A Mormon couple seeking to protect their children from radical gender ideology were allegedly notified by Sunnyvale School District in Santa Clara County that LGBTQ instruction was “not optional and is not subject to parent opt-out provisions.”

The district allegedly gave this notice after — and apparently with full knowledge of — the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which the high court held that a Maryland school district’s policy of withholding from parents notice of LGBT propaganda sessions and forbidding opt-outs constituted “an unconstitutional burden” on the parents’ religious exercise.

‘The school boards will continue to defy the SCOTUS ruling, gaslight, lie, and deflect.’

The district also allegedly denied the Mormon parents an opt-out after the California Department of Education acknowledged in its August 2025 guidance that the “fundamental holding” in Mahmoud was that schools must provide parents with the opportunity to opt their children out of policies or exposure to material that schools have “reason to know will ‘substantially interfere'” with parents’ religious rights.

Unwilling to surrender their children’s hearts and minds to the apparent LGBT propagandists at SSD’s Cumberland Elementary School, Justin and Rose Taylor — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm focused on protecting religious freedoms that won the Mahmoud case before SCOTUS — filed a lawsuit on Monday against the district in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The Taylors — the proud parents of four children, including a rising third-grade son and a rising first-grade daughter at Cumberland Elementary School — said in a statement, “Our children are the most cherished part of our lives.”

“We know and love them best and should be the ones deciding when and how they learn about sensitive topics regarding sexuality and gender,” continued the parents. “Fortunately, the Supreme Court has recognized that right for religious parents nationwide.”

RELATED: Critics blast Chicago mayor for pushing ‘transfemicide’ ‘gibberish’ amid deadly shootings

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

“California school districts have been putting LGBTQ propaganda in front of students for close to 20 years,” Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News. “They’re just now much more emboldened. I’m ecstatic to see these parents make an example out of the Sunnyvale School District.”

The lawsuit claims that “Sunnyvale’s denial violates parents’ constitutional rights to direct the education and upbringing of their children in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” and asks the court to:

enter a declaration that the SSD’s alleged refusal to afford the parents a right to “opt out from LGBTQ+ instruction, including the forced reading of the District’s recommended LGBTQ+ storybooks, violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment”;enter a declaration that forcing the Taylors to “educate their children, read,and/or speak consistently with the perspectives contained in the LGBTQ+ instruction, and compelling Plaintiffs’ children to accept one viewpoint to the exclusion of all others violates their rights under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment”;enter a declaration that “forcing students, over their parents’ objection, to read or listen to the LGBTQ+ instruction violates the Taylors’ rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”;grant preliminary and permanent injunctions prohibiting the school from forcing the kids to participate in the LGBT propaganda sessions; andaward the parents damages for loss of their rights under federal law.

The SSD did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

The lawsuit details some of the LGBT agitprop allegedly pushed by the SSD, noting that its curriculum “integrates LGBTQ+ history, representation, and examples throughout instructional units to show ‘diverse backgrounds, identities, experiences, and abilities, including those who are lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA).'”

This propaganda is apparently foisted upon students at all grade levels.

The “LGBTQ+ Teaching Guide” issued by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, which oversees Sunnyvale, discusses how to incorporate LGBT propaganda into virtually every subject.

Math teachers, for instance, are told in the guide to “use problems that relate to marriage equality, gender-neutral bathrooms, and LGBTQ+ rights to demonstrate mathematical concepts such as statistics, probability, and geometry.”

Science and health teachers are told to champion “gender-inclusive biology” — in which, for example, “ovaries” are substituted in for “women” so as not to suggest a link between womanhood and female reproductive organs.

This guidance — which has been embraced by Sunnyvale — even quoted LGBTQ activist Barbara Gittings: “The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”

The Taylors’ lawsuit highlights a number of the agitprop materials allegedly used by the SSD in its LGBT instruction including a book that changes the lyrics of “The Wheels on the Bus” to lyrics celebrating drag titled “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” and “Pride Puppy,” a book that tasks 3- and 4-year-old students with searching for items they might find at a non-straight parade — including transvestite activists, underwear, leather, “intersex flag,” and feathers.

