Friend,
I joined Americans United as VP of Strategic Communications in the thick of one of the most devastating Supreme Court terms in generations. I’ve defended the separation of church and state and true religious freedom for more than a decade, both in and out of court, and am all too familiar with the hostility the ultra-conservative bloc of justices has for those founding principles. I moved from litigation to strategic communications because our battles are increasingly being won or lost in the court of public opinion.
Even as the Supreme Court handed down terrible decisions that rolled back our rights, Americans United was able to shift the national conversation, which is no small thing. As AU’s brilliant legal and policy experts analyzed the decisions, our communications team worked with dozens of journalists and media influencers to ensure our analysis shaped the conversation on the threat to our democracy posed by religious extremists and their political and judicial allies.
AU is the widely recognized expert in this space, as was evidenced by the news coverage we received over the past few weeks. A few examples:
● First, in Carson v. Makin, AU was often the only organization quoted to explain how the court had undermined religious freedom by forcing Maine taxpayers to fund religious indoctrination at private schools. A few examples: The New York Times: [link removed], The Washington Post: [link removed], The Associated Press: [link removed] and SCOTUSblog: [link removed].
● Next, when the court abolished the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, AU President and CEO Rachel Laser was quoted in an AP article: [link removed] that was published in several hundred outlets, making the case that “Religious freedom demands the right to an abortion so people can make their own reproductive decisions according to their own principles.” The story noted AU is preparing related litigation. Even international media paid attention: Rachel was interviewed by BBC radio about the connection between religious and reproductive freedom: [link removed]
● Finally, within hours of a decision in AU’s case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, we hosted a press conference, fielded numerous interview requests and distributed a statement to hundreds of reporters to make clear that the court had ignored the religious freedom of public school students and their families by ruling that it was OK for a football coach to have on-field prayers that students felt pressured to join. Our efforts resulted in dozens of stories shared by nearly 1,000 outlets—from print like AP: [link removed], The New York Times: [link removed], The Wall Street Journal: [link removed], and USA Today: [link removed] to TV interviews with networks like NexStar: [link removed] that have hundreds of stations and programs like Newsy: [link removed] that stream online, to live radio and podcast interviews, like this one with The New Evangelicals: [link removed]
AU’s ability to help shape these stories and the larger narrative around church-state separation and religious freedom is critical right now, because America badly needs to rediscover the importance of church-state separation—and rescue it from the threat it faces.
That’s why we’re calling for a national recommitment to the separation of church and state as the only way to safeguard our democracy and the freedom and equality it promises us all.
With your support, we are building a movement that will defeat the Christian nationalist crusade and reclaim religious freedom for people of all religions and none.
I’m so proud to be part of this team and so thankful for your support.
Andrew L. Seidel
VP of Strategic Communications
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