Sekulow Weekend

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes is in the studio as well. Got a packed show for you today. And look, it’s Friday. We are wrapping up this week’s ACLJ Liberty Drive. I need you to be a part of it today. If you’ve ever thought about donating, during these special months we’re able to offer really great opportunities to have your donation doubled. What that means is there’s an ACLJ supporter or an ACLJ Champion—that’s someone that gives every month, like a member—who decides that they will pledge to unlock a donation. What we do is pull them all together and we have a very, very large potential. So large that, like I said, if we ever hit it, I’ll tell you one day, but usually we can match anything that’s donated by an ACLJ supporter. I encourage you right now, if you can, to go to aclj.org and have your impact doubled today. Stand with the ACLJ, not just in our fight in the courtrooms. Even if you just watch this show and you like the media side, this is not a small operation. We have a huge team that works on the media operation each and every day to make sure you get this show, like it says at the beginning, to keep you informed and engaged. We create not only news coverage but we actually tell you the truth. Again, as I always like to say, whether you like it or not, we tell you the truth. We’re not here to just tell you what you want to hear. It’s something very different, what we do here. And we do it in a way that’s professional, we do it in a way that’s consistent, and we do it because we believe in the truth. I want you to right now join us during this ACLJ Liberty Drive. We’re going to cover a lot more today, but I wanted to start there because it is Friday. I’m not going to have as many opportunities to give these sort of big pushes over the weekend. So right now, that’s why I wanted to do that.
Will Haynes: That’s right. When you think about the truth that we fight for here at the ACLJ and the foundations of this country, those are things that it almost feels like a luxury these days to be able to go and get content that is just going to tell you straight what we believe as an organization. What we see the fight ahead as being is so much seems to be in an ecosystem, whether it’s conservative or liberal. It doesn’t matter, but you get caught up in the talking points of one side or the other. Sometimes, for better or worse, you may not like what you hear. But we are going to tell you what we believe the truth to be and what falls within our constitutional framework. That comes sometimes at the expense of making one side or the other mad. But we’re not afraid of that. What we know is that you have to keep fighting for these principles. You have to hold fast to them, and that’s what we do here. Whether it be the legal work or the fights that our attorneys are engaged in every day, or whether it be our UN work where we are trying to share the truth and spread the light to a very dark world. A world that doesn’t want to hear the truth many times, we are doing that. Our senior counsel, C.C. Heil, right now is overseas. When she gets back, she’s going to be able to talk about some of these things she’s doing in North Africa right now where she is representing the ACLJ to speak about religious freedom and about protecting those that are persecuted for their faith. You may not see even some of the moving parts that are going on behind the scenes every day because we can’t cover everything every day. But know that there is so much work going on. When you support the ACLJ, especially during this Liberty Drive, it is vital to keep that work going.
Logan Sekulow: That’s right. So that’s what I’m going to encourage you to do. Look, there are days where we just feel like we have to talk about the work of the ACLJ and we have to do some fundraising. Today’s one of those days. Be a part of it. Be a part of this team. I see a lot of you comment on YouTube all the time. You’ve created a whole community, a whole family there where you go back and forth. It is the same on Rumble, where the same people join us each and every day. They have their own sidebar discussions. If you even like that, the fact that we’ve built a community of people that are like-minded, and sometimes not so like-minded, but are cordial and respectful and will have these conversations. All of that happens because we’ve got moderators and we’ve got all of this huge crew. Whether that’s our production crew or the editorial crew, all of it happens because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. I never want to put our content behind a paywall. I never want to ask you to pay for legal work. You’re never going to have to pay for legal work if we represent you. And I certainly don’t want to have to ask you to pay for any of the media operations that we have here. I want to make sure it’s easy for you to share this content with as many people as you can so we can get our message out there. Really, when it’s our message, it’s your message because you represent so much of what we do here at the ACLJ. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built. Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That’s why this month we’ve launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America’s birthday, we’re redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to aclj.org/liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled dollar for dollar to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberties. We’ve witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we’ve achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn’t just the ACLJ’s, it’s all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we’ve won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ Champions. It’s been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at aclj.org/freedom. Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. President Trump right now is also meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister at the White House. So if there’s anything worth noting, we have a team watching that and we will break in if we need to. My brother Jordan is joining us from Washington, D.C. First we’ve got to say and let them know in the chat, happy birthday. Welcome.
