No Quarantine on Religious Freedom
It’s not a date most people have circled on their calendars. But whether they know it or not, May 4, 2017, was the day most Americans were set free.
It’s not a date most people have circled on their calendars. But whether they know it or not, May 4, 2017, was the day most Americans were set free. Free from government imposed anti-religious mandates, court battles, and fines. Free from jail threats, harassment, and closures. After eight long years of an administration at war with religious freedom, President Trump leaned over a piece of paper in the Rose Garden and vowed, “We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore.”
It was the first step of a thousand this administration has taken to reverse the devastating trends of the Obama years. Now, three years into his executive order on religious liberty, Americans don’t have to live in fear of the federal government. For once, Washington is an ally — not an enemy, at least on religious freedom. He’s proven it with meat packers, cake bakers, nuns, and Air Force colonels. Then he sided with health workers, adoption agencies, private schools, and federal contractors. Because for President Trump, restoring religious freedom wasn’t just a box he checked on his campaign promise whiteboard. It was a deeply personal mission to restore what Americans had lost.
Even now, in a time of unprecedented, nationwide suffering, this administration hasn’t let a challenge like the coronavirus distract it from the commitment it made more than 1,000 days ago: to protect what America stands for. The Trump team has been adamant, even from the earliest days of this outbreak: “the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis.” If ever we needed faith, the administration has insisted, it’s now.
And thanks to Trump’s Department of Justice, local churches are getting the help they need to practice it. When local officials have used the lockdown to put the squeeze on churches, Attorney General William Barr’s staff has been on the ground, pushing back. “Expect action,” DOJ’s Kerri Kupec warned any would-be tyrants. And they got it. Just last week, in a shot across the bow, the nation’s chief law enforcer said all eyes were on the states. Any threats to freedom, Barr insisted, and his attorneys would be there in a flash to intervene.
If they were unconvinced, at least two incidents should have proven the DOJ’s sincerity. In Mississippi, where churches were being ticketed for drive-in services, Barr himself ordered his staff to file a “statement of interest” in the case — which essentially, DOJ’s Eric Dreiband explained on “Washington Watch,” tells the court which way the department thinks they should rule. Fortunately, the court listened and agreed that the city can’t single out churchgoers for harsher treatment than anyone else.
Over this past weekend, Dreiband’s staff was busy again — this time in Virginia, where police (under liberal Governor Ralph Northam’s direction) threated a pastor with jail time for holding a 16-person church service on Palm Sunday. State officials say that the Lighthouse church somehow violated the Virginia Constitution. Hardly, the DOJ insists, since the pastor insisted on “rigorous social-distancing and personal-hygiene protocols.” As far as Barr’s team is concerned, the criminal treatment of these churches is unacceptable. “The Commonwealth of Virginia has offered no good reason for refusing to trust congregants who promise to use care in worship in the same way it trusts accountants, lawyers, and other workers to do the same," DOJ’s Dreiband argued in a statement.
Elsewhere, liberals in places like Kansas City, Missouri, seem intent on getting the administration’s attention with ridiculous monitoring measures like detailed registries on anyone who enters a church. Supposedly, the mayor’s new 10/10/10 rule is meant to keep tabs on non-essential businesses and other entities that open to the public. But some Christians are crying foul, since — conveniently — other gathering places, like grocery stores, are exempt. It’s just another power-grab in a long list of battles this administration will keep on fighting.
As frustrating as these flashpoints might be, they’re another example of just how much Americans have to be grateful for. Six years ago, our government wouldn’t be defending these churches — they’d be teaming up against them! Now, under just three years of this administration, we’ve seen a dramatic change in how freedom is regarded in this country. But this progress isn’t etched in stone. All it takes is one election for everything to go back to the way it was — when Americans were punished for their faith or excluded from the public square, rather than welcomed and protected by our government. Even now, with all of the uncertainty swirling around us, we need to stay focused on what’s at stake. And what’s at stake — for believers — is everything.
For more on this administration’s legacy on religious freedom, check out my new Washington Times op-ed on the three-year anniversary of the president’s executive order.
Originally published here.
Joe Biden’s Court of Mystery
Donald Trump did a lot of unconventional things in his run for president, but releasing his short list of possible U.S. Supreme Court justices proved to be one of the smartest. With the courts topping most conservatives’ concerns heading into 2016, the names were a reassurance that no matter what else the GOP nominee did as commander-in-chief, he would at least be leaving behind a legacy of constitutionalists. Now, three and a half years’ worth of confirmations later, people are wondering what Joe Biden’s list would look like. But they’ll have to keep wondering — because so far, he’s too scared to release one.
