporting having people like Rick Rinnell on our team.

And come on, you gotta wear that as a badge of honor as well if you're listening to this to know you're supporting people that even get under the skin of the governor of California. And with that, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. We're gonna be taking a lot of phone calls in the next segment. If you call in. We got right now four lines open.

I want to hear from you.

So, give me a call, 1-800-68-431-10. Pat, you're going to be up first right after this short break. Again, 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are still open for you.

And actually, we lost a caller, so we got five lines open. Usually, this is when I like to take as many calls as I can. I got a lot of people watching, thousands watching online alone. Where are you? Give me a call.

Tell me about why you support this show. Why you support the work of the ACLJ? How about you call in and weigh in on the Planned Parenthood situation and the judges? How about you call in and weigh in even on Rick Rinnell in the state of California?

Well, I felt like you're about to say something. No, I'm just going to. You gave me a moment here. Let's go to Pat, who's an ACLJ champion.

So, of course, he gets to go up first. It's also because he's the only caller right now. Thank you, Pat. But, Pat. I want to first thank you for being a champion, and also, I want to encourage you all to become champions.

Those are people that give on a monthly recurring basis. Give us a great baseline for the work that we do here at the ACLJ, and of course, helps fund this show. what we do each and every day. Pat, you're on the air. Yes, sir.

The primary reason why I support the ACLJ is because of your support of Israel. Secondary to that, it's this planned parenthood issue. I should like to see them sued out of business. And I would encourage anyone who feels strongly about either of these issues To please become a champion if you possibly, possibly can. Thank you very much.

Pat, I just want to say thank you. And I want to say thank you to all the champions. When you bring up specifically our support of Israel, look. Sadly. A lot of the organizations like ours.

have softened a lot. On their support of Israel, but not us. We have doubled down. We have ACLJ Jerusalem. And when you fund the ACLJ, you're also funding ACLJ Jerusalem, making sure we're.

telling the Israeli people that there are groups of Americans. Like Pat. Who are there behind them that are ready to speak up on their behalf, whether that's in the States or in Israel? And when you also talk about this pro-life matter, a lot of organizations, there are many organizations that weren't necessarily thrilled that Roe versus Wade was overturned because they saw their fight coming to an end. We knew that the fight was just beginning.

And it takes the ACLJ being all over the country and just even the worldview and mindset of our team. For instance, when Logan is in Massachusetts and sees a billboard and says something's not right about that, comes back on vacation. You see something, you come back, and our lawyers get to work. And what do we uncover? That there was an entire scheme between Reproductive Equity Now, known as REN, and the government of Massachusetts.

To target and censor pro-life resource centers. And where did we go? We went not only to court to fight this, which we are doing, but we also went forward with a media campaign, pushing, showing ads, showing hope, and the real choice that can come out of it. But also, you have to tie it into this because this is exactly where Planned Parenthood knew to go. And we're engaging on that too.

Our attorneys are writing as we speak. Our initial filings to enter into this case. Because you know what we're not going to allow? Massachusetts to remain a place where if you save lives, you're a target, but if you end lives, The government's paying your bills. We're going to fight this as far as it has to go.

Yeah, you got to remember: we are always on top of it. We're always keeping an eye out. Hey, well, I told you I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes.

So, you know, that's what happened there in the state of Massachusetts because all that she wants is another baby. But you know what? Let's go to Melissa, who's calling, who's an ACLJ. champion in South Carolina. Another ACLJ champion.

Unbelievable. Thank you so much for your support, Melissa. Go ahead. I am grateful that Rick Brunnell is standing up against Gavin Newsome. I cannot stand Gavin Newsome.

I left California because of Gavin Newsome. I want to see him fail. And I'm grateful for the work of the ASLJ to get the message out that California is in a crisis, but a lot of conservatives. Support the A CLJ. And a lot of conservatives don't like what's going on in California.

Melissa, I'm hearing right now from my friends in California. Legitimately, if I. Just to show you my phone, all the ones that are texting me saying, you know, we agree with him. We're glad that this is happening, that Rick has taken such a stand. He has been someone who's been on the front line supporting California.