Jordan Sekulow: Thank you. Thank you very much. We won’t disclose the age because after walking around Capitol Hill with some of the meetings this morning, when you’re talking to the younger people and you used to be the younger guys on the Hill working, you realize you are at a different point of life.
Logan Sekulow: You’re not staffer age anymore. We can say that much.
Jordan Sekulow: No, definitely not staffer age. I was just talking to one of our attorneys. We are not junior attorneys anymore. There we go.
Will Haynes: Jordan, you’re on Capitol Hill. We’re actually talking about today the security that Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett are actually testifying about for a security increase. I think it’s pertinent to talk about this. You’re there. We’ve seen the security threats even against those Antifa members and the terrorist members that were arrested while trying to attack the UFC event. We’ve seen security for our nation’s capital and every branch of government be something that’s a heightened threat. You’re there in D.C. We know that the crime rate in D.C. has actually gotten under control in a way that we haven’t seen in decades there, but the threat to our institutions seems like it’s at an all-time high. I want to give you a moment to speak about this, even as we see this unusual event. It doesn’t happen often—the last time was 2019—that Justices go before the Appropriations Committee asking for more money to keep them safe.
Jordan Sekulow: Yeah, I was actually in a meeting with Senator Hagerty, who’s on this broadcast a lot, and his chief of staff and a couple of staffers. It caught the corner of my eye because I saw Justice Kagan testifying. I was like, this is not replaying a video unless we’re talking about a judicial nomination that somehow happened in this crazy last 48 hours. It’s very rare to see because you don’t have the court broadcasting any kind of back and forth when it comes to the visuals. You get the audio, but it’s also interesting to see them on the other side of the room, if you will, sitting down and having to answer questions instead of being the person who does ask questions. I know Senator Hagerty is going to have an opportunity this afternoon as well to be a part of that questioning. I think there’s a lot of bipartisan support. Our office is behind the U.S. Supreme Court and right catty-corner to the first Senate office building in Russell. There’s already a lot of security right here because this is the street Justices or their vehicles come down to park. Anytime that the court is in session at all, which means the Justices are there, this street is blocked for vehicles. We can walk down the street, but the armed guys come out, and not just with handguns, but also sometimes you’ll see machine guns and a big presence. They do this when they know there’s a big case either being argued or that the decision’s coming out. On a regular basis, you’ve got a two-block or two-and-a-half-block radius that is now expanding down 2nd Street. So if you were to take a right out of our office, it used to kind of stop right at that intersection. It now goes blocks further. I think that tells us right there that something needs to be done quickly enough because of the amount of security threats the court is facing. I think that you’re hearing that today from the Justices. When we talk about the wise use of resources and the intimidation tactics, we want to make sure Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court feel safe so that they can’t be intimidated by groups for either ideological reasons or just because they happen to be a Supreme Court Justice. We live in an age where you don’t see much of this visual. You’ll see sometimes them doing lectures and things like that, but not this kind of a visual. We’re living in a day and age where you can’t hide behind the building anymore. With that being said, I think in Washington and where we are and what we do, as long as it’s smart and it’s things that have already shown in the past to work, it’s a good place to invest resources. This is not just because our office is right here and not just for the Justices, but for all of the American people who visit Washington, D.C. and our nation’s capital. Maybe they do it once or twice in their life, and they deserve to feel like they are safe when they are taking tours and going to the most important places that our federal government is associated with. So it’s not just for the Justices, it’s for all that staff. Behind us, they’ve got a parking lot and people are working 24/7. These are huge government buildings. From everybody down to the janitor on up to the Justice themselves, you want them to be safe. You also want law enforcement on the Hill, the Capitol Hill Police, to be able to focus on their job, which is different than the Supreme Court Police’s job. They work together, but they have a different client they're focused on protecting. So yes, it is serious in Washington. You guys have seen the talk about what’s happening potentially in front of the White House. That's something they can also probably be more temporary about, but there’s just nonstop threats. I think that’s as far as I can go with communications I’ve had, but the threats do not stop. It doesn't mean that they’re all credible, but we’ve seen in the past that there are people that will act or try to act against these Justices.