The LGBT instruction under way in Sunnyvale is of the same type addressed in Mahmoud, claimed the lawsuit.

The Taylors’ lawsuit alleges that while SSD initially appeared willing to permit opt-outs, “Sunnyvale abruptly flipped its position” and “affirmatively disclaimed its constitutional responsibility to afford families what the First Amendment requires.”

Sunnyvale stated in a letter to the Taylors that it was “not granting opt-outs from LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum or storybooks that are part of our adopted educational program.”

The district added in its letter that “the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor … addressed a specific set of facts in another state” and neither created a “general or automatic right for parents to opt their children out of required curriculum” nor overrode “California’s statutory requirements governing instructional content.”

Becket said that “Sunnyvale’s defiance was no accident. After Mahmoud came down, Sunnyvale told its teachers to ‘resist pressures’ that might get in the way of its curriculum.”

However, Michael O’brien, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Taylors, underscored that “the Constitution doesn’t come with a California carve-out.”

One of the defendants, SSD director of student support services Paul Slayton, said in a statement obtained by the Press Democrat, “The district was surprised to learn that the Taylor family had filed a lawsuit, particularly given the positive and productive discussions that took place following the family’s initial concerns.”

“We will continue to approach this matter with professionalism and care,” added Slayton.

“When the Mahmoud decision came out from the SCOTUS, like everyone in our space, we were very happy,” Alvin Lui told Blaze News. “However, the first thing we did was warn parents that schools, and especially school counselors, will not honor that decision.”

“The school boards will continue to defy the SCOTUS ruling, gaslight, lie, and deflect. They’ll try to wear parents down so they can continue to put obscene LGBTQ materials in front of children as young as possible.”

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​Faith, Christian, Mormon, Becket, California, Transgender, Propaganda, Leftism, School, Education, Politics 

As an important deadline approaches for Georgia to fix problems with its election system, a special legislative session has come to a close. Yet the solution the legislature came to has left a potential flaw on the table for the upcoming midterms.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp called a special session last week to resolve a looming issue with the state’s election system, which currently uses QR codes to tabulate election results.

The QR code system was first implemented statewide in the 2020 election.

According to the Georgia Recorder, a state law passed in 2024 banned the use of QR codes. The ban was set to take effect on July 1, resulting in an impending crisis for the 2026 midterms absent a solution this month.

The QR code system was first implemented statewide in the 2020 election, according to WSPA.

RELATED: ‘Hammer Down!’ Trump-backed favorite wins Georgia Republican Senate runoff

Georgia Governor Brian KempDerek White/Getty Images for the Coca Cola Company

With just a week before the deadline, the special legislative session concluded with the successful passage of Senate Bill 3EX, which, among other things, postpones the looming deadline to find a replacement system until after the 2026 midterms.

The new bill, if Gov. Kemp signs it, will establish a new Elections Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee charged with forming and implementing a system to replace the current system. However, the QR code system will remain in place.

Blaze News reached out to Kemp’s office for comment.

This bill, which Republican state Rep. Victor Anderson told the Associated Press was “the culmination of a lot of work,” is nonetheless “not the ultimate solution.”

“This bill solves an immediate conflict we have and lays out a path to achieve the most election integrity, the most accuracy, the most transparency that we can have going forward when we implement the next uniform voting system in Georgia,” he said.

Republicans and Democrats fought over the extent to which hand-counting ballots could be used in the future. Democrats often oppose hand-counts, citing the extended waiting periods and extra costs.

“The question before us is not whether we support election integrity. Of course we do,” Democratic state Rep. Debra Bazemore told the AP. “The question is whether the bill actually improves election integrity or whether it creates a new opportunity to cast doubt on legitimate election results. I believe it does the latter.”

CBS News reported that the Georgia Senate passed the state House-amended bill after a failed attempt at passing additional amendments in the upper chamber.

The House passed the bill 94-79. The Senate eventually passed the bill 36-16.

The committee would be required to present its findings by January 31, 2027. The new deadline for ending the current system would be January 1, 2028.

