The month of June has been hijacked by the anti Christian culture
>> Jeff Chamblee: The month of June has been hijacked by the anti Christian culture to show their pride in something God calls an abomination. When you support afr, you help us continue to stand for godly values and provide the resources for you to stay in the know about the enemy's tactics. To say thank you for your gift this month, we'll give you the booklet Inside the LGBTQ push of the 1990s. To help strengthen your convictions, just go to afr.netoffers afr.net offers welcome to today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as we offer a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Ed Battagliano.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And, ah, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon. This week, it is June 17, 20, 20, 25. Joining me in the studio, Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, it's, D day. D. D. It's D day. Is it for hockey?
>> Ed Vitagliano: For. For hockey. That. That is true. Let me introduce the rest of the guests.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Who mean nothing to this conversation. the rest of the hosts. ah, Wesley Wildmon. Good morning to you.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Good morning. I'm sitting on your left, but I'm not on the left.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You're not. And you're not politically to my left either.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's what I mean when I'm not. Not on the left.
>> Ed Vitagliano: all the young guys.
>> Wesley Wildmon: But I'm sitting on the left here.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You and Walker and my son Tony, they're all to the right of me.
>> Wesley Wildmon: You try to compete politically? Competition.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Far right as we can get.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Chris Woodward, geographically, I guess, is to the right of all of us.
>> Chris Woodward: Good morning.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Morning. Good morning to you.
>> Chris Woodward: And I'm a big baseball fan.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. We don't care. So explain what you mean by this is D day in terms of the Stanley cup playoffs.
>> Fred Jackson: Well, as far as the finals in the Stanley cup, hockey finals, we're down to perhaps the very last game of the year.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: because Florida is up 3 to 2 over the Edmonton Oilers. I rooting for Edmonton.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right. The last Canadian team left in the.
>> Fred Jackson: Playoffs, and I have to say they've been a disappointment. So Florida Panthers win tonight. this will be their second Stanley cup, championship in a row.
>> Ed Vitagliano: In a row. And their third appearance. And their third appearance in the finals. They lost in the first one.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes. And I, I think we need to thank the Boston Bruins for giving up. Mr. Marshall.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. so, folks, for, for most of you who are listening, who do not care one whit about this conversation. Brent Creely, our producer, is shaking his head. He doesn't care. Our cap. My team, the Boston Bruins, traded our captain.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: To a team most Bruins fans despise.
>> Fred Jackson: Uh-huh.
>> Ed Vitagliano: The Florida Panthers. And he has had a whale of a playoffs and may very well not only help them win the Stanley cup, but might win the Con Spyf trophy for the most valuable player. It is just bizarre situation. but I think I told you, Fred, I'm having a hard time deciding who I wanted to have win. I like Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. I'd like to see them win a cup and return the cup to Canada. And I hate the Panthers, but I love Brad Marchand.
>> Wesley Wildmon: So it's like a quarterback that's really talented on a team getting traded to his rival.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And then leading him to the playoffs.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Okay.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It is, it's been, it's been a wild thing. But tonight the game is in Florida.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And this is game six. If they win, it's over.
>> Chris Woodward: I hope that the professional football team in Miami would take notes on how to win a championship. So Tua, if you're listening to me, please.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Stay healthy, I'm sure. And win.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm sure all the NFL is listening.
Fred Staver talks about the College World Series playoffs with Matt Staver
They should program.
>> Chris Woodward: This is the show called Today's Issues.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So. All right folks, well for the 99% of you who are listening who do not care about hockey, thank you for indulging Fred and I. Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And now for your College World Series playoffs.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Do you have something you'd like to share?
>> Wesley Wildmon: Only one thing. Since we're talking sports for just a moment, it's worth noting the pitcher for Arkansas last night, Monday night, through a no hitter for the third time ever in the College World Series. Third time, in the College World Series ever. And so dating back as long as they've had the World Series, top eight teams in the country the threw a playoff. he threw a no hitter complete game. You don't see that much.
>> Ed Vitagliano: What's his name?
>> Wesley Wildmon: His last name's Wood. I can't. I don't have to find his first.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, anyway, congratulations. I just thought we'd give him a shout out. We do have listeners, a lot of listeners in Arkansas. Where is the College World Series being played?
>> Wesley Wildmon: Omaha, Nebraska.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Is it always an Omaha?
>> Wesley Wildmon: Always in Omaha. It has been since I've been watching.
>> Fred Jackson: Your mom and dad actually drove up.
>> Ed Vitagliano: There a few years ago when Mississippi.
