SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: On today's show, President Trump schedules a live press conference. We'll tell you what we know ahead of time. Welcome to Sekulow. I hope you had a good Easter weekend, of course, celebrating the resurrection. For those also celebrating Passover, we had both at our house over the weekend. I hope you spent a lot of time with your family reflecting.

It still was a busy weekend in the world of the geopolitical wars that are happening. President Trump will be making a press conference and a statement shortly after we go off the air. We know a little bit about what it's about. Of course, he is also currently speaking or was speaking earlier at the Easter Egg Roll next to a giant mascot of an Easter Bunny, which to me always shows America. It's just like when he did the statement and the next thing was Brett Baier saying, "And now the Masked Singer finale."

We live in a very interesting culture in America where things are really conjoined, sometimes awkwardly. President Trump went on a profanity-laced tirade threatening Iran on Easter Sunday morning. Of course, that made a lot of news, as it should have. Shocking words coming from the President of the United States on Easter Sunday. Not necessarily shocking words coming from this President of the United States, but maybe at the time.

Again, we live in a weird world where everything seems to be conjoined in a way that can sometimes feel chaotic and uncomfortable, but the line between politics and pop culture has probably never been blurrier. That shows, and today we will have a big update as we do know one of the big successes over the weekend. There was a downed aircraft in Iran. The first pilot was rescued very quickly, and the second pilot was rescued days later. We don't know a whole lot of details about this yet, but I'm looking forward to hearing about the journey. Maybe we'll know a bit more about what happened here, what went wrong, but also what went right, the daring rescue of this American pilot.

Will: To that point as well, Logan, when you think about what the left tries to say that this entire administration is trying to be a censorship regime, that they're trying to take away the fact that we have so many people that are so freely and willingly to criticize the United States during a conflict time shows that we still have our freedom of speech. It's alive and well in this country, which is good.

Logan Sekulow: President Trump showed that on Sunday morning.

Will: That's fair. But also, when you talk about the safety that we feel at home, the fact that you can have an Easter Egg Roll is kind of the beauty in some ways of the United States and also why people feel free to criticize so much is because they don't feel unsafe here at home. That may be part of the problem where they feel like there wasn't a risk from Iran. We are safe here. We can go back to the Masked Singer.

What makes in this world and in the safety of the United States even that much harder to sometimes express your objectives in a way that the average American can really take to heart and understand is because they will still do an Easter Egg Roll. That isn't canceled because of the seriousness of the war. I think it shows the fortitude and the testament to our country. However, it also opens it for a lot of criticism, and I think you're seeing that in real-time from his detractors.

Logan Sekulow: If you had the opposite, Israel had a lot of people complaining over the weekend that the holy sites for Jews, Muslims, and Christians were closed. Obviously, there was some controversy that went around there. When we had our Passover Seder at my house, we pulled up the live feed. You can always watch a live feed of the Western Wall. Of course, it was the middle of the night, but it's empty because it's closed. You can't go there right now, or very few people can go to certain areas.

There is a little bit of me that wonders if it would be better to just say, "If you want to risk it, you can risk it." That's more of an American point of view. That's more of the American in me going, "Yeah, if you want to go practice your faith how you want, go do it." But I understand the difference between there and here is the missiles are landing there. They are not landing as of right now in the United States of America, so it's a bit different.

There are some updates actually coming out before President Trump's speech. I see some of them breaking right now on the news. Let's see if we can pull some updates as we head into break here. I want to hear from you. How did you feel about this rescue attempt over the weekend and President Trump's ultimatum? He posted it on Truth Social, and it then went pretty viral. What did you think about that? 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.

Guest (Male): Let's be honest. There's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms, they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might worry about the country you'll leave behind for your kids and your grandkids. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference.

Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting in courtrooms across the country, defending your rights to speak, to pray, even how to educate your kids. Right now, when you go to ACLJ.org/difference, your tax-deductible gift will be doubled dollar for dollar to defend your most essential liberties. You're not just supporting the critical work of the ACLJ, you're doubling your impact to defend the rights given to us by the US Constitution. Double the difference. Go to ACLJ.org/double today.

Guest (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist.

Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's, it's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have some lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Later on the show, we are going to have Liam, one of our ACLJ attorneys, as well as Jeff Ballabon, who will be joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem. We will have a busy show, and I'd love to hear from you as well. I know a lot of you experienced a lovely weekend celebrating Easter and celebrating Passover.

As yesterday we celebrated Passover, know that our team is still hard at work. We were in constant communication as we were celebrating Easter, celebrating these holidays. As much as we'd love to take time off, and we do try our best to do so, things like tomorrow we're filing. I'm looking at it right now because I'm just going through it so you know. Tomorrow we're filing at the US Supreme Court to defend a church that faces crippling fines. We know about this one, how they've been worshipping. Of course, we're talking about what was going on in California against Gavin Newsom's fight over fining Calvary Chapel.