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​Georgia, Midterms, Republicans, Politics, Elections, Brian kemp 

This month, Hello Fresh ran a Pride-themed ad campaign that seems far removed from the assurances many Americans heard during the same-sex marriage debate. Remember? “My marriage won’t affect your marriage.” “What consenting adults do in private is none of anyone’s business.”

Many voters who supported same-sex marriage believed these assurances, understanding it as a request for legal recognition, not the beginning of a broader cultural project that would eventually permeate corporate branding, workplace policies, schools, and popular culture.

Ordinary moms and grandmas just wanted their gay relatives to be happy. They were assured that redefining marriage would be harmless.

But here we are, almost exactly 11 years since the Obergefell decision, and the most popular meal-kit delivery service in the country has brought gay sex out of the bedroom and right to the kitchen table.

‘Bottoms up’

Now, I don’t want to write about this any more than you want to read about it. But the unfortunate truth is that we can’t afford to ignore it, no matter how distasteful we find it. Because if you and I won’t talk about these things on our terms, be assured, the sexual revolutionaries will talk about them on theirs.

So here is the ad Hello Fresh posted on Instagram: “We know eating isn’t always a top priority this month. We respect that. But for those of you who are … prepping … we have an extensive lineup of high-fiber recipes available. Happy Pride.”

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the term “prepping.” In Megan Basham’s delicate translation: “For those not initiated into the sexual practices of gay men, let me help decipher what ‘prepping’ means. HelloFresh is saying that their product is useful for clearing out the rectum of feces in preparation for sodomy. Yes, that’s what it means.”

The company later added a discount code: BOTTOMS UP.

This tasteless Hello Fresh “Pride Month” campaign delivers your food with a side dish of unappetizing sexual innuendo, whether you ordered it or not.

Hardly harmless

What ever happened to that “gay marriage” deal about the privacy of the bedroom? Many people accepted that bargain in good faith. Ordinary moms and grandmas just wanted their gay relatives to be happy. They were assured that redefining marriage would be harmless.

I was a campaign spokeswoman for Proposition 8 in California, the ballot initiative that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I was involved in the marriage debates from Prop 8 in 2008 all the way to 2015 and the Obergefell decision. I distinctly remember that many leaders of the pro-marriage effort made a conscious decision not to talk about gay sex.

“The gay marriage campaign is not about ‘gay.’ It’s about ‘marriage.’” This strategy suited a lot of us, including me. We didn’t want to talk about gay stuff at all, much less gay sex.

We wanted to talk about the meaning and purposes of marriage, how marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children and to one another. We wanted to talk about how redefining marriage would inevitably redefine parenthood.

We feared that mentioning gay sex would gross people out. We didn’t want to offend the good, decent people who don’t want to talk about any sex in public, much less gay sex. We figured the first side to bring it up would lose.

RELATED: Trans is the natural progression from ‘gay marriage’

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Sanitizing sodomy

But there was a downside to this strategy. It allowed the gay lobby to sanitize the sexual activities of two men. The public was never asked to think about what gay men actually do together. Grandma could picture her grandson cuddling on the sofa with his boyfriend, listening to showtunes.

I recall giving a talk at Stanford. In response to a question about “marriage equality,” I asked the student, “Is there any sexual act that would equally consummate the marriage of a male couple and a female couple and a man-woman couple?”

The student thought for a minute. This was a new thought for her. She probably couldn’t imagine anyone getting married who hadn’t already performed the act that normally consummates a marriage, long before they walked down the aisle.

She finally said, “Well, marriage doesn’t necessarily have to be a sexual relationship.” This is a tacit admission that there is no “equal” way of consummating these “marriages.”

Intrinsically sterile

Maybe avoiding “gay” was a good tactic at the time. But the marketing geniuses at Hello Fresh broke the tacit deal: What happens in the bedroom doesn’t stay in the bedroom. It was wishful thinking to believe that it would.

Decent people prefer to keep a discreet lid on discussions of sex. Unfortunately, the sexual revolutionaries — be they gay, straight, nonbinary, or whatever — can’t shut up about it.