>> Wesley Wildmon: State was in It, that's right. In 2021, my dad's like packing up and asking me can I goes if I don't have three kids. In response, like adding a little, little more of a notice or just don't ask because now I'm sitting here looking at the clock at like 10:00 at like 10:00 at night and he's packing up to leave the next morning to go. Because it was kind of a last minute thing for them, because they were wanting to see how far they went. They, they didn't have the time or the, you know, or the, or the money to go for the whole volleyball series experience. But when they saw that state was going to make it, they, you know, lastly. And he asked me to go and I was like, it's like on a Monday and I've got like a whole week of plans and responsibilities. Yeah, why did you even ask? Just leave. But yeah, so made it worse in 2021, they were able to go and they enjoyed that. And just wanted to mention we're out in the middle of that right now. And the picture for Arkansas, Gage Wood. Gauge wood for a no hitter to.
>> Ed Vitagliano: This young man, his team and his family. I'm sure, I'm sure they're thrilled. So.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right folks, just to let you know at the bottom of the hour, Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council, will be here on campus and in studio we have a couple of legal questions, dealing with current issues, to pitch Matt's way. Whenever we have an attorney in studio, sometimes it's Jenna Ellis or Abe Hamilton iii. We like to kind of pick their brains a little bit. None of us here are lawyers. So when we have the opportunity, we like to.
>> Wesley Wildmon: We all tried and we didn't make it past the first year. Just kidding. No, we didn't try. I don't, I didn't try to anybody else here try to be a lawyer?
>> Ed Vitagliano: No, I always tell, I tell the story fairly frequently that I was when I went to college, this before I became a Christian, I was a pre law. My intent was to go to law school and became a Christian and felt the calling to go into the ministry. So that's where my education led me after my second year at Boston College and But my mom, later on in life she would brag to people when she would introduce me. Yeah, my son's a minister. He gave up his law career for the ministry. And I would say, ma, ma. That's a, you know Sell the Boston accent. I was never a lawyer. She said, well, you went to law school. I said, no, I didn't go to law school. I was pre law in undergraduate. She said, oh, same thing. You never win an argument with your mom.
>> Wesley Wildmon: No, but it. You know what? I'm glad to have Matt Staver in studio with us. It's great to have Christians, with those that have a biblical worldview in law.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Just like we need them in, politics and we need them in government, we need them in education and entertainment. And I'm grateful for the mat for Matt Staver and his team and what they do.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen. Amen.
President Trump posted on social media that people in Tehran should evacuate immediately
All right, so that's bottom of the hour, folks. All right, Chris, anything happening in the Middle East?
>> Chris Woodward: a few things. A few things. So, let's begin here. Yesterday, President Trump posted on social media that people in Tehran, should evacuate the city immediately. And, of course, that raised a lot of eyebrows. Why in the world should, people evacuate? What's going to happen? What does he know? And based on a story that Fred just posted on afn.net, it appears that the people of Tehran did listen to Donald Trump and took his advice. Tehran empties out after Trump says the city should evacuate immediately. Of course, this all has to do with the war that has broken out between Israel and Iran. For people that maybe are just now getting back to the news, the war really kind of got going last Thursday, our time, late Thursday night, us, time when Israel, which felt it had no other option but to attack Iran based on its nuclear weapons research, bombed various, parts of Iran and took out air defense systems. They took out things that they were doing to, research nuclear weapons, things like that. Of course, Iran retaliated, and the two nations have been shooting rockets at one another, for several days since, because of this conflict. President Trump was actually at a gathering called the G7 summit, which he left yesterday to go back to Washington, D.C. to meet with national security leaders and foreign policy advisors over this situation. That was when Trump put it out on Truth Social that in all caps, evacuate Tehran. and again, it appears that people have taken him on his advice.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Fred, this is obviously a situation that is not going away. It doesn't seem to be calming down. There does not seem to be any hope at this point of any kind of a ceasefire or any kind of a negotiations. In fact, I think, Iran, the leaders of Iran have said all along they are going to get a bomb. Yeah, they are not giving that up. So I'm not sure what kind of negotiations could happen unless the, the mullahs who run Iran believe that they might lose power instead. What hap. What seems to be happening is things, are escalating. As Chris, mentioned, we have talked about on the show, I think we mentioned yesterday about the, the tankers, that's refuel fighter, jets and bombers and you know, whatever air power assets we might want to use. So there's no real telling, literally only God knows where this is going.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, exactly. at one point, during the G7 meeting that Chris, referenced, Macron, the French leader, said that Trump was returning to Washington overnight, to negotiate a ceasefire. And President Trump was somewhat upset about that. He said, I'm not returning to, negotiate a ceasefire. Here's the reality. October 7, 2023, changed the whole mindset of the Israeli leadership. Yes, they have had, I'll call them skirmishes with Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran for years and years and years. But October 7, 2023, when Hamas massacred more than 1200 Israeli men, women and children, it changed the whole mindset. The idea of, we're going to fight for a little while, then we'll have a ceasefire and we'll hope for some peace. And those ceasefires, the year or so of peace always gets broken by the bad guys again. And I think Netanyahu and his cabinet, have just decided, they decided for Hamas. We're not going to allow Hamas to regain control in Gaza. That's the way it's going to be. And I think they're taking this same approach with Iran. Now, we're not going to satisfy you, we're not going to be satisfied with a ceasefire or, you know, we'll just watch things over the next couple of years to make sure you don't develop. Here's the thing. they believe Iran, is, is on track to develop a nuclear weapon.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: Plain and simple. They are not going to allow Iran to do that and they are going to do whatever is possible. Just, watching an analysis from a ex CIA person. In this battle right now, Israel owns the skies. That plain and simple. they did some more missions, into Iran, overnight again, there's been a few missiles. The reality is Iran is running out of missiles. Yeah, they've already fired off hundreds of these things. there's been damage outside of Tel Aviv, but not too bad. I think we're down. There was some video yesterday to show you how exactly Israel is in its bombing. Perhaps most of our folks have seen it. This was the bomb that went into the Iranian television station. and we saw the video, the lady on the air, and we don't know what she was saying.
