Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The WallBuilders Show. It's Good News Friday. Looking forward to some good news from David and Tim Barton. I'm Rick Green. Thanks so much for joining all three of us today. You can visit our two websites wallbuilders.com That's where you can get all the great information and tools and resources we've talked yesterday on our Foundations of Freedom Thursday program about finding truth and getting to those resources. It's right there wallbuilders.com. And then if you miss some of our radio programs over the holidays as you were traveling or just maybe unplug completely and enjoy in a little break. At any rate, if you missed some programs, you can pick up all of those at WallBuilders.Show or on all the different podcast apps out there. We recommend Spotify and I use what's it called? Castbox, because I can I can listen to you guys at two time. Speed No, you cannot listen to David and Tim Barton and two time speed. It's not possible. All right, guys, let's get to some good news. David was our first piece of good news today. 

David Barton [00:00:58] I've got a whole stack of it. And it all deals with the Supreme Court, all deals with federal courts. And it has been a while since we've had a stack of of stories that all are positive on the judiciary, but they certainly are. And these are even positive stories on the liberals in the Supreme Court. And that's what's kind of makes this unusual. I don't remember how many years, maybe decades it's been since we had that. And I can go back to 1992 and say, okay, there was a 9-0 decision and surplus decision where that the liberals and conservatives said, No, no, no, Boston has to fly a Christian flag over city halls. They're going to fly other flags. And that was kind of a turning point. I don't remember the last time a liberal actually upheld something that was Judeo-Christian simply because that's the constitutional thing to do. They've always had a bias or Judeo Christian, at least for the last 30 or 40 years. So there's a number of decisions that are coming out now where that even what's Qahtani, Jackson Brown or Brown? Jackson. 

Tim Barton [00:01:58] Ketanji Brown Jackson. 

David Barton [00:01:59] Thank you. You know I get the initials sometimes better than I do the name but she's even siding with the conservatives in the court and saying, No, no, no. Here's what the Constitution says. And it has been a long time since I can look back and say liberals and conservatives both reading the Constitution, coming to the same conclusion, the same answer it's always been for four decades has been philosophical. It's where your world view as. But it's just refreshing to see that. So the one I've got right up top, it deals with it came out of the 11th Circuit and it deals with the fact that the administration revoked a visa. And so they revoked a visa for a person who was here and and they were here, apparently falsifies some information, etc.. But that person went to court and said, hey, I want a judicial review of my revoked visa. And the 11th Circuit said, no, no, no, this is an executive action. This does not have any judicial review. There is no right that we have to review any action of the of the executive when it comes to immigration. Constitution does not give immigration to the courts. It gives it to the executive. And that is their sole responsibility, not ours. And so that the Ninth Circuit they came out with with that opinion and then it went to the US Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court and  a 9-0 decision said, No, no, no, this is not reviewable by the Supreme Court. Now, the decision, the opinion was actually written by KetanjiBrown Jackson and she says there is no role for the court to have an opinion in this and for a liberal to write that there is something that is not reviewable by judges. It just blows my mind to see that there's something they're willing to say the Constitution sets aside and I love it. I think it's great news. 

Tim Barton [00:03:49] I think the person that was losing their visa really had a strategic blunder on this. Given the open borders. You should. I just left come back without a visa. The Biden administration welcomes you, releases you you don't even need a visa to be here anymore to go and get. 

Rick Green [00:04:06] Some travel and money. You know, maybe we get some discounts or. 

Tim Barton [00:04:09] Yeah, right. You know, unless it was like, Hey, I'm afraid of deportations. What President Trump gets here, they could have been on the other side. But yeah, it seems like a strategic error on some level right there. But that is encouraging that the court recognize we don't have the authority to deal with this matter. 

David Barton [00:04:25] Well, I've got another I'm going to throw in too, and just pile on it and it comes in it related to Nasdaq. And so what's happened with with Nasdaq? And that's, you know, the the stock market kind of stuff. The Nasdaq board came up with a rule and this goes to the securities and Nasdaq. 

Tim Barton [00:04:43] You're saying what happened with Nasdaq? What what are we talking about? 

David Barton [00:04:46] Well, I got to kind of set it up here. So Nasdaq, you got the the how do we explain Nasdaq? Because you got the stock market stuff, but Nasdaq is kind of a second stock market kind of. 

Rick Green [00:04:58] Board, like the smart, the smaller one that used to be more tech heavy. I don't know. That's right. Years ago. I don't know if today it's still that way or not, but maybe it is. 

David Barton [00:05:05] Yeah, that's the way I. Was it was kind of the second stock market and it wasn't the big Wall Street stock. 

Rick Green [00:05:10] Market, the Dow Jones that most people follow your hear about, you know. 

