WEBVTT - Go Woke, Go Broke 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.000 I've got good news and good news and bad news. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.040 The good news is there's a big win for conservatives 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:08.520 at the Supreme Court. The other good news there's a 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:12.560 big win for conservatives in the culture at the box office. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:17.080 But the bad news is squish Republicans are caving two 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.120 Democrats up on Capitol Hill on the Second Amendment. Well, 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.880 the co host of this show has just come from 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.480 voting on that legislation. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.320 Today's episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is brought to 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.559 you by ip vanish. Did you know that browsing online 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.839 using incognito mode doesn't actually protect your privacy? 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This episode, A Verdict with Ted 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.720 is brought to you by American Hartford Goal. Now, the 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.760 new inflation numbers are out, and I think we can 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.480 all agree they are incredibly depressing. The price of gas 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.920 is way up, the price of housing is up, the 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.760 US national debt is way way way up. And unfortunately, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.440 given the way that our current administration prints money and 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.520 spends money, experts don't see this going away, this inflation 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.919 going away anytime soon. So how do you protect your money, 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.440 your savings, your retirement from inflation. 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So don't wait, call them right now. 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.480 Call eight five five seven eight one eight eight three, 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.320 or if you prefer texting, you can text the word 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.360 tactus to six five five three two. Again. The phone 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.640 number is eight five five seven to sixty eight one 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.680 eight three or text the word tactus to six five 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.560 five three two. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.760 I'm Michael Knowles, Senator. You have just come from Capitol 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:23.680 Hill just voting on this big gun control legislation. There 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.320 seems to be a compromise between a bunch of Republicans 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.080 and the Democrats. What happened, Well, I just voted about 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.440 an hour ago on the initial vote, the motion to 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.840 proceed to take up the legislation. Now, the statutory tax 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.320 texts they rolled out just a couple of hours ago, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.960 so we're still in the process of studying the details 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.640 of what they laid out. But all the Democrats voted 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.640 for it, and fourteen Republicans voted for it. So the 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.520 vote was sixty four to thirty four. They needed sixty 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.920 to proceed, so they get They got there with fourteen 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.719 Republicans and that's going to consume this week the debate 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.080 on that bill. I think it is safe to say 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.000 you are not one of the fourteen Republicans who voted 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.440 to proceed with this legislation. That is safe, And actually 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.720 I printed out the fourteen who are So if you 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:19.400 want to know the fourteen who are it is Blunt, Burr, Capita, Cassidy, Collins, Cornin, 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:25.400 Ernst Graham, McConnell, Murkowski, Portman, Romney, Tillis, and Young. Those 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.200 were the fourteen Republicans who voted. Yes, wish I could 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.599 say that I were surprised, Senator, but I'm not. You 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.440 know that obviously you've named a lot of the moderates 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.800 and the people who often do go over with the 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.400 Democrats here. But that's a big not fourteen is a 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:45.640 big number. Well, it's a combination of the moderate to 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:50.280 liberal Republicans combined with Republican leadership, combined with the Republicans 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.280 who are retiring, and that's sort of the ace and 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.640 the whole for leadership. As the folks who are retiring, 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.840 you're never going to face the voters again, that they're 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.640 likely going to go be lobbyists in town. And so 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.320 suddenly they have all sorts of votes that the people 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.760 who elected them would prefer they wouldn't take. But since 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.120 they're not on the ballot anymore, they vote differently than 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.040 they would otherwise. You know, it's it's actually it's a 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.040 similar manifestation in the Senate. You've got six year terms 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.200 and it's a common phenomenon. We're two out of every 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:26.479 six years people grow a backbone or a conservative and 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:28.600 those happen to me the two years they're on the ballot, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.560 and then the other four years they're not on the ballot, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:37.479 they transmogrify into very very different senators until the last 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.680 two years when they're back on the ballot, when suddenly 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.720 they become conservative again. And unfortunately, it's kind of a 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.520 merry go round of of who are the chunk of 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:52.200 Republicans on the ballot that will stand steady. The retiring 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.200 Republicans it's an even worse problem because then they feel 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.640 little to no accountability to the voters who sent them there. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.120 So this is still being worked out right now, just 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.480 in broad strokes. How bad is it? You know, I 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.640 don't know the full details, As I said, they just 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.680 rolled out the statutory text right before we voted on it, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.960 which is a typical Capitol Hill strategy. So I'll study 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.640 the details more and know it. There's some elements that 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.680 are fairly unobjectionable in terms of funding for things like 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:27.560 school safety that everyone agrees with. The most problematic elements 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.920 I think concern red flag laws. Red flag laws that 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.480 there's funding to incentivize states to pass red flag laws, 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.240 red flag laws or proceedings whereby you can strip guns 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.160 from law abiding citizens. And in a number of states, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.680 particularly Blue Democrats states, they're very very low thresholds for 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.880 doing so. There's very little protection of due process. And 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.800 you know, it poses a real problem if somebody is 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.040 unhappy with you, Michael, if you have a you know, 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:04.800 someone who's mad at you, a disgruntled coworker, a jilted 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:10.400 ex girlfriend, what have you. Red flag laws, particularly without 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.600 serious due process protections, can provide an avenue for that 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.760 person unhappy with you to go behind your back and 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.760 take away your Second Amendment rights to protect yourself. Because 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.880 in that case, the red flag is not you know, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.200 some raving lunatic who's making direct threats, who says I'm 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.520 gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you. The red flag 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.199 simply could be you are a conservative, you are a Republican, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.400 you voted for someone that I don't, You've said something 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.280 that I disagree with. The red flag could be you, 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.960 And in that case, to deprive someone of a constitutional 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.200 civil right would seem to be a huge overreach. Well, 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.439 and I will say this, look that they were negotiating 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:50.880 back and forth between the Republicans and Democrats on the 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.920 exact language. And so I haven't read the statutory language yet. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.760 I will read it this week before we vote on 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.400 the final bill. This was the initial vote just to 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.240 take it up. So I'll study the details. But there's 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.640 a lot of there's a lot of variants in the details. 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.439 The devil is in the detail on this. And so 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.360 for example, some of the formulations they were talking about 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.680 keyed off of whether someone was a quote mental defective. 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.680 That's some language that actually is in federal law right now. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.160 It's sort of an different era. We don't don't tend 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.160 to speak much in terms of things like mental defective. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.600 But if the threshold is low, I look, there are 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.679 estimates that something like twenty percent of Americans have some 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.560 form of mental illness. You know, I joked at lunch 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.520 last week that it seems to me serving in the 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.760 United States Congress should be prima facia evidence of mental illness. 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.360 You know, you think about schools, how many kids are 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.880 diagnosed with ADHD, how many kids are medicated on prozac 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.600 or riddle in or something else. And if the threshold 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.360 is low, that there's a hyperactive fifteen year old who 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.760 gets a diagnosis and gets medicated and you have a 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.480 gun grabbing Blue Stith that says, Okay, well, guess what, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.720 You've just lost your right to keeping bare arms for 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:14.280 the rest of your life. I think that's obviously unconstitutional 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.000 and would be striking struck down by any court following 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.920 the law. But in the meantime, it's a real problem. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:26.440 And so my view on guns and crime generally is 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.680 there's a right approach and a wrong approach. You know, 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.959 there's an interesting story. Are you for here with Project Exile? No, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.040 I'm not okay. So Project Exile was something that was 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:40.080 created during the Bill Clinton Justice Department, and it was 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:45.720 created in Richmond, Virginia, in the Eastern District of Virginia, 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.880 and it was the US attorney there laid out and said, 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.760 we are going to prosecute anyone who commits a violent 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.520 crime with a gun. We're gonna go after them under 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.360 federal law. We're gonna lock them up in jail with 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.160 a mandatory minimum sentence, and we're going to let people know. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.720 We're gonna let people know if you knock over a 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.280 liquor store and you're a felon. If you're a felon 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.080 in possession of a firearm, that carries a mandatory minimum 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.360 settence under federal law, but typically the Feds don't prosecute it. 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.599 Project Exile says you commit a crime with a firearm, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.280 you're going to jail, you're doing hard time, and they 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.319 advertise it. They put up billboards in Richmond in Virginia, 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.080 carry a gun, do hard time. And Richmond had one 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:26.880 of the highest murder rates in the country, and the 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.000 Feds started anytime you brought a gun to a crime boom, 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.400 you got prosecuted, and the murder rates plummeted, and you 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.560 started seeing criminals that would literally go knock over a 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.120 liquor store, go do a home invasion, and they leave 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.440 their gun at home because they'd say, if I take 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.120 a gun, I'm doing serious federal time. If you want 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.240 to stop crimes, that's the sort of program that works. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:54.160 That's a great point. Obviously, we all agree that we 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.840 should take guns away from criminals and people who have, 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.400 in some objective way been seemed to be too dangerous 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.439 to have a gun. We shouldn't just go along with 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.319 some program to exploit a shooting or a tragedy as 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.240 a way to advance generally unrelated gun control measures that 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.680 Democrats have been pushing for a while. Not too late 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:18.760 to stop this kind of thing. Let's hope that the 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.600 squishes toughen up a little bit here and back off 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.080 of this and listen to this podcast. That's the bad 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.600 news that the squishes are going along with the Dems here. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.160 There is quite a lot of good news in the culture, though. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.560 I really want to get to the Supreme Court case, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.160 which the Left has lost their mind over. They've now 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.680 said that this is a nearly fatal blow to the 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.040 separation of church and state. Before that, though, I do 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.160 have to do a little bit of gloating on the 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.959 culture front. There was a big cultural win here. We 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.240 sort of predicted it on this show. It's the get woke, 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.960 go broke prediction. We talked last time about how people 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.839 don't want to see toys and cartoon characters engaging in 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.120 all sorts of eccentric sexual activities and kissing and pushing 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.920 the woke sexual revolutionary agenda. And then over the weekend 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.160 light Year, which made a big show of having a 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.040 lesbian toy kiss in it. Light Year bombed at the 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.120 box office. They were expecting a global box office of 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:22.160 one hundred thirty five million dollars. What did it come to? 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.840 I think it was eighty something million. And then the 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.360 domestic box office was way below predictions at fifty one 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.920 million dollars. Did you, senator, did you take the air 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.360 out of the gay toys? That's a question I've never 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.000 gotten before. Listen. I will say this. I do think 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.479 it's amazing how the Verdict podcast seems to be driving Hollywood. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:49.280 At our campus live tour in Alabama, we talked about 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.000 how Disney wanted Mickey and Pluto to go at it, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.800 and liberals brains exploded, and apparently the showrunners for Light 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.400 Years said, hey, what a great idea. Let's have lesbian 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.319 toys get it on. And you know they got a 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.000 little Berry White and with his deep boys, let's get 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:09.960 it on. And then last week on Verdict, we said 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.760 this is terrible. Leave the kids alone. You said, we 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:18.320 don't want to see uh eccentric sex with with with 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.920 kids or toys. Let me take out the word eccentric. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.360 How about no sex like kids and toys. And by 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.560 the way, I will say leftists really lost their minds 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.320 because last week we talked about do we really need 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.720 lesbian toys and cartoons? And leftist like the phrase lesbian 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.440 toys that I really think they're tiny, little walnut sized 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:45.160 brains broke that that apparently they're supposed to go on 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:50.760 these these cultural rampages and we're not supposed to notice. Ye, 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.680 and not only that, we're all supposed to quietly shut 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.720 up and take our kids. Well, you know what, there 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.040 were very few kids movies at the box office this 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.600 past weekend. It was Father's Day. You want to talk 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.880 about a good time to take your kids to the movies. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.640 And I think there were a whole bunch of Americans 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.200 that said, you know what, I can think of something 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.600 better to do than listen to Hollywood lecture my six 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.560 year old on their views of sexuality. How about just 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.200 to have a fun like the Toy Story films are awesome. Yeah, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:26.920 but it speaks volumes that while light Year was getting 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:32.320 his ass kicked, the kicker was Tom Cruise and Maverick 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:37.400 in Top Gune, a straight up patriotic conservative. We love 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:43.040 Americans beat the bad guys like the contrast is night 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:48.400 and day, and Hollywood is so knuckleheaded that they seem 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.000 unable to get the message. Maybe they will, because look, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:55.120 there's tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars delta 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.400 between those two. Maverick's been out for several weeks and 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.760 it's still obliterated light Year. Somebody depositing the checks ought 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.720 to notice that they certainly should. That this is what 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.080 the left does to so many institutions. Is as you say, 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:12.680 Toy Story is a great movie. It's a great friend. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.360 I love Toy Story one. I liked Toy Story two. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.640 I don't really remember Toy Story three or if there 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.880 was a four, but they were good movies. And by 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.600 the way, Tim Allen was fantastic. Tim Allen was fantastic. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:24.800 Then they yanked him out of this movie. And so 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:26.480 people look at it and they say, well, we like 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.960 these movies. And then the radicals go in and they say, oh, look, 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.720 we've got these really popular movies and institutions. Let's go 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.080 in and in a really heavy handed way, in a 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:42.000 very didactic and obvious way, let's go in and use 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.280 the things that people love to push our radical political agenda, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:50.520 which is completely superfluous and irrelevant to the story. And 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:55.280 I'm really pleased to see that the American parents and 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.040 moviegoers said, oh, no, thank you. Yeah, we like toy story. 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.360 We don't like you using the things that we love 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.920 to push your radical agendas. So no thanks. And let 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.719 me make a point also, Michael, this is also not 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.280 about so the left like saying things like the Florida 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.720 law was don't say gay. You're right, it's actually not 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.200 about that. And I'll give an example on the counter. So, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.879 Hollywood usually is so willing to chase the dollar that 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.800 they're craven when it comes to China, and they're willing 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.040 to censor movies because China wants them too. And one 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.359 great example of that is Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody, I 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.040 think was a fantastic movie. I really enjoyed that. It 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:39.240 was very well done. China insisted that they edit Bohemian 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.280 Rhapsody to cut out the scene showing Freddie Mercury was gay, which, 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.399 by the way, is insane. How do you tell Freddie 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:47.480 Mercury's life story and leave out that he's gay. It 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.040 was a big damn part of his life. And Bohemian 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.720 Rhapsody is not being marketed to six year olds. It 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.880 Bohemian Rhapsody was an R rated movie. It was four adults. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:03.119 It was the story of an credible artists that was 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.760 entirely appropriate. You know, Rocketman about Elton John. You wouldn't 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.320 tell Elton John's life story and leave out that he's gay. 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.280 It's it's it's an integral part of who he is. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:17.159 What made the light Year Antics so dismaying. It was 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.720 entirely gratuitous. It was meant it was targeted at kids, 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.960 and it was meant to say, this is what we 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.520 want to convey to you, little children. And I think 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.880 a lot of the parents are saying, leave our kids alone, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.520 and and and let us discuss sex and sexuality with 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.080 our kids at a time and age that is appropriate, 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:41.919 not what you If we can't even take him to 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.520 Disney movies, what can we take him to? Right? Stop 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.200 stop forcing this. I love that point it was. It 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:55.480 was so gratuitous, superfluous, irrelevant to the plot of Toy Story, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.320 was so heavy handed and on the nose. And I 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.639 like that that the the gamble from the left didn't 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.840 pay off, that the moviegoers are not so infatuated with 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.479 Toy Story that they were willing to go to the 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:14.200 movies and just allow the left to go in and 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.400 hollow out their stories to push their own radical agenda. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.000 So there was a big one at the box office. 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.280 There was also apparently a big win for conservatives at 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.080 the Supreme Court. This isn't the case that Carson versus Making. 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:32.160 This is a case up in Maine on religious liberty. 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.120 That would seem to be what's the case about. So 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.439 it's a terrific, terrific victory for religious liberty. So the 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.440 state of Maine has a tuition assistance program, and then 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.280 there's some parts of Maine that are very rural where 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.000 they don't actually have public schools up and running, and 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.400 so the state provides tutition assistance for you to send 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.680 your kids to whatever schools are there, to whatever private 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.160 schools are there, particularly in smaller communities where you don't 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.760 have the resources of a big public school. But Maine 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.040 excluded religious schools. Said you can send your kids somewhere, 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.760 but if it's a religious school, or as they called it, 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.000 a sectarian school, which means they actually believe in faith, 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.960 believe in God, and teach something about God, then you're 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.200 not eligible. And so the plaintiffs in this case challenge 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.520 that and said, look, you're discriminating against my free exercise 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:23.639 of religion. And I want to choose to send my 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.840 kid to a religious school, and you're discriminating against faith 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.640 and religion. And the Supreme Court six three So Chief 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.840 Justice Roberts wrote the opinion and concluded that it violated 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:38.280 the Constitution to discriminate against religious schools when otherwise they 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.880 would qualify, they met all the other criteria. If they 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:46.360 just stopped as pesky references to God, they would get 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.240 the state money. But if they insist you say God, Nope, 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.879 no money. And the Supreme Court said, sorry, you can't. 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.200 If it's an equally applicable program that everyone else can get, 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.240 you can't discriminate against people of faith and school rules 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.560 of faith just because they're exercising their First Amendment rights 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:06.359 and their religious liberty rights. I think it is a 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.480 great victory for religious liberty for everyone. But it's also 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.600 a great victory for school choice, and both of those 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.360 I think are incredibly important. Now, what are conservatives supposed 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.679 to say when they hear the liberal justices on the 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:25.040 Court and a lot of people in the liberal media 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:30.560 complaining that this is an outrageous attack on the American 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.719 tradition of the separation between church and state. Well, there 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:36.640 are a lot of things they should say. First of all, 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.280 the words separation of church and state are found nowhere 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.040 in the Constitution. They're not in the Constitution, they're not 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:44.760 in the Bill of Rights, they're not in the Declaration 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.840 of Independence. That's not there. The phrase a wall of 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.840 separation between church and state comes from a letter that 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.880 Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist So it's a 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:01.040 private correspondence is where that phrase is taken from. But 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:05.480 it's not actually the law. And what is the law 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.280 is the First Amendment. And the First Amendment has two 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.560 religious liberty clauses. It has the establishment clause that prevents 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.600 Congress from establishing a religion, and it has the free 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.680 exercise clause that prevents Congress and prevents government from restricting 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.840 the free exercise of religion. And there are two different 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:31.240 interpretations of what the establishment clause mean. Liberals interpret it 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.880 as saying that essentially government must be hostile to religion, 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.720 that government must treat religion as something bad. That's where 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.119 you get the phrase wall of separation of church and 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:46.240 state is church bad. I think that's a complete misreading 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.879 of what the establishment clause is about. The establishment clause 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.760 was about preventing government from controlling churches, preventing government from 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.439 controlling faith. Both the establishment Clause and free exercise clause 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.640 work hand in hand. Well, this actually leads into one 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:04.920 of the mail bag questions that we got. We've been 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.520 extremely derelict on taking mail bag questions, so I do 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.800