>> Ed Vitagliano: She looked like she was ranting.
>> Fred Jackson: Oh, she was ranting. Her hands were going. And all of a sudden things begin to blow up around her and she left, she left the studio. That's how exactly her. And by the way, this story I just put on afn.net afn.net, if you read down, folks, through the story. Let me just read these two brief paragraphs. Meanwhile, Iran has banned government officials and their bodyguards from using all communication devices linked to the networks. The ban announced Tuesday includes mobile phones, smartwatches and laptops. Iran did not elaborate on the reason for the ban, which was reported by the semi official Forest News Agency. I think I have a pretty good idea why they did that. they remember exploding pagers. they believe Israel, and probably Israel does, has the capability to track people when they use their cell phones and.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Laptops to communicate and to know who's using the phone or the laptop and whether they're worth a missile.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes, we know. We've been reporting that at least 12 Iranian officials have been taken out by the Israelis in the last five days. The vast majority of their military leaders, their intelligence people and the scientists that are developing the nuclear, side of things. There is one military leader, who was appointed to take place of one of those who was taken out. He was taken out last night.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: So he had the job replacement. Four days.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Fred Jackson: As a replacement.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Wesley, I totally agree with Fred saying Israel after October 7th and we're coming up on two years, the two year anniversary of that, they realize there's no more playing around. They're going to get rid of, Hamas, they're going to get rid of Hezbollah, which they have shattered, those two. and they are going to, I think they want to get rid of the mullahs in Iran while they're at it. While they're at it. And, and, and completely devastate their nuclear plans to get a nuclear weapon. at some point, Wesley, if you're under attack, you have to make the decision that is going to save your life. And it seems like that's what Israel's doing.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah. And if you think about it, if we go back, they made this decision when they had a hostile, United, States administration against them. They, they made this decision when Biden was in office. They didn't care anymore, right, about what other people thought, that they knew what they had a, they were going to respond not just according to the measure, but to eliminate the problem.
Ford: The big question is, is the United States going to get involved
And so, and that's what you're seeing. And now you have an administration that seemingly, you know, from all that I can tell, is supportive of it. Do we have any of the most recent comments from the White House on what's happened in the last couple of days?
>> Fred Jackson: Well, as we mentioned, Trump jetted back to Washington from the G7 meeting in Alberta overnight. Got back to Washington at 5 o' clock this morning, Washington time. We do understand there is going to be a very high level meeting, of their officials, in these kinds of situations who are in charge. And so we're not sure what's going to come out of that. There's a lot of talk, you know, does the US get involved more than it is right now? As Ed was mentioning, we have a lot of in the way of Navy resources, both in the Persian Gulf and the eastern part of the Mediterranean. we understand, there are, because of those tankers, dozens of them that flew across the Atlantic on Sunday night. We're not sure where they're going right now. probably some of our bases in Iraq, in Saudi Arabia, that kind of thing. So that tells me they are prepared, to at least to support, perhaps the Israeli Air Force. The big question is, is the United States going to get involved, in other words? Well, Trump has already warned, Iran, if you start attacking our bases.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Fred Jackson: Taking out our personnel, it's all over. We're coming at you.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Well, he says right here in a quote, Trump told ABC News, quote, it's possible we could get involved. And he cited, citing the risk of US Forces in the region that you just mentioned.