The marital act between a man and a woman can bring forth new human life. The combination of oxytocin and vasopressin during sex creates bonds between the man and the woman.

Neither babies nor bonding are part of the gay sex equation. Gay sex is intrinsically sterile. Gay sex is gross.

There: I said it.

But don’t forget who brought it up first.

​Culture, Gay marriage, Lifestyle, Marriage debates, Obergefell decision, Parenthood, Proposition 8, Obergefell v. hodges, Family, Lgbt, Countering ‘pride’ 

For generations, landing a summer job has been a traditional American rite of passage. Whether working at a local ice cream shop, a neighborhood grocery store, or an amusement park, teenagers have their very first taste of being a part of the workforce. However, a new report shows that teens are facing the toughest hiring market since the government began tracking the data in 1948.

The traditional summer job that generations of American teenagers have relied on is facing its grimmest outlook in nearly eight decades.

‘That is exactly the kind of work teens depend on.’

Challenger, Gray, and Christmas — a Chicago-based workforce consulting company — released a recent forecast revealing the troubling summer employment outlook that teens are grappling with.

Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report noted that last summer’s teen hiring total plummeted to its lowest level since the government began tracking the data in 1948. In 2025, teen summer hiring hit rock bottom at 801,000 positions — the worst figure in the 77-year history of tracking by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, this summer’s job forecast for teenagers is even more dire. In an alarming projection, Challenger, Gray, and Christmas warns that employers will offer teens 790,000 jobs in May, June, and July 2026.

The previous documented low point occurred in 1949 during post-war demobilization, when teen hiring dropped to 932,000. In 2010, the total number of teenage jobs fell to 960,000, when the economic recovery from the Great Recession dragged on.

Fortune reported that federal data shows that approximately one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States were employed last summer, noting that it is “down from a peak of about 60% in the late 1970s.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that applications for New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program this year have already shattered 2025’s record of 200,000 candidates competing for just 100,000 slots.

Meanwhile, advertisements for summer camp counselor positions on the Indeed jobs board have crashed by nearly 30% year-over-year, according to the WSJ.

“Last summer was the weakest summer for teen hiring we have ever recorded,” said Andy Challenger, labor and workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.

RELATED: The secret to Chick-fil-A’s success has nothing to do with chicken

Challenger stressed, “What is striking is that it happened without a recession.”

The report by Challenger, Gray, and Christmas cited “rising inflation, climbing oil prices, and a broadly cautious hiring environment” as factors contributing to the historically weak teen summer job forecast. The report also said artificial intelligence, automation, and older workers staying in the workforce later have hurt job prospects for teens.

“Inflation and rising fuel costs are squeezing the same households and small businesses that hire teens, such as amusement parks, restaurants, retailers, and summer camps,” Challenger continued. “When margins tighten, summer hirers will wait for demand to dictate hiring.”

Challenger said, “We predicted a quiet summer last year, and it played out even quieter than expected. The dynamics that drove that slowdown — cost pressures, automation, employers waiting to see how consumer demand holds up — are all still in place, and in some cases they’ve intensified.”

Non-seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that there were 5,193,000 employed workers ages 16 to 19 in April. The report said the total is a noticeable drop from the figure from April 2025, which saw 5,487,000 teen workers on payrolls.

Challenger pointed out, “When fewer teens are working in April, the late-spring catch-up usually doesn’t close the gap. June will be the most important month to watch, but the trajectory is already pointing down.”

Challenger, Gray, and Christmas reported, “Entertainment and leisure, which led the seasonal categories most relevant to teen hiring last year with 28,000 announced plans, has announced only 8,261 hiring plans through April of this year, a 70% drop.”

Challenger added, “The collapse in entertainment and leisure hiring announcements is one of the clearest signals we have for the summer.”

Challenger said jobs in places like theme parks, resorts, hotels, and events will “run leaner this year.”

“That is exactly the kind of work teens depend on,” Challenger stated.

The report said teenagers could find employment opportunities in agriculture, hospitality, and food service. The report claimed that in areas with crackdowns on illegal immigration could help American teens secure jobs.