And I said, we don't just give up on states that don't necessarily agree with us politically. I love California. I love the people there. Everyone loves the weather. I love the industries that come out of California.

It's a great place. that has just had a bad, bad run for the last uh maybe decade or so. And look, I can't say when I've been there recently, I've been there last month. And yeah, there are moments where you can't believe what's happening there. Of course, that's true in a lot of states.

And we got to make sure that we don't just abandon these states because they maybe don't agree. You know, the actual government doesn't agree with us politically. There's still a lot of great people. We have our biggest supporter base in California. Of the ACLJ, it's either California or Texas goes back and forth, but those are top two.

Okay. So, Melissa, thank you so much for calling. Are these other calls ready to go? Any of them ready? Can we make sure on that?

Because I'd like to take Jamie here. Can we go, Jamie? In Pennsylvania, ACLJ champion, another champion, which we appreciate. Third champion in a row. Wow.

Jamie, you're on the air. Oh, thank you so much. It's so great to speak with you today.

So champion reporting for duty. I am calling regarding tax policies that target nonprofit, mission driven providers. And I'm interested to know how that affects potential nonprofit organizations in the housing industry.

So, are you specifically referring to tax policies from the legislation? Are you talking about with the Johnson Amendment? I just want a little bit more clarity. It's a big, beautiful bill. Because we have um people in the industry te trying to tell us that we're going to get affected potentially by these uh this act and the bill.

We'd have to look into that, but if it's a nonprofit uh Organization, it shouldn't necessarily be affected in any way. But that is an interesting point. And once again, as a champion, thanks for bringing that to our attention. That we can look in and see what other people are trying to say. Because a lot of times there was a lot of misinformation around a big bill like this.

You know what, Jamie? I encourage you to do also is go to aclj.org slash help. Yeah. Fill out that form. You'll get a connector with one of our ACLJ legal team.

They can really break down and help you support. That's one of the reasons we're here too, is to make sure that you're running an organization like this, and maybe there's a bill that gets passed that you don't agree with, you agree with. You want to make sure how it affects you. We'll do our best to get someone on this who can really answer that question properly, thoroughly, research it for you, and be part of it at no cost. Because that's what we do here at the ACLJ.

So, Jamie, thank you so much for calling. Let's go to Chantel, who is calling. Online four, who again, another ACLJ champion. Thank you so much. Go ahead.

Good morning, guys. I just wanted to thank you guys for fighting for conservative values, especially in the court system. It's just really important at this time.

Well You can't know how much it means to me that we've had four ACLJ champions back-to-back call. I have people that come up to me on the street and look, that didn't used to happen. Come up and say, Logan, I'm a champion. And that's amazing. And knowing that you're there supporting us each and every month on a recurring basis, it's not lost on us.

I see those numbers go up and down. And when people can give, of course, if you become a champion, you can cancel at any time. But when you are a champion, you're over the 20,000 people that give on a monthly recurring basis. That's just a small percentage of what the ACLJ does here. But it does give us that incredible baseline to know where we can go, where we can budget for, what we can do.

Hey, I mean, we're doing a lot right now in our studios. And we've had this same, hey, maybe you answer this question for me in the comments. We've had this same set now for about, I don't know, seven, eight years? Think we need a refresh? What would you like to see on a new set?

We'll say no. Will likes this set. I like the set too, but you know what? I think it may be time. What do you think?

Tell me in the comments. I'll read them after the show. We only got 30 seconds left. Support the work of the ACLJ. Every dollar counts.

We have mobilized our team, whether that's in Massachusetts or wherever it is around the world. If you're just talking pro-life, over 200 cases in the last year.

So, donate today, your gift's going to be doubled. And if you become an ACLJ champion, your first gift will be doubled. And again, doubled not charging you. Another donor is going to unlock. A matching gift.

So scan that QR code or go to ACLJ. And we will target you tomorrow with more on Sekulow.