>> Chris Woodward: It's worth mentioning too that, even if bases are not attacked in some part of the Middle east, ah, a large, large number of Americans do reside in Israel. Now, numbers are all over the place. You can Google it and you can find all kinds of things. Basically, I'm going to throw different numbers at you. Anywhere from 80,000 to as much as 600,000Americans live in Israel. That's a wide range.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Now, some of them. Let me ask you just real quickly before you go any further, are those people who have dual citizenship, can you have dual citizenship Israel and somewhere else.
>> Chris Woodward: Like the U.S. yeah. And again, numbers are all over the place. so I mean anywhere from 80,000 to as much as 600,000Americans. These are people that were born In America. Maybe they moved there, maybe they're working there, whatever it may be. So even if, Americans die in Israel based on a rocket attack from Tehran, that is an attack on America in a sense. we'll see whether or not, the administration does something.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, that will depend on how President Trump interprets that. I don't think that that's technically an attack on America because Israel attacked Iran first. This is a preemptive strike, which I'm in full agreement with. I mean, they don't care about what I think. But just personally, I'm in complete agreement because apparently from what we've been hearing from intelligence sources, that Iran was very close to developing, I think we said on the show yesterday, nine nuclear weapons which they have already said they would, they would use to obliterate Israel.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Israel has every right to take them at their word. I, also think Iran would have handed off some of those to other countries to use against us, or even rebels. Yes, and so, so this, but this, but it was a pre, preemptive attack. Israel initiated the hostilities here. So if Iran, and Iran of course has a right to defend itself and if Americans who are in Israel are killed, I personally don't think that that is grounds for us getting involved. But again, President Trump's the one who makes that, that determination. However, if Iran attacks, either itself or through its proxies, attacks U.S. bases or U.S. ships, then that is a declaration, that's a clear declaration of war against us. And, and I think that Iran would feel the, the full brunt of US.
>> Fred Jackson: Military might be watching. And we've already heard this. Fordo Fordeau is the, primary uranium enrichment facility in Iran. This is the one that's buried deep, deep down, that's going to take multiple bombings or perhaps one of these bunker buster bombs.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: Which the United States has. These things weigh about 30,000 pounds.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: I, don't think Israel has an aircraft to carry that weight. And that's why a lot of people are talking about could, a, an aircraft that the United States has be assigned to the Israeli Air Force in order to get that. That is the big one. That is the one the Israelis believe. That is where Iran is almost at the point of having the Iranian Richmond available to make a bomb. there's talk yesterday, and I think we mentioned this, that there is a belief that the Iranians could have at least nine nuclear weapons, within weeks.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, this is, listen, the Biden administration should have in My opinion should have continued and, or strengthened sanctions against Iran, because they were determined to have a nuclear weapon. But the Biden administration did not do that. the Obama administration. We all, we talked about this yesterday. Pretty well known about the pallets, of cash going over there in the dead of night to Iran. this has become a political issue as well, because you have Republicans want, wanting to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The Democrats don't seem to be on the same page. So Israel has had to decide this is what we're going to do. We're going to protect ourselves.
>> Wesley Wildmon: So, and now is it, hasn't Israel, shut down travel in and out of their country for. Yeah, for how long?
>> Fred Jackson: The, the airport, the Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv is completely shut down.
>> Wesley Wildmon: This has happened, I mean, recently, like since Thursday.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, since last Thursday. If you go on flight, Aware is a software where you can track air traffic all over the world. It's really interesting right now when you look at a map of the Middle east, all the planes are going around that area, like, completely clear. Yeah. Jordan, their airport is open, but when a plane takes off, it goes deep down in towards Egypt and back up again to the north.
>> Wesley Wildmon: I got you.
>> Fred Jackson: So it's, the air. You don't want a passenger airplane going through that area right now and getting.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Accidentally even hit by a surface, to air missile.
>> Chris Woodward: There was a guest on Exploring the Word yesterday. Fred talked to him as well as Bird Harper, Sergei Brasov, and he talked about how air traffic, had been shut down since last Thursday, as we just discussed. And he said that according to what he's heard there in Israel, because that's where Sergey was calling in from, that it was going to be June 23rd at the earliest before you could fly out. And that's under, like the rosiest of expectations.
>> Fred Jackson: There are some people that are leaving, Israel right now. They are being bused over to Amman in Jordan and they're getting out that way.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's, it's in war. I've never served in combat.
People are staying out of war zones because accidents do happen
I've never been in the military. But I'm guessing there's enough fog of war that you don't want to be in a war zone, certainly don't be flying in and out because accidents do happen. And, and you don't want to be the one who's tragically, you know, shot down or your bus has been hit by a, by an errant rocket. and so it's not surprising that people are Staying out of there if they can at all help it. All right, folks, we're going to take a short break. You are listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. When we come back, Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council. He's going to clear up some legal questions we have. And, you're not going to want to miss that. Hope you join us.