Interestingly enough, it’s not just conservatives who want the Democrat to provide one — but liberals too. Instead of answering the call, the Biden campaign seems more interested in skirting it, saying only, "Joe Biden was proud to… lead the fight against many Reagan judicial nominees… like Judge [Robert] Bork” when he served on the Senate Judiciary Committee.“ Rather than tell anyone who he’s considering, the Judicial Crisis Network’s Carrie Severino says, "Biden would prefer to play hide the ball and remind us that he was an architect of the modern-day smear campaign against Republican-appointed top-court nominees. Biden presided over the hearings for Bork and later for Clarence Thomas, both of which were the foundation for the unprecedented Brett Kavanaugh confirmation train wreck we witnessed in 2018.”
But, as Carrie points out, Biden’s record isn’t exactly one to brag about. “The vilification of Bork in 1987 was so intense that it added a new word to the English language. To ‘bork,’ according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means "to attack or defeat (a nominee or candidate for public office) unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism or vilification.”
Liberals, realizing that the courts were Trump’s most compelling argument to voters in 2016, want to capture a little of that magic for themselves. “Left-wing interest groups want Biden to release his list because they want assurances too. They want a commitment from Biden that he will appoint liberal judges who will reflexively achieve the liberal policies they want.” How? By bypassing the democratic process of course.
On “Washington Watch” talking with Sarah Perry, Carrie points out that people have been asking for these names for a year. “Let’s go head-to-head and compare these [with Trump’s]. But [the Biden camp] doesn’t want to do it. And I’m loving the fact that even the liberal groups… and activists and money groups on the Left are saying, ‘We don’t know what you’re going to do.’ …All they’ve seen so far is these outstanding men and women who have a record of being faithful to the Constitution and the rule of law coming out of President Trump’s [administration].”
Of course, we do know one thing about Joe Biden’s nominees: they’ll all be pro-abortion extremists. He admitted as much at one of the last Democratic debates. “A litmus test on abortion relates to the fundamental values of the Constitution,” Biden said. “A woman does have the right to choose. If they rule it to be unconstitutional, I will send to the United States Congress, and it will pass, I believe, a bill that legislates Roe v. Wade adjusted by Casey.”
Lists aside, the courts are only going to get more important the closer the election gets. Depending on who controls the Senate, Democrats know the sky’s the limit for them if Biden wins, especially when it comes to things like court-packing. Judges are the key, Carrie warns, to delivering “the kind of America that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the far-Left dream of.” Maybe that’s why Biden is holding back. As NRO’s David Harsanyi points out, the only thing the former vice president would be doing is scaring conservatives. And come election time, a scared conservative is a motivated one.
Originally published here.
Planned Parenthood’s Silver Lining of Death
Staying home is supposed to keep people safe. But for unborn babies, even lockdowns have their risks. Any house can be an abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood wants people to know. You just have to call for pills.
“It’s actually a silver lining in this pandemic," acting CEO Alexis McGill-Johnson insisted to Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman. "Planned Parenthood and many other health providers have actually been able to really lean into telehealth infrastructure and provide service.” To the country’s biggest abortion business, the “silver lining” of the coronavirus is more deaths — more innocent, unborn, child fatalities made possible by their money-hungry network.
Gleefully, McGill-Johnson goes on to say that by the end of April, Planned Parenthood will have expanded its so-called “telehealth” operations to all 50 states. That means women can access abortions remotely — chemically-induced procedures that carry significant risks. They tell women that it’ll be simple, natural, safe, and private process. They’ll recover in a day, maybe two. What they don’t tell them is that they might deliver a tiny, perfectly-formed child. Or that they’ll experience labor pains, heavy bleeding, vomiting, or lose consciousness. They don’t talk about the depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks, and substance abuse that follow. Or the weeks to months of recovery time, usually managed alone.
They don’t tell them the stories like Solome’s. “I had blood all over my legs and went in the tub to wash them. The cramps got so bad I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t even cry…” she testified to the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. “I couldn’t get to my phone to dial 911 and go to the emergency room… I haven’t really healed from my experience, and I don’t know if I ever will.”
Or Elizabeth’s. “There was so much pain and blood I thought I might die.‘ Finally she passed the gestational sac: 'It was transparent yellow, about the size and shape of a tennis ball. When I picked it up, I could see the baby inside. He looked like a little gummy bear. I sat and held him and cried. Then I flushed my baby down the toilet.”
Or Tammi’s. “It was nothing like they told me… I pushed under I felt something come out and I heard a sound. I looked down and screamed. It was not just a blob of tissue. I had given birth to what looked like a fully-formed, intact 14-week-old fetus covered in blood…”
This is Planned Parenthood’s “silver lining:” babies who don’t have a chance at life, women who are haunted and harmed.
For more on the new battleground over chemical abortion, don’t miss FRC’s issue analysis by Patrina Mosley, available here.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
