Alliance Defending Freedom

When a person seeks counseling, one of the fundamental things they expect is confidentiality . . . That what's said in the counseling room remains a private conversation between a patient and the counselor.  Never in America would one expect that the Government might want to insert itself into those conversations, but in recent years, that's exactly what New York City tried to do when they passed a law that blocked people from seeking counsel for overcoming unwanted same sex attractions.  The city did this by levying fines - - significant fines - - on any therapist that offered this type of counseling.  That's when the Alliance Defending Freedom stepped in. Help ADF stand for your freedoms. Go to adflegal.org/podcast to make your donation today!

Jack Denton was a college senior and the President of the Student Senate at Florida State University when he sent texts to the Catholic Student Union group chat about their shared beliefs. Images of these texts were taken out of context and maliciously spread around campus. Mobs of students, most of whom did not personally know Jack, rallied against him, demanding his removal from the university-paid student senate presidency. After a 7-hour Zoom call where they mocked and defamed him, the Student Senate fired him from his position because of the religious views he expressed. Then, Florida State University officials enforced the discriminatory termination by removing Jack from the payroll. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, Jack sued his university for violating his First Amendment rights. After a federal court ordered the university to put Jack back on the payroll and a student court ordered the Senate to reinstate him as president, the university settled the lawsuit, and Jack was compensated for his lost salary and the religious discrimination he endured. The school has also issued a statement acknowledging that its non-discrimination policies protect all students from being kicked out of student government positions because of their faith. Help ADF stand for your freedoms. Go to adflegal.org/podcast to make your donation today!

On Nov. 4, 2021, the Biden administration issued a sweeping and blatantly unlawful mandate that confronted tens of millions of Americans with a grim choice — get vaccinated or get tested and wear a mask to work, or risk losing your job. How did the Biden administration plan to pull this off? By commandeering every company in America with over 100 employees to comply. Under the administration's mandate, companies would be fined around $13,600 per “violation.” A violation would entail refusing to discriminate against your unvaccinated employees. An “egregious violation” could result in a fine higher than $136,000 — for “bad actor employers who willfully disregard” the administration's unconstitutional demands. This would not only crush businesses and risk putting millions of Americans out of work, but it is an outright attack on our freedom. Immediately after the administration officially released its mandate, The Daily Wire — with the help of Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group and Alliance Defending Freedom — filed a lawsuit to challenge it. That case and others eventually worked their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court on an emergency challenge. On January 13th, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to halt implementation of the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large, private employers. No matter what you think about vaccines, this is about your freedom. And we won't stand by while the government tries to trample our liberties. Help ADF stand for your freedoms. Go to adflegal.org/podcast to make your donation today! Disclaimer Since the recording of this episode, OSHA withdrew its mandate. But OSHA has left the door open to the possibility of issuing more vaccine rules.

The right to free speech is protected by the Bill of Rights, and it extends to everyone. That's true whether you agree with City Hall or not. Under the Bill of Rights, you have the freedom to speak openly on public streets, sidewalks, and parks without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. But this freedom was blatantly violated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Officials in Pittsburgh prohibited individuals from speaking about pro-life topics or even praying within 15 feet of an abortion facility. The city's ordinance was designed to prevent pro-life citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. This direct violation of free speech brings up an important question: Can the government silence speakers simply because they don't like what's being said? Of course not. Listen more to see why.  

Martin Luther King Jr. sat in jail for eight days for peacefully protesting without a permit. He had tried to get the required permit several times, but Birmingham officials wouldn't give it to him. The policy wasn't merely about permits, but about giving officials the power to silence those they don't agree with—namely, those who opposed segregation. King called this an “unjust, undemocratic, and unconstitutional misuse of the legal process.” He wrote these words from a jail cell in 1963, and yet this insidious problem still persists in America today. Nearly 60 years since King was arrested, governments and authorities across the United States use vague permitting policies to stop Americans from exercising their constitutional rights. For America to be a healthy and free society, we have to stay committed to open discourse and the free exchange of ideas—working together to protect our shared destiny of freedom and justice for all.

Imagine a place where you can't say what you believe unless you get permission from the government… a place where you can only speak freely at certain hours of the day, and only in limited locations. Chike found himself in just such a place at Georgia Gwinnett College, where he was denied his First Amendment right to free speech.        

Young Lydia Booth wore a mask that, in her school administrators' minds, crossed the line. What was this offending message? “Jesus Loves Me.” In Pinola, Mississippi, school officials barred a third-grade girl from expressing her deeply held religious beliefs on her school-mandated mask—even though her classmates were allowed to display their nonreligious views on theirs. When it comes to free speech, authorities can't pick winners and losers depending on which messages they happen to agree with. The Constitution grants every American the right to free speech—and this applies as much in public schools as it does on public street corners.