Today marks three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned
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>> Jeff Chamblee: This is today's issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the archive@afr.net now back to more of, Today's Issues and.
Federal district court judges have issued 25 nationwide injunctions halting Trump's policies
>> Ed Vitagliano: Welcome back to Today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon. This week I'm, joined in studio by Fred Jackson, Wesley Wildmon and Chris Woodward. We now want to welcome to the program and welcome to the Today's issue studio Matt Staver, who's founder and chairman of Liberty Council. Matt, welcome, welcome back.
>> Matt Staver: Thank you. It's good to be here.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Fred, we have a, as I mentioned at the top of the hour just to kind of tease our listeners, when we get a lawyer, an attorney, especially one with the credentials of Matt Staver, we like to maybe learn a thing or two. So what's the, first story that we want to pitch to Matt?
>> Fred Jackson: Well, if you follow the news at all it seems every second day there's a federal district jud that says Donald Trump, President Donald Trump can't do something, on so many different fronts, whether it has to do with deportations or stopping money flowing through groups that he doesn't think should get taxpayers money, et cetera, et cetera. Well, there was a headline in the Daily Caller just a few days ago, that says Senate Majority Leader John Thune has asked, Senator Grassley. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, to come up with some legislation to stop these federal district judges from doing what they're doing. And the story says federal district court judges have issued 25 nationwide injunctions halting Trump's policies. Now, that compares, I, think they said, to four nationwide injunctions during the first hundred days of former President Joe Biden's term and six during the first hundred days of Trump's first term. So, I think, Matt, people have called it, the Democrats and their supporters are very good at, judge shopping. And these Republican leaders say, is there any way to stop this, these nationwide injunctions?
>> Matt Staver: Well, I think there is a way to stop it. This is really a problem that we're seeing in the Trump administration with regards to these judges trying to really create national and even international policy and going far beyond their author. And so we see these injunctions where they're cherry picking these individual, judges, primarily judges that were appointed by Biden or Obama. there's only one, I think, that was appointed by Trump, but it was a different, much more narrow issue, and it wasn't a nationwide injunction. But what we're seeing is there are judge shopping, and these judges are taking individuals who might have even a possibility of a complaint. Many of them really don't have standing at all, as individuals. for example, like all these different people that were transported to El Salvador. Who has standing to bring that? It's not those individuals bringing the case. It's different organizations that have an interest and they don't have standing. So they're allowing these people to come into the courtroom, many of them that don't have standing, they don't have the right to sue in the first place. And then they're granting them, not relief. That's just limited to their case, even if they are entitled to limited relief, but to the entire nation. And in doing so, they're trying to throttle President Trump's executive authority, and they're overstepping their boundary and authority as a federal judge. So there's several pieces of legislation that are pending We've been supporting some of these pieces of legislation, and one of them is that these judges cannot give nationwide injunctions, that they can only give relief to the specific person based upon the specific facts in front of the court. If you want to go beyond that, like, let's take a look at the COVID situation. Liberty Council. We litigated a lot of COVID cases, and in the context of the Department of Defense, we sued because of their unconstitutional Covid shot mandate. Well, we got injunctions for individual people that were being forced to take the shot or be pushed out of the military. But in order to represent all of those individuals, we had to move for a class certification. And that's a specific criteria where one person can represent a broader group of people. Otherwise, that injunction is just for this lieutenant, this captain, that major. it doesn't affect everyone else. And so there are criterias that you have to abide by to get a class action. And the class action has to be that that particular person that you're representing represents a specific legal issue and the facts are relevant to all the people. So you don't have to individually prove all these 10,000 different facts. They all have the same thing in common. So it has to be very simple according to the law, very simple according to the facts. And then you can get a class action. But that's not the case. For example, take, say, these people that are, in El Salvador, they all have different stories, right? There's not one person that could represent all of those. So you no way could get an injunction that would affect all those people. At the same time, you couldn't get a class action. And you certainly should not be able to get a nationwide injunction, because that really oversteps the authority of the judge.
How complicit is the media on stories involving, like, activist judges
>> Chris Woodward: I have a question. So a lot of people, they don't understand the law. Maybe they just never pay that much attention to it. Maybe their school system didn't, include that in the curriculum. And therefore, a lot of people get their knowledge of the law from what the media tells them. Law. The law says how, complicit is the media, on stories involving, like, activist judges. Because CNN's not going to reach out to you for the comment where you might tell us, listen, this judge has no reason to rule this way.