Logan Sekulow: Jordan, I think one of the other issues here—and this is something we’re going to get into later in the broadcast—is the broader issue. These threats are the unfortunate symptoms of what is happening at a broader level in our country. We saw first in 2016 and then 2024 the way that the left said President Trump is an illegitimate President. They delegitimize the executive, and what do we see? We see violent threats. We see people that feel like the only thing they can do is use violence to try and stop the executive. We saw then through the Supreme Court—illegitimate court, pack the court. You see that symptom again. You see them having these threats again against the members of the court. Now what we’re hearing is that the DSA, who has all these candidates that are now going to be in Congress because they’ve won their primaries in safe blue seats, is calling to abolish the Senate. I know you are meeting with Senators, but they think it’s an illegitimate thing because of the very reason the founders created the Senate. They wanted to have equal representation from states and not just a direct population representation like the House. They want to get rid of it. So obviously, it's very difficult, if constitutional at all, to amend it out. But that’s their goal. I’m not as concerned about them getting rid of it on paper as much as the threat to the very people that you’re having meetings with because they’re delegitimizing now the third branch of government in the legislative branch. Jordan, it’s shocking and also dangerous.
Jordan Sekulow: I would love to know if Bernie Sanders is a self-hating socialist enough that he would support getting rid of really the only job he’s had, which is in politics as an elected official. Maybe he had some part-time work as a professor when he was much younger. Will, it is rhetoric. It comes down to the idea that they’ve been demonized. The left really took that mantle on. On the right, we would disagree with decisions by Justices and by the Supreme Court, but we never made it personal or made these calls for violence to make it difficult for the police to do their job of just trying to keep people safe. The whirlwind that we’ve heard with Senator Schumer just reminds us all that the rhetoric that is being used in Washington that is most dangerous emanates from the left. It’s the radical left, and they are being normalized by becoming members of Congress in the House of Representatives. Their rhetoric is becoming normalized. So I am glad to see Justice Kagan there as well to make it clear to everyone that this is not some partisan move. At the same time, much of the rhetoric is coming out of the left, especially the rhetoric that takes it past, "I fundamentally disagree." Then, of course, there is this "abolish the Senate" talk. The Constitution can be amended, but here is the thing. It’s interesting for those socialists that what the Senate does is to make sure that states with smaller populations still have full representation in Congress because they’re not going to get that in the House. They’ve got to work together, the House and the Senate, so that they are representing all of us equally.
Logan Sekulow: All right. Well, thank you, Jordan, for joining us. I know you’ve got a lot of work to do. We appreciate it and happy birthday. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s hear from you about this. Also, we are right smack in the middle of our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Be a part of it today. Have your donation doubled at aclj.org. Do that right now. aclj.org. Scan the QR code you see on the screen. Whatever it is, all donations of any kind are doubled right now. They’re matched by incredible ACLJ supporters and champions. We’re going to take your phone calls when we get back. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open. We have a lot of callers coming in at 1-800-684-3110. We are talking about the security and safety of the Supreme Court Justices as they were testifying today to try to get the budget upped due to ongoing threats. We can kind of trace back. Supreme Court Justices in modern day have always been a little bit of celebrities. In the '80s and '90s, there were people that we all knew of. We knew their names and their faces, but maybe they weren't as regularly a part of the mainstream media. Maybe they weren't targets of attacks. They were maybe targets within their own political parties. If you watched CNN or you watched the news, you knew about these people. The difference was, and a lot of it goes back to the Dobbs decision, we can flash back to someone like Senator Schumer. He started to inflame the rhetoric. We know this has been an issue with the right and the left over the last decade or so where it’s went beyond politics and started becoming very personal. If you live in a modern day in a modern society, finding out where someone lives is not exactly the hardest thing in the world, especially when those people are public figures and Supreme Court Justices. You have Supreme Court Justices like Amy Coney Barrett or Brett Kavanaugh who have come under real threats from people who are crazy and have been inflamed by their political leaders. So let’s flash back before we take this call. Let’s flash back to Senator Schumer back when the Dobbs decision was leaked.
Guest (Male): I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price! You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
Logan Sekulow: Again, threatening the Supreme Court Justices from our elected officials. We have some callers coming in about that. I want to go to Martin in North Carolina who is an ACLJ Champion—that’s someone that gives on a monthly basis automatically, like a membership, which is great. I always like to give them the first bite of the apple here. They’re always able to get on the air quicker. Martin, go ahead.