That is why our team stays hard at work. We have to have the best of the best, the most committed team. That's because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. We have had the opportunity to launch a "Double the Difference" drive. It's different than last month's, but the same idea conceptually. Because of you, we were able to unlock another month of matching. So right now, your tax-deductible donation is doubled today through our "Double the Difference" drive that's at ACLJ.org/double.

I'm going to go over a lot more details of what that means right now, some of the work we're doing, and of course, you're going to hear from Liam a little bit later from our offices in Washington, DC. That being said, President Trump is going to address the nation once again through a press conference through more of question and answer. Of course, it is related to the ongoing issues in Iran, including the rescue attempt, the successful rescue attempt of two of our pilots, as well as that threat that he made on Truth Social on Sunday morning.

Again, a lot of you woke up to the shocking threat that came through. The actual information, opening up the Strait of Hormuz, things like that, were nothing new, but very intense. There were a lot of profanities and maybe insults you could say to even their religion. There was a lot that happened. I can't even say it on the air, not even close to saying it on the air, nor would I.

There are things like this that obviously a lot of us have issues with with President Trump. You may like the overall messaging, but sometimes the words of the messenger don't exactly match up to where you think the President of the United States is going to be. But you had pilots who were lost. You had issues. That's a lot to weigh on you. I'm not making a defense of it. I think it was a pretty wild thing to say. However, it's what happened, and now we have to see how they clean it up today.

We'll see what happens in this press conference. Is there more of an update you would like? Where do you think we are with this war in Iran? Of course, I'm using the word war and they won't use the word war, understandably because there are legal ramifications of the word war, but what do you think? Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110 or put it in the chat. A lot of you are watching right now, but I understand a lot of you are watching to learn, but I would love to get your opinions and your thoughts as well. Again, President Trump will be holding a press conference shortly after we go off the air, so at the top of the hour, that's going to be occurring.

Will: That's right. And there are some very big updates to all of this. One, as Logan talked about, that F-15 which was shot down on Good Friday where the pilot of the F-15, it's a two-person crew, was rescued relatively quickly, but then the weapons systems operator who was also in that took several days to actually pull off this rescue on Easter Sunday. When you read some of these stories, this is one of those tales of American bravery which will go down and probably be a movie, just the entire timeline. The optics of it happening on Holy Week with Good Friday and then the rescue on Easter Sunday.

But you also see the coordination between the CIA running an op essentially against the Iranians with communications allowing them to intercept that, throwing them off the trail. The individual himself who used his SERE training to be able to go from the point where he was, make it up a mountainside 7,000 kilometers, and then be able to then use his rescue beacon and be able to be rescued. Plus, I think it's a testament and it shows the contrast of really what concerned us with the Afghanistan withdrawal.

We saw the administration capitulate to the Taliban to just hand over things and abandon weaponry and people behind, and it was just a mess. When you see what happened here, that a rescue mission at great peril to American men and women in uniform when it comes to landing those C-130s in an area that is not designed to hold them with a makeshift airfield with hundreds of US operators on the ground, bringing in Little Bird helicopters for the special forces to go get him off that ridge. No expense was spared to bring an American home.

That is the contrast. That is what is inspiring to the American people. You see people on the left or detractors of this entire operation say, "Look, they wasted hardware because those C-130s got stuck in the sand in Iran and they had to blow them up." To those of us that understand how important it was for the morale of the military to rescue that weapons systems operator, it is a "who cares about the planes" situation, especially when you see how much waste happened at Bagram Air Force Base. When you see what happened with all of the things that happened with that failed Afghanistan withdrawal, we got our man out of Iran behind enemy lines, and now people are trying to complain about the cost of a C-130.

Logan: I would like to see President Trump or maybe whoever else could be a part of this press conference, maybe it's some of the other cabinet members who could maybe address more of the strategy and the military side of it a little clearer because President Trump just a week ago or so had his address to the nation last Wednesday and pretty much said they had no anti-aircraft capabilities at this point. Now, we know a little bit of details of what happened there, but I think those kind of questions will be looming over people when they go, "Wait, even my son, who's 13, watched Wednesday the statement from the President, the address to the nation, and then heard about the downed aircraft and said, 'Wait, President Trump on Wednesday said they didn't have anti-aircraft capabilities anymore.'" Where's the truth in that? I would like those to be addressed. There are things that I think the American people are owed a quick, even simple explanation to have them rest a little bit with the uncertainty that comes with war.