>> Matt Staver: Well, they are very complicit. And I think that's why you need places like AFR to be able to actually set the record straight and American Family association with some of the material that comes out in the magazines and other publications. But the Standard media has its own bias, number one, and number two, it has limited information even if they don't have bias. So for example, when the Supreme Court decides not to take a case where you're asking the Supreme Court to take the case, a lot of times this so called mainstream media, or legacy media, whatever you want to call it, they will say the Supreme Court rejected this or ruled on this. Well, no, they didn't. They just decided not to take one of those cases. But there's no actual result, from that. There's no decision, there's no, majority opinion. but on these particular situations, they tell the public what they want the public to hear and it's very much anti Trump. And so they, they craft their stories to make it look like Trump is just lawless and these judges are trying to corral him back in, under the Constitution, when in fact it's the other way around.
>> Wesley Wildmon: This is Wesley here. I don't have time to look up the numbers here, but a couple, about two, three weeks ago we were having this similar conversation and if I remember correctly, it was, it was two or three times the amount of, local, or federal judges shutting down, Trump's administration and his policies as in just a couple of weeks, as opposed to during the whole four years of Biden's term. What is that not obvious in and of itself to, should be to the general public that the court system is against the, the, the Trump administration as a whole. At least that's what it looks like to me. Just by looking at numbers.
>> Matt Staver: I wouldn't say the court system writ large. I would say that selective judges that are being targeted by those special interest groups, they are filing suit in specific jurisdictions. Know there's a heavy concentration of judges that are appointed by either Biden or Obama. and their likelihood of getting one of those judges because of the ideology that they were selected by, by those two presidents is very high. And so that's really what you're seeing.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Okay. In that case, then they're doing the very thing that they're accusing us.
>> Matt Staver: Yeah. Say for example, some of these cases, one of them just got dismissed recently because they filed it in a, in a state that had no connection. The plaintiff and the legal cause had no connection, but they liked the judge, so they filed it in that particular state and they're really clearly judge shopping. it got dismissed because it has no connection. You'd have to have somebody who actually lives in the state or somebody who's injured in a state so that you could actually sue. You can't just pick and choose anywhere you want to SUE in all 50 states. And that's what we see happening. And that's some of the problems that we see. And consequently we've also seen in the first six months of the Trump administration more trips to the United States Supreme Court in six months than probably any president's term. Whether they've been back to back terms.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Matt Staver: And it's because he's had to go there time and time again. Most of the time he's gotten relief a couple of times, you know, it was 5, 4, and they didn't give him exactly what he wanted, which was disappointing because I think they should have. But most of the time he's winning those. And I think at the end of the day, at the end of the day, what will ultimately happen is he will win a large percentage. I mean in the 90 some percent of these, there may be a few that he loses at the end of the day, but most of them he will win. Unfortunately, what it does is it delays the implementation of his agenda. And that's their, that's their goal. Yeah, he'll win at the Supreme Court at one point and he's won a lot of them already. But, but they want to stop him. And if they can't stop him, they want to delay him.
Matt Staver: Congress has the authority to set the criteria on injunctions
>> Ed Vitagliano: The voice you're listening to is Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council. Matt, before we get to our final question, you mentioned that Liberty Council was supporting one or more of these pieces of legislation that might rule in these acts. rope in these activist judges, let our listeners know where they can go to follow what you guys are doing and how to keep up with not just this issue, but other things that you're. That Liberty Council is doing.
>> Matt Staver: Absolutely. We have two different websites. One for Liberty Council, which is our legal organization, and that's just lc.org, lc.org and then our 501c4 public policy organization, Liberty Council Action is lcaction.org lcaction.org so lc.org or lcaction.org and on that particular issue regarding these pieces of legislation, we address that, particularly in one of those websites. So those particular bills that are out there would say that judges cannot make an injunction that applies to individuals beyond those that are currently in front of the court. So you can't do these nationwide injunctions. And Congress clearly has the authority to do that. In fact, the only court that is mandated is the United States Supreme Court under The Constitution, all the other courts and how you get into the courts, whether it's by a constitutional question or if there's no constitutional question, diversity, because you're in two different states and the value of your case is in excess of $75,000. All that criteria is set by Congress. So Congress has the authority to set the criteria on these injunctions as well.