“Tighter labor supply in certain regions, particularly those most affected by ongoing immigration enforcement actions, continues to push some employers to lean more heavily on local teen workers,” the report proclaimed.

Challenger declared, “In the places where labor remains tight, teens can be a real solution.”

According to NewsNation, teenagers could find a “few bright spots” in summer employment, including lifeguards and working in retail.

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​Business, Economics, Employment, Inflation, Jobs, News, Politics 

A virulent anti-Trump critic did very poorly in the Democratic primary election for an open seat representing Manhattan, and the president didn’t hold back his mockery.

George Conway, ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, was a Republican political strategist before President Donald Trump won election in 2016. He has since become a fierce opponent of the president and even helped found the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political organization.

‘This is a truly unattractive person, both inside and out. Have a nice life, George!’

None of that helped Conway in the primary race for New York’s 12th Congressional District, which had a crowded field of candidates that included a Kennedy scion.

“Wow, Mr. Kellyanne Conway, a Trump Deranged Loser at the highest level, is getting absolutely CRUSHED in the Primaries tonight,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social, referring to Conway’s defunct marriage.

“He’ll end up at about 5% of the vote in a rather weak field of young and aggressive Communists,” Trump added. “No wonder his ‘husband’ dumped him like a dog! This is a truly unattractive person, both inside and out. Have a nice life, George!”

The Conway campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Kellyanne Conway was a Republican strategist who was Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and became a passionate supporter of his policies.

Kellyanne Conway left the Trump campaign just a few months ahead of the 2020 election. The Conways announced their divorce in March 2023 after two decades of marriage.

The primary election was called for New York state Assembly Member Micah Lasher, who garnered 39% of the vote with 87% of the ballots counted. Conway had gotten support from only 6% of the vote at that point.

Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, 33, also performed poorly despite carrying the Kennedy name — he received only about 11% of the vote.

RELATED: George Conway publicly chides Kellyanne Conway while she defends Trump

Lasher is a longtime Democrat who promised to “revamp and recharge the Democratic Party in Washington” after his victory.

He added that his goal was to show his party has “bold new ideas to improve the lives of struggling Americans and then deliver on them.”

Lasher will likely have an easy road to Congress, as two-thirds of the voters in the district are registered as Democrats.

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​Democratic primary, George conway, Kellyanne conway, New york, Politics 

While the Trump administration has seen some major pro-life wins, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is worried that the administration hasn’t made much headway on issues like the abortion pill.

“A lot of pro-lifers, myself included, are concerned about mifepristone continuing to circulate. Most abortions now are done via abortion pill. The FDA under Trump hasn’t reversed the Biden policy about mail-order abortions and mifepristone circulating,” Stuckey tells Vice President JD Vance.

“So can you tell us the latest on that front and if that’s going to change?” she asks.

“So the FDA has put this under review, and we’re well under review. I think the Wall Street Journal reported that it had just started. … And of course, I’m not going to prejudge the investigation, and I’m not going to tell anybody exactly what it will find because I don’t know what it will find,” Vance answers.

“We’re trying to be led by the science, and that’s also how you make sure this stuff is defensible once it will inevitably be challenged in court. I think, number two, that you know there are so many wins, not just in designating embryos as worthy of protection, but all of the foreign funding of abortion that grew up in the wake of the Biden administration — that was completely stopped,” he continues.

“We expanded the Mexico City policy, which cut down on the amount of foreign funding going to abortion services overseas,” he says, asking, “Why are American tax dollars funding abortions in other countries?”

“Also, the One Big Beautiful Bill mostly was a tax-cut legislation for working families. We’re obviously very proud of it, but it also meant that abortion providers would not get tax money in the United States of America either,” he continues.

“So,” he adds, “I think that there are a lot of wins to hang our hat on.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Jd vance, Donald trump, Pro-life, Abortion, Pill, Joe biden, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

The Democratic Party is undergoing a hostile takeover by democratic socialists — as evidenced in New York’s primaries on Tuesday where Democrat establishment-types suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of radicals cut from the same cloth as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

With over 90% of the votes in on Wednesday morning, incumbent Rep. Daniel Goldman trailed former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander 65.8% to 34% — a whopping 31.8 percentage points.

