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Attorney urges commission to defend First Amendment, criticizes judges over veterans memorial ruling
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Summary
An attorney told a commission that judges too often avoid deciding religious-liberty cases and cited a veterans-memorial cross example, urging commissioners to act with the courage he says litigants show in defending First Amendment rights.
An attorney told a commission that judges are failing to protect religious-liberty claims and urged the body to act with courage to uphold the First Amendment. "The First Amendment is often called the First Freedom because it's the foundation of individual liberty," the attorney said, framing the remarks around constitutional protections for religious practice.
The speaker tied the concept of courage to legal advocacy, saying, "Courage is often called the First Virtue because it's the 1 that guarantees all the rest," and described representing "everyday Americans" who risk their livelihoods to defend religious freedom. He said those individuals often bear substantial personal costs to pursue such claims.
The attorney criticized some judges for avoiding rulings on constitutional claims. "Too often, the courage of these individuals is woefully lacking in the judges who decide their cases," he said, accusing some judges of hiding "behind procedural rules and judge-made doctrines to avoid deciding these cases at all." He presented this as a pattern that leaves difficult questions about religious liberty unresolved.
To illustrate his point, the speaker cited a case involving a veterans memorial shaped like a cross. He recounted that, in that case, a judge suggested that defenders of the memorial should appease those offended by "chopping the arms off the memorial cross." "That's not the Babylon Bee, that's an Article 3 judge," the attorney said, using the example to argue judges sometimes issue extreme-sounding accommodations rather than directly addressing constitutional claims.
The attorney concluded by directly appealing to the commission. "I pray this commission will serve with the courage of the everyday Americans who fight for our first freedom," he said, adding that the president "has made the first freedom a cornerstone of his administration" and invoking the founders' legacy of religious freedom. The speaker closed, "Thank you, mister chairman." The transcript records no formal motion or vote tied to these remarks.