Three high school boys in Virginia under Title 9 investigation for alleged sexual harassment
>> Fred Jackson: All right, Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, they seem to be in the news a lot over the last several years. Well, there's another case, according to a Fox News story this morning, this involves three high school boys at a Virginia, at the Loudoun County High School, these three boys were in their locker room there at the school and a biological girl came into the locker room and they were very uncomfortable with that. but when they would complain to the school district, they were placed under a Title 9 investigation for, quote, sexual harassment. We've heard this before, but the story gets really, really interesting. So three boys, they're placed under this title, nine investigation. However, one of the boys, the case was dismissed. Now, according to Fox News in its dismissal letter, the school district said that the, one of the students was a Muslim. And they said that the Muslim students alleged conduct, even if proved to be true, would not constitute sexual harassment. Has defined in its Title 9 regulations 3 boys initially under investigation. School district finds out one of the boys is a Muslim, the other two are Christians. and then they say, well, we're going to drop the case against the Muslim student. I can't see why there wouldn't be a court case over this, Matt.
>> Matt Staver: Well, you have two school districts, Loudoun county in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland in Maryland. And they're both just absolutely out of their minds and they are pushing LGBTQ agenda to an insane level. Like for example, the Montgomery County School District in Maryland brags that you have 386% increase of gender non conforming students because they're pushing LGBTQ. And of course that's the case, from that school district that's up before the U.S. supreme Court. But Loudoun county is in the same situation. I mean, they're just crazy against people of faith. And that particular situation is obvious that they're discriminating against based upon Christian viewpoints because they're exempting this Muslim.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Matt Staver: Who had the same complaint based upon his Muslim faith that the Christians had based upon their Christian faith. So how can you drop the charge against the Muslim and continue it against the Christians? they're going to lose this case, but they not only need to lose the case, they need to face damages for something like this because they need to not only get an injunction and a slap, they need to pay for their unconstitutional actions. And I think they will if they don't back down.
>> Fred Jackson: But so brazen to say, okay, three boys, one Muslim, two Christians, but they're comfortable making a decision. Or at least they are for the moment comfortable saying, well, the Muslims, to them, we're not going to do it. Now, the story goes on to say there's a fairly large Muslim population within that school district. It sounds to me like politics going on here.
>> Matt Staver: Yeah, there is definitely a larger population of Muslims in that Northern Virginia area. but I think it certainly is politics and it's favoritism and that favoritism is not going to work. And in fact, you know, the U.S. supreme Court just recently had a case where they ruled 9 to 0. It's the Catholic Charities case. And it was in that particular situation where the state, Wisconsin. Ah, or the state. Actually, the state. In that particular case, the taxing authorities said to this Catholic Charities, you're not going to get this tax exemption because you're not proselytizing enough. they're doing social services. And so they weren't proselytizing enough and they were providing their services to people that are not only Catholics, but other non Catholics. The Supreme Court unanimously said, this is not a hard case. You can't discriminate religion among religion. That just came out. And, that particular decision was written by justice sonia Sotomayor with 9 to 0 decision. That's the same kind of thing we're dealing with in Loudoun County. They're discriminating religion against religion, and that's clearly unconstitutional.
Matt Staver says Congress can change rules without a president signing them
>> Ed Vitagliano: Matt, we're going to let you go. I do have one logistical question. Just, just briefly flipping back to the previous question. When you remark, and most people who understand the Constitution know that Congress set up the bottom two layers of the federal, appellate system beneath the Supreme Court. You mentioned that Congress can change the rules. Is that something that. Does Congress have to actually put forth a bill that would then have to be signed by a president, or can they just simply change some regulations that govern it without it actually being a bill? How does that work?
>> Matt Staver: They would pass a bill and then the president would need to sign it.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay.
>> Matt Staver: But certainly under this particular scenario, if they got the bill passed, President Donald Trump would sign that bill. So they can limit, for example, bankruptcy. It only goes to a bankruptcy case or court. Tax cases only go to tax courts. You don't put them in other standard courts. So Congress creates specialty courses. Maritime courts, they go to maritime courts. You know, the FISA courts, they go to certain FISA courts. So Congress sets up the individual courts, what they have jurisdiction over, and then the criteria for how you can actually bring your case into that court, all that's set up by Congress, and that's part of legislation that they present. And those bills are signed by whatever president's in office at the time.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Matt, Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council, has been our guest today. If you want to find out more about what Liberty council is doing. LC.org, lC stands for Liberty Council, or LCAction.org that is their, more political arm. But both of those websites, have all sorts of great resources and keeping you up to date with the legal issues that Christians but also others are facing, in 2025 and beyond. Matt, I get the websites, right?
>> Matt Staver: You got the websites, correct? Absolutely.
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, thank you so much for being on with us and helping clarify some of the, issues that we're facing that these, laypersons here, we can't answer them like a real attorney.
>> Matt Staver: Well, thank you, and it's an honor to be here with you live here in the studio.
>> Ed Vitagliano: glad to have you. Next time you're in town, if you have a moment, we'll make room for you to come.