‘We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.’

Lander was endorsed by Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and the Working Families Party, and ran largely to the left of Goldman, heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.

Goldman — who was endorsed by AIPAC, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — did his apparent best to join his opponent, who is also Jewish, in criticizing Israel and virtue-signaling to radical would-be voters, but his best was nowhere near good enough.

After getting steamrolled at the ballot box, Goldman told supporters, “The voters of New York’s 10th Congressional District have spoken, and while this is certainly not the outcome I hoped for and worked so hard for, I respect their decision.”

RELATED: CNN data analyst stunned by Democratic Party’s takeover by Mamdani’s fellow travelers

Brad Lander and Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, writing, “Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG! I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP. In any event, this jerk is finally GONE!”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the five-term Democrat who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, also lost to a Mamdani-backed radical, democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier.

Chevalier is a black identitarian who co-founded Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a radical coalition that posted “death to America” on social media earlier this year; stated, “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization”; and asked for “community and instruction from militants in the Global South, who have been on the frontlines in the fight against tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order.”

‘NEVER be a communist Country!’

In addition to her involvement with the international intifada, Chevalier helped advance the Columbia rape hoax and made headlines for advocating against all deportations, claiming, “Israel doesn’t exist,” and demanding a “world without prisons or police.” She was backed by Mamdani, the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, and Justice Democrats PAC.

With 88% of the votes in, Chevalier leads Espaillat — who enjoyed endorsements from Hochul, Jeffries, and New York Attorney General Letitia James — 49.4% to 45.9%.

Espaillat endorsed Mamdani for mayor last year.

Claire Valdez, a Mamdani-backed democratic socialist member of the New York State Assembly, won her primary race for Democratic incumbent Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s seat, beating the Democratic establishment’s apparent preference and Velazquez’s desired successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

Valdez campaigned on abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “demilitar[izing] the border,” making it easier for illegal aliens to gain lawful permanent residence, defunding Israel, and super-charging the “Green New Deal.” Like the other radicals, she also enjoyed support from Sanders, Justice Democrats PAC, and the DSA.

Following the Mamdani-backed candidates’ clean sweep, Trump wrote, “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a communist Country!”

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​Aipac, Dan goldman, Elizabeth warren, Hakeem jeffries, Zohran mamdani, Brad lander, Adriano espaillat, Democrats, Democratic socialist, New york, Primary, Election, Leftism, Israel, Claire valdez, Politics, Donald trump 

The Joe Biden years proved a hard truth: Lawfare works, and the right is far more vulnerable to it than the left.

Stacked judiciaries, activist allies, and unprincipled prosecutors all play their parts. But one factor matters above all others: money.

The left built a legal machine because it understood power. The right must build one because it understands what happens when power goes undefended.

Lawsuits are expensive. So are investigations, subpoenas, demand letters, bar complaints, defamation claims, and congressional inquiries. The left figured out that it could move political disputes into legal disputes and shift the fight to terrain overwhelmingly favorable to itself.

The cost is the punishment

The left has nearly conquered major law firm culture. Despite President Trump’s early executive orders aimed at changing that landscape, little has materially shifted. The left still enjoys a vast network of pro bono and donor-funded legal organizations ready to defend allies and pursue enemies.

Look no further than the nearly billion-dollar Southern Poverty Law Center, which has served as an investigative engine for government action against political opponents. That is one organ in a much larger ecosystem, and it dwarfs anything available on the right.

Similar efforts are already preparing for the possibility that Democrats win a House or Senate majority and then the presidency in 2028. If that happens, the right will return to the Biden years, with one key difference: The left views its earlier campaign as unfinished business. Its base believes Merrick Garland did not go far enough. Next time, they will.

The mere receipt of a congressional subpoena, demand letter, defamation claim, bar complaint, or federal investigative request can create legal bills that climb into the tens of thousands of dollars. Competent defense costs money, and the people most likely to become targets often cannot afford it.