Will: I think to that point as well, when the President says we have air superiority and you think of the amount of missions that are still going on. We took out another member of the Revolutionary Guard, another commander that is in charge of the undercover units, and that just happened over the weekend as well. When you think about the sheer amount of missions that are going, there are reports that they are getting weapons systems resupplied by nations that aren't as friendly to us, maybe Russia, maybe some of those other actors that would like to see more damage to the US military.

We still have air superiority. This was also an F-15E. That is from the 80s. These aircraft, which are still wonderful and still used by that, it wasn't as if our most advanced new technology was taken out by their systems. They were able to down this. This is the first fighter jet that was brought down over Iran since the beginning of this. I think that does not take away from the fact of what the President says when he says we have complete control over. There is still opportunities for them to make things happen as it goes forward because the conflict is not over. There is still great peril to American pilots as they continue these missions. However, I think it is still true that the air superiority, the ability to continue these attacks remains.

Logan Sekulow: That's where what I mean is just give those explanations for people that maybe are the more casual news viewer that aren't watching 24 hours a day. They may only be watching when the President addresses the nation and then catch a headline on Instagram or catch a headline on Facebook and go, "Wait a second, tell me the difference here." These are these opportunities that I hope President Trump and his cabinet take the opportunity to explain to the American people really what's happening so we can anticipate at least some answers. I think a lot of it will be saying the heroic efforts that went on to rescue these pilots. I believe that will happen. But again, we want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110.

When we get back, we're going to talk a little bit more about work on the ACLJ side as there is some updates, and we're going to have one of our ACLJ attorneys, Liam, joining us. We've only got a minute and a half here. I was going to take a call. Douglas, stay on hold. I'm going to get to you coming up pretty shortly. So we'll have Liam, and then we're going to take some more calls at 1-800-684-3110. Like I said, you're making a big difference in this country just by participating in this show each and every day. But of course, if you want to make that even more of a difference, there's a time and there's a way to do it. That's right now throughout the month be a part of our new "Double the Difference" drive.

You can do it today. "Double the Difference" means you give, and there is another ACLJ supporter or champion who has pledged to unlock any donation they can. Tomorrow we have our deadline to file our final brief asking the Supreme Court to take our case against Gavin Newsom's fight over fining Calvary Chapel. We're representing a school board after an anti-Christian group tried to stop them from opening meetings in prayer. We've engaged in over 142 religious liberty cases and matters in the last calendar year. We get new contacts every single day.

That's only answered because people like you go online, go to ACLJ.org, and you make a donation because these clients don't pay a dollar, nor should they. You don't pay a dollar to watch this show, and we don't want it to be that way. We don't want to ever have to do that, but that only happens because people like you support us. Go to ACLJ.org right now and double your difference today. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories for 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.

Guest (Male): Let's be honest. There's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms, they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might worry about the country you'll leave behind for your kids and your grandkids. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference.

Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting in courtrooms across the country, defending your rights to speak, to pray, even how to educate your kids. Join the fight. Go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I will be taking calls in the next segment because we have one of our ACLJ attorneys, Liam Herrell, who is joining us right now from Washington, DC. Then later on the show, Jeff Ballabon, ACLJ Jerusalem, he'll be on. So in between those times, in just a couple segments, I'm able to take your calls and comments. So hit us up right now, 1-800-684-3110. Two lines open. If you're on hold right now, stay on hold. I will get to you. It may take just a few minutes because I want to give our audience an update. Liam, maybe we need to start with the background of these street preacher cases that we've been working on for 40 years. If we want to talk about the current one we're doing, Will, I see it on the tip of your tongue.

Will: Yeah, well, and that's one of the main reasons I wanted to have Liam on today is to talk about the decision that came out of the Supreme Court and how it can affect this part of the practice of the ACLJ, something that Liam is very heavily involved with and does great work achieving victories for clients. But the Olivier v. City of Brandon decision that came out just a little over a week ago from the Supreme Court, 9-0 authored by Justice Kagan, is something that will be a guiding piece of Supreme Court jurisprudence that now we can use and also may open up doors for more clients.

The background here is that this individual was a minister, a street preacher, that was able to go out and do this in Mississippi, and then he pled no contest when there was a citation against him. The city then tried to say, "Because you have pled no contest, you can never try to sue to get our ordinance overturned." What we see is that the Supreme Court said, "No, he has every right to continue to do that." Liam, how does this impact not just for this individual, and we filed amicus in this, we're very happy with the outcome, but for the entire practice of the ACLJ? Because we know cities try to weaponize their ordinances to get people to go away.

Liam Herrell: That's absolutely right. What is so important about what we do here at the ACLJ is obviously we have clients all around the country. We are always working these First Amendment cases, these freedom of speech, freedom of religion cases, but we have to also be aware of what's happening in the broader legal world. So even though this case came to the Supreme Court in a different way, we needed to be attuned to it, and we realized right away that the potential of this case could have a huge impact on our clients.