Guest (Male): Thank you, sirs. I’m glad that you all are at the helm. Jordan hit on it too. It's a two-faced thing that I’m going to touch on. Exactly what you just said. I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech and I’m glad we have it. But like you just said, Logan, it becomes inflammatory. I don't know how you could do it, but I would really like to see some sort of way of holding these things in check. It’s almost treasonous, that kind of rhetoric with the leaks that are going on with the Dobbs decision, Schumer, and Comey leaking. Even this last week and a half, two weeks, the leak that came through the news media about the assassination. There’s got to be something to hold people accountable so that we can move on and do things decent and in order, as they say, and not have these inflaming arguments and rhetoric continue to fan the flames for the crazy people out there that are going to do stuff.
Logan Sekulow: Martin, you can hear real fear in the voices of these Supreme Court Justices who are out there testifying for Congress asking for more money for their security to be raised. Let’s hear from Amy Coney Barrett again talking about something that’s just happened to her in the last few weeks.
Guest (Female): It’s also been reported in the news that roughly six weeks ago I was the victim of a swatting incident. At that point, one of my teenage sons opened the door to go out with friends and saw that our street was full of police cars who had responded to a false report of gunshots and raised voices in my home. I was very, very grateful that I had Supreme Court Police outside my home because they were able to stop and meet with and explain to the county police that it had been a false alarm. So the police didn’t actually attempt to enter our home.
Logan Sekulow: Understand that on many occasions, and this has happened directly to people again sitting in this room, you have people who feel justified in making your life miserable because they disagree with your political point of view. Maybe it’s a little bit different because they’re the ones who are deciding the law of the land here. If you have political leaders saying, "Unleash the whirlwind. We are going to go after you. You’re not going to know what’s going to hit you," Senator Schumer may be living in an old-school mentality thinking, "Well, I don't mean physically." But we don’t live in that world anymore. We live in the world where every word is scrutinized and where everything is justified. Sadly, we have now seen that rhetoric raise up, not just toward a Supreme Court Justice, but across the board. It is not even just for political opponents or people that are in the political sphere. Basically, if you’re willing to have a voice, you have to be willing to take real security protocol because your life may be at risk.
Will Haynes: Well, once again, I think the positioning of this before the Congress today involved Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, and Justice Barrett, a Trump appointee. It was two different Justices from two different eras. Also, Elena Kagan opened her remarks talking about Senator Graham, who just passed away, because of how he engaged with someone that he didn't agree with. That’s one of the things he caught flack for. He was on the Judiciary Committee and actually was the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time of his passing, but he would get flack for voting for nominees that were judges from the other side. She pointed out that it’s rare these days. It used to be Justices got 100 or 99 votes to sail through. What she was trying to point out was a way to disarm the committee a little bit and say, "Hey, we're here." Obviously, it’s a Republican-led committee at this time, and they were there for a specific reason. Now, there was one Congressman from Wisconsin who was trying to make it about the shadow docket. They’re asking for security and obviously they have their prerogative and they can do what they want with their time, especially when they don’t get to speak to the Justices very often. But he was trying to in some ways use the rhetoric that people have been using to delegitimize the court itself by saying you took a lot of things on the shadow docket and you made a lot of these decisions. Justice Barrett said, "Yeah, we’re the court." If it comes before us when we’re out of session and it’s a stay grant request, we have to dispose of it. We have to either grant it or not. That’s how that works. But even in their questioning, when they’re talking about security for their families and themselves, there were Democrats trying to go after something that has been a Democrat talking point and a media talking point this entire year. To Martin’s point, the rhetoric of Chuck Schumer was very bad, but it’s not only isolated to people on the left. Even the dehumanizing language that we see when people say demon-rats or "They’re all demons," that’s a dehumanizing thing. We may disagree with them, and a lot of their policies may be anti-human or evil in the way that they are so pro-choice. But it doesn’t mean that you strip their humanity or their being created in the image of God from them and try to find a way to work toward a more perfect union.
Logan Sekulow: When we get back, I want to play the bite that Justice Kagan spoke about Senator Graham. Maybe that is a little glimmer of hope that we can get back to that kind of place. The fact that we’re talking about who is uniting us feels like the most unlikely case. Sadly, it would have been the passing of Lindsey Graham, someone who was very controversial and very polarizing for a lot of people. But what you’ve been able to see is that it was old-school Washington, D.C. in the way that he worked with people and actually could get things done. Maybe we need to get back to that. Speaking of getting things done, it is our Liberty Drive. Be a part of the ACLJ team today at aclj.org. Scan that QR code. We’ll be back in just a minute. Less than a minute break here. If you lose us on your local station, find us on aclj.org or wherever you get your podcasts. We’re live 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time each and every day. We’ll be right back.