The old model failed

During the Biden years, several noble efforts raised money for legal defense. But the old model had limits. A few senior-level individuals benefited from donor generosity. The money rarely reached the broader class of people caught in the machinery of political targeting.

The reason was simple: Lawyers are expensive.

I saw this firsthand. A friend of mine, a senior White House official in his early 30s who had not even been at the Capitol on January 6, received a subpoena from the January 6 committee and a not-so-friendly outreach from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was on his own.

Big lawyers charging big fees were representing bigger players. He received quotes he could never dream of affording just to deal with the investigation. For lack of a better term, he was pretty screwed.

RELATED: The left wants to put MAGA on the couch — then on trial

Photodisc/iStock/Getty Images

I represented him pro bono and handled the January 6 committee and a daylong deposition. Weeks of prep and review went into the matter. Even discounted representation from a firm with relevant expertise would easily have cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The story has a happy ending. My friend now works at the FBI.

But that is one person and one story. My organization, the Oversight Project, does what it can to represent allies across the country caught in the crosshairs of weaponized targeting. Far more must be done before the next wave arrives.

Build the bench

The right needs to rethink legal defense. We can no longer hope to collect vast sums and spend them on a handful of high-priced outside lawyers. A serious movement needs a dedicated defense team.

The fundamental problem is cost. The model cannot depend on hourly fees that crest above $1,000.

The left has built a corps of highly paid attorneys who handle matters ranging from major lawsuits to symbolic complaints over reflecting pools or the naming of the Kennedy Center. Its financiers will pay lawyers to sue constantly and defend constantly.

The right has the opposite problem. It must accept that reality and build the equivalent of a nonprofit public defense network.

That may seem unfair to right-leaning lawyers who deserve the million-dollar paydays available in the left-wing ecosystem. But a serious political movement must be able to sustain itself by defending itself.

The conservative ecosystem needs major structural reform. Policy shops, communications firms, advocacy groups, and convening organizations all have value. But the movement has too much of that compared with the infrastructure needed to gain and maintain power.

A legal defense unit is one of those structural necessities.

A ‘public defender’ for lawfare

What would a public-defender equivalent for political allies on the right look like?

The current model concentrates money in legal defense funds that serve a few high-profile defendants and a few expensive, well-credentialed lawyers. The better model would create permanent, full-time attorneys working on salary inside a nonprofit structure to defend more people at lower cost.

Some cases will still require outside counsel or a hybrid approach. But the goal should be to build, credential, and develop a specialized legal bench equipped to handle lawfare.

RELATED: Republicans took ICE hostage — then bragged about saving it

Paul Campbell/iStock/Getty Images

That bench should also reap the political rewards the so-called conservative legal movement has long monopolized: prominent appointments, elected office, and leadership positions. The days of prestigious Big Law careers converting automatically into prestigious political patronage should end unless they include acts of sacrifice and service to the broader cause.

Defense efforts should prioritize those most in need: ICE officers, mid-level political appointees, local officials, young staffers, activists, and others without meaningful financial resources.

The effort must also maintain integrity. Resources should go only to cases that can honestly be characterized as political weaponization. A legal-defense network cannot become a mechanism for defraying the costs of white-collar crime, contract solicitation, self-dealing, or financial misconduct.

This is not about shielding wrongdoing. It is about ensuring that actual ethical violations, not political speech or service to conservative causes, trigger professional consequences.

Change the incentives

When one side can impose costs without meaningful pushback, it will keep doing so. When the other side develops the institutional ability to absorb those costs and impose consequences in return, the incentive structure changes.

A public-defender-style legal network would create in-house capacity for rapid-response representation when subpoenas, bar complaints, investigations, or lawsuits strike. It would develop specialized expertise in constitutional, administrative, ethics, and First Amendment defenses tailored to political attacks. It would coordinate a nationwide roster of aligned counsel rather than leaving every target to negotiate alone with expensive firms.

Most important, it would operate on a charitable model that directs resources to the most vulnerable clients — the people who would otherwise be destroyed before the real fight even begins.

The left built a legal machine because it understood power. The right must build one because it understands what happens when power goes undefended.

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