Many of our clients end up in municipal court or local county court. Sometimes with ACLJ representation, we always hope, but often times before we've had a chance to get involved. It might seem so tempting to just pay a small fine. The lower court tried to do in Olivier was say that paying even just a fine might permanently foreclose your opportunities to get vindication in federal court. We knew that was wrong. We knew that was not the intent certainly of the Bill of Rights, and that's why we intervened as an amicus and we could not be more pleased with the result. A unanimous decision by Justice Kagan and really an excellent outcome for our clients.

Will: Once again, we can talk about this momentarily, that we are now in the middle of that case against Chicago, something that you have been from the very beginning representing those individuals that were Chicago tried to cite and bring forward winning that victory, but now suing as we see this pattern. A decision like this out of Olivier is so important, and that's why I really wanted to spend some time on it today. Especially with those that feel called to this type of ministry, this takes a lot of their time, the resources to be able to fight something like that in court.

They are giving the easy option of saying, "Just pay the fine, you don't even have to say you're guilty, you're just saying no contest, I'm not going to fight the charge." That does seem like the attractive way to get it to go away. But then you are stuck with the fact that you have no recourse when they violated your rights. Their entire goal in not just in Chicago or in Mississippi as this case was, but everywhere we see these ordinances are to try and shut down First Amendment activity. It takes organizations like the ACLJ that will fight these at no cost to the client because the cities understand that they do not have all these vast resources to fight it. It almost gives away the narrative, the fact that they tried to stop him from suing in that case in Mississippi because they're like, "If we get them just to pay the fine, we can shut it down permanently."

Liam Herrell: Absolutely. This, I think what this really goes to show is that when it comes to state and local governments, this was not a question about the merits. We actually, if you want to look at the underlying merits of this case, what the city did in this case is absolutely an affront to the First Amendment. They weren't going to win on the First Amendment, so what they tried to do was a tactic to just get this out of court. It's a tactic we've seen time and time again, and that's why it was so important that the ACLJ get involved here.

For all of our clients, like you said, clients who don't have expensive attorneys on retainer. These are street preachers, people who are just trying to maximize their impact of their religious outreach. It should not take a team of sophisticated attorneys to just vindicate your rights in court, and that's why this outcome was so important and why it was so important not just for the First Amendment freedoms, which we all cherish, but our clients specifically. Like you mentioned, our clients in Chicago, our clients in Georgia, a lot of these guys are street preachers who have these what we would call parallel cases, a state court matter but also a federal lawsuit thanks to the action of the ACLJ. Because of this decision, we now have another roadblock between our clients and justice removed.

That's why it's so important when people donate to the ACLJ, what they're seeing is real results. We are there at every level, at the initial lawsuit, at the state court, and even as an amicus in the Supreme Court. I think that's what makes us such an important tool in that free speech battle that we're seeing rage across the country. I mean, this was a 9-0 decision. This shouldn't have been hard, and yet we're seeing time and time again it has to come down to affirmative lawsuits and skilled litigation from people like the ACLJ.

Logan Sekulow: Liam, we only got about a minute here. I just wanted to also say for those who are watching, what is the impact on this for them as they may want to do something similar? Maybe they want to be a street preacher, maybe they have kids that are talking about those kind of outward expressions of their faith and evangelizing. What does this now set in terms of precedent for protecting them?

Liam Herrell: Absolutely. Listen, if you are out there and you are someone who was engaged in your free speech rights and maybe you got in trouble, maybe you violated a noise ordinance, maybe you violated a free speech zone, something that maybe you just paid the fine, but now looking back on it, you're raising your eyebrows and saying, "Hey, was that constitutional?" This is another roadblock gotten rid of. Call us, get on the website, that's what we're here for 24/7. Our attorneys want to look at your case and see if there's some way we can help you.

Logan Sekulow: All right, again, that is at ACLJ.org/help. Thanks, Liam, for joining us today. We're going to be back in just a minute and we'll also be joined by Jeff Ballabon from ACLJ Jerusalem giving us an update on obviously the war with Iran. Israel is very involved in that war. I want to take your calls as well. Three lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Some of you don't get us on your local station for the full hour, but if you're watching online, stay here. We're not going anywhere. We broadcast live each and every day, 12:00 to 1:00 PM, full hour, full television-style broadcast. That's at ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble, and then later on however you get your podcasts, we are there. We're right back with more on Sekulow.

Guest (Male): There's a lot happening in America right now. Our values, our faith, our freedoms, they're being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might feel like you have no say over it, but you make a difference. Right now, you can make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting across the country, defending your rights to speak, pray, and even how to educate your kids. Join the fight. Go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.