Friends,

Last month Becket celebrated religious freedom’s greatest night, our annual Canterbury Medal Gala. The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn once called it “New York’s most diverse dinner” because it’s one of those rare settings where people with strong and conflicting beliefs come together and find common ground.

Now that Montse Alvarado has taken her new role as president of EWTN News—an important position for the Catholic Church and religious media in America—I look forward to keeping you up to date on the goings-on at the Becket Fund and in the world of religious liberty.

Each year, we present the Canterbury Medal to a person who embodies an unfailing commitment to religious freedom. This year’s medalist was Professor Michael McConnell. McConnell is a former federal appellate judge (long on the “short list” for the Supreme Court), and a champion for religious freedom as both an advocate (he’s argued 16 cases before the Supreme Court) and a scholar (he’s written many of the most important religious liberty articles in the past half century). And on top of all that, Professor McConnell played an instrumental role in helping Becket found the first religious liberty law clinic at Stanford Law School.

Founded in 2012, Stanford’s Religious Liberty Clinic gives students a chance to be full time litigators for a semester, representing real clients, from diverse religious backgrounds, in cases defending their religious freedom.

Alongside the Canterbury Medal, Becket also presents the Legal Service Award to an attorney who has proven themselves a great partner in the fight for religious liberty. This year’s Legal Service Award was given to Notre Dame Law School’s Dean Marcus Cole. Dean Cole started Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Initiative, a project that took the religious liberty clinic model pioneered at Stanford, and expanded its scope and scale into a 3-pronged initiative. The Religious Liberty Initiative involves students in tackling domestic religious liberty litigation, transactional legal issues for religious institutions, and international religious persecution.

The through line between these two honorees is evident. Both men have dedicated themselves to advancing the clinical movement and elevating religious liberty in our nation’s law schools. They are planting the seeds of future religious liberty victories by training and forming the next generation of religious liberty advocates.

Their efforts are absolutely essential to Becket’s mission of protecting religious liberty for all. The victories we are winning today will mean nothing if there aren’t new lawyers waiting in the wings to defend religious liberty for the next generation. Click here to see photos of the event.

What's happening at Becket

Fighting for the right to defend life. Back in April, Colorado governor, Jared Polis, signed a law that made it illegal to prescribe the naturally-occurring hormone, progesterone, to reverse a chemical abortion—or even to tell women who regret taking the first abortion pill that changing their minds is an option. Under the law it remains legal to give pregnant women progesterone for all sorts of other reasons, including staving off threatened miscarriage. Within minutes of the signing, we hit the state with a lawsuit on behalf of our wonderful clients at Bella Health, a Catholic, life-affirming medical practice. A few days later, a judge issued an injunction that will protect Bella’s right to help women in need while the case is ongoing.

Sometimes moral victories are just as sweet! In March we had oral argument before the Ninth Circuit in our case defending a high school chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The chapter used to host events that would attract 100 students or more. That is, until the group was harassed by teachers and students and kicked out for holding orthodox religious beliefs about sex and marriage. Last month, after the Ninth Circuit issued a temporary order requiring the school district to allow the club back onto campus, FCA was able to hold its first school-wide event in a while. And to everyone’s surprise, over 100 kids were in attendance!

When Becket shows up, states back down. In flagrant defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling last Term in Carson v. Makin, Minnesota amended its Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, which reimburses schools for college credits earned by high school students, stripping religious universities of their eligibility in the program if they require a statement of faith from students. After Becket sued on behalf of the University of Northwestern and Crown College, Minnesota retreated, agreeing to a court order that bars the state from enforcing the new law while the case works its way through the courts.

Becket in the news

Parents take precedence. During the month of June, parents have been pushing back against “Pride” curriculum being taught in their children’s schools—sometimes pushing gender ideology on children as young as 4. In one such case, Becket is defending a group of Muslim and Christian parents who have banded together in Montgomery Country, Maryland. The parents were originally told they could opt their students out of LGBTQ+ books being read in the classroom but soon after, the school board reversed course and prohibited parental opt-outs. Fox News has coverage of the battle.

Feds play with fire. Last month the government threatened that a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma would be stripped of the ability to accept Medicare and Medicaid if it didn’t extinguish the sanctuary candle in its chapel. The chapel has contained the living flame, which marks the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, since the hospital opened its doors in 1960, and never before was it a problem. After Becket sent a letter to the Biden administration, reminding it that the hospital has a right to exercise its religion in this way, the government backed down. Glenn Beck had Becket VP and senior counsel, Lori Windham on his show to talk about the victory. 

Paying it forward. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) gives disabled students equal educational opportunities to their nondisabled peers. In California parents can access special education funds to send their kids to private school, but state law explicitly bans parents from using that money to send their children to religious schools. Becket filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jewish families and schools to ensure that families can choose the education that’s best for their children. Becket counsel Laura Wolk Slavis penned an op-ed for Real Clear Politics drawing on her own experience accessing IDEA funds as a blind student. The funds provided indispensable tools that propelled her to college, law school, a clerkship at the Supreme Court and eventually to Becket! 

What we’re reading

"Proclaim the truth boldly." It’s worth taking the time to watch or read Michael McConnell’s Canterbury Medal acceptance speech. McConnell observes that in our post-modern age, religious people are allowed to observe their faith freely within the confines of their church or home, but as soon as religion threatens to affect secular priorities like abortion, marriage, or education, it must be rooted out. Rather than retreat back to church, McConnell urges us to, “affirm the truth, and call it that.”

"Though our place of worship may not have four walls and a steeple, Oak Flat deserves the same protection as the holiest churches, mosques and synagogues in this country.” In March, Becket senior counsel and VP Luke Goodrich argued a case before the Ninth Circuit in defense of an Apache sacred site, Oak Flat, that is slated for destruction by a foreign-owned mining company. Naelyn Pike, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, penned an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune describing the significance of Oak Flat to her people and pleading that the Ninth Circuit preserve it from obliteration.  

A lawyer's Super Bowl. Kelsey Dallas of Deseret News published a feature piece on what it’s like to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. Her source was none other than Becket’s own Lori Windham, who had the unique experience of arguing Fulton v. City of Philadelphia before the High Court telephonically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week we celebrated the second anniversary of our unanimous victory in that case.