>> Matt Staver: It's my pleasure.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Thank you, Matt.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Well, you know, we were able to get through that without my dad here, because he would have taken us off track many times. It was very. It was. It was very quick, to the point. We got very educated.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. Got educated.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And we weren't distracted.
>> Ed Vitagliano: well, some of those distractions take us in fruitful directions at times, but not always. Not always.
Supreme Court grants review to First Choice Women's Resource Centers case
All right, Chris, what. What else you got for us?
>> Chris Woodward: Well, let's, keep it with the Supreme Court for a moment, because on our website is a story that Fred posted. the headline is Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Appeal from New Jersey Faith Based Pregnancy Center. Yesterday, the justices agreed to consider an appeal from First Choice Women's Resource Centers in New Jersey, which wants to block a 2023 subpoena from the Attorney General there, Matthew Platkin. The Attorney General is seeking information about the Crisis Pregnancy Center's donors, advertisements, and medical personnel. and I do have audio from the attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing, First Choice Women's Resource Centers. Let's play clip 13.
>> Speaker G: So the Supreme Court just Granted review in this case today. This is a case that's about, the New Jersey Attorney General's unlawful targeting and harassment of First Choice, which is a pro life pregnancy center. He's had a campaign to target pregnancy centers with, intrusive subpoenas. He's demanded that First Choice overturned or external over 5000 of the names of its donors. And we've been challenging that in federal court. We've been fighting for the right to be heard in federal court for a year and a half. And the U.S. supreme Court just granted our request for review on that issue today. So we'll be taking that to the Supreme Court this fall.
>> Chris Woodward: I, apologize for speaking over the sound bite. they're wanting this heard in federal court because the Attorney General is wanting to do this in state court. But ADF argues well that's not really a fair venue because attorneys general argue all kinds of cases in state courts. That would be like us going into his backyard and trying to win a case here. So they're wanting the U.S. supreme Court to intervene and rule on this, faith based pregnancy center's behalf.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You know, Fred, this is typical for blue states. and Matt Staver, who was just here with us, in studio, the hostility towards Christianity in particular, not just religion in general. I know this is becoming a common page out of the leftist playbook. It only seems to be the hostility towards Christianity that's manifested. but in this particular case, this is pretty common that where they try to. The only reason to get a list of donors is so that leftists can dox the donors. Try, to get them fired, protest outside their homes. It's an intimidation tactic.
>> Wesley Wildmon: I was gonna say also. Also to intimidate them in some way that wouldn't make them say, okay, okay, maybe if I'm not connected with them, then I'll be left alone.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So this is, this, this is going on all across the country in blue states.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, absolutely. And it's just more of the judicial activism. It's more of, the Democrats, the aclu, whatever the case may be, of, they have friends in the court system. And this always. What comes up in my mind is the left always preaches tolerance.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right?
>> Fred Jackson: They always preach tolerance. But they are the most intolerant. They not only want to shut their opposition down. No, it goes beyond. They want to punish them. Yes, they want to punish them so that, to set an example that other groups will not try to set up a conservative group. You know, concerns of. In this case, you know, dealing with abortion, whatever the case may be. So it's, people need to take note of that. They're not tolerant. They don't want to just put you out of business. They want to punish you for what you believe.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And that's out. Just. That was one of the points I was going to make. So just to elaborate on that, the reason we cover these types of issues is primarily as a reminder for us that when we, we as conservative Christians or those that, support the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, that when we go out to basically stand for the grandmothers who, the grandmother who is at the abortion, clinic, who's praying outside, when we go to support someone like her, and we're accused of proselytizing or infringing on someone's rights, by the Democrats, by those on the far left, we've got to remember that they themselves are doing the very thing that they're accusing us of doing. Because so many times for us, when, as a Republican, as a conservative, so many times that we concede based on the accusation and we don't want to be accused of anything. But, what we're seeing here with the no Kings protests and, and what they're are about. What they are about is the, vet, like I said, the very thing that they're accusing us of. Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You know, Wesley, just to kind of follow up, and there's the music for the break, but, these, these leftists, they don't mind proselytizing young people when the issue is lgbtq. I don't. Ideology.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: What they, what they don't want is for Christianity to get out there.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: it's only the ideology that they approve of.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And that's certainly a spiritual, warfare issue.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen. That's right. All right, folks, by the way, our thanks to Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council, for, dropping in and helping us sift through some issues. But we are going to take a short five minute break. Well, it's five minutes. Whether you think that's short or not. It will be a full five minutes for news. When we come back, Steve Paisley Jordahl will be joining us with more of the information and news stories we're covering at this time.
Chris Woodward: Thank you for your time today
Thank you, Chris Woodward.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you.
>> Ed Vitagliano: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The American Family association or American Family Radio.
>> Matt Staver: M.