David Barton [00:05:15] And so Nasdaq so that's under Securities Exchange Commission. So that's a government agency. So the Securities Exchange Commission, government agency, the SCC came out with a rule that said you had to have DTI board members. And so if you're going to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange and trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange, the SEC said you need to have DEI board members. And they went through and said this is their rule. The rule said you have to have two diverse board members, including at least one director who self-identifies as a female, one who self-identifies as black or African-American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian, Native American, Alaska native. And it goes to this whole list. You got to have at least two of those board members on there. And so that's what SEC was requiring. 

Tim Barton [00:06:02] Would already really seems really arbitrary, because if we already said someone that identifies as a woman, I feel like you go to the board meeting, be like, Hey, Bob, I need you to identify as a Susan today just to meet these requirements. No big deal. Like we're the same clothes. No problem. This is so arbitrary and so nonsensical when you're saying that it's whoever like you can identify how you want to write, like just where the pronoun where not even the dress necessarily like just the identity. It's so dumb. And we haven't even gotten into the reality of the nature of DEI in general, but just the fact that it had to be a female or someone that identifies as a female, it's so dumb. 

David Barton [00:06:43] It is dumb. And that's why it's really good news that the court said this is outside the bounds of the SCC. They don't have the authority to do this. They don't have the authority to tell you what your board members have to be. They're not going to run private business until private this. And so that was again, refreshing. And here's another court decision where the court is saying the government does not have the authority to do this. And that has been so long since we've seen courts say the government does not have authority to do something and is just I mean, my whole stack today is is stories like this where the court is self limit in itself. The court is actually putting itself back in the constitutional box. And man, I can't tell you how great that is for America. Now, if we need to step up and do the right thing and make sure that we're doing the right stuff constitutionally, but at least the courts are giving us the opportunity to do what we should be doing constitutionally. And that's just that's really good news to me. 

Rick Green [00:07:39] And like you said, they're there. They're stepping up, limiting themselves and limiting the other branches of government and limiting the fourth branch, which is all these agencies that have grab power for themselves. And as you were describing that, David, I could hear your voice ten years ago as we were recording Constitution Alive and you were describing jurisdictions, authority, who has the, you know, the within if they're within their boundaries, what are their boundaries? It was almost like a pipe dream. Like we were dreaming that we could get government back into those jurisdictions. And now here we are. We're starting to see some of those decisions and hear these officials talk about getting the federal government back into those boxes. Just super, super good news. Now, Tim, I don't know if you noticed, but your dad stuck in two pieces of good news before you had a chance to go to your stack. So I'm thinking like we need to do two in a row from you at this point. 

Tim Barton [00:08:23] I mean, this is pretty standard, right? Is par for the course. He's like, I have one story and it's actually nine stories, but they're all kind of related to the topic. So I'm going to include all nine of these. But really just one story. It's like, okay, I was it. 

David Barton [00:08:35] Was on the same topic. So it's only one. It only counts for one. 

Tim Barton [00:08:38] Yes. It was the U.S. Supreme Court with a visa. Nasdaq stock exchange. Yeah, totaling the same, I'm sure. Next in. Yeah, everybody can see it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. 

Rick Green [00:08:51] Well, they both happen in the same in the same time. What do they call that in Marvel timeline. You know. 

Tim Barton [00:08:58] Multiverse. 

Rick Green [00:08:58] Multiverse. Yeah, they both happen to the same multiverse, Tim. So that that's why they. 

Tim Barton [00:09:02] Were just totally fine. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, this one is still on our planet, and one day we'll have good news off our planet. So let's just clarify. Right? But this is one that happened at this point oh man and we're in January now is back in December. It's still worth highlighting. We're Netanyahu dealing with some of what's going on the northern conflict of Israel. And he declared that the Golan Heights will be forever part of Israel. And we know that Israel pushed in and they got into kind of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. But strategically, that is a big mountain overlook that there is a military advantage if someone controls that, they really could control a lot of Israel depending on what kind of stuff they had there. And so having having Netanyahu acknowledge that the Golan Heights, which they then had had gone in and again taken part of and really I'm reading this article kind of referencing is we're going and this is a buffer between Syria and Israel control Golan Heights was created by the United. Nations after the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab led states. A UN force of about 1100 troops had patrolled the area since then. So this is identifying U.N. forces patrolling the area since then. This goes back to 1973, Yom Kippur War. And there's a lot of history back in that war. And so many of the Israeli war moments, especially backing up 40, 50, 60, 70 years, whatever it is. It's amazing the miracles that took place for them to win those wars, for them to be a nation and come into existence. So many incredible things. But one of the things that we have talked about, I think on the radio and it's probably been years past by now, maybe even with some of our friends over in Israel. But if you look at what God promised to Abraham, what God promised to his descendants, the land that was going to be theirs. Israel has given up so much of that land and some of it came in peace negotiations. They just want to be a nation that existed, especially after World War Two, have a place to protect the Jews. But they've given up so much of their land. And some of that land certainly is in Syria, actually much of Syria. When you go back to some of the biblical parameters of what God said would be the nation of Israel. And so seeing Israel be able to regain a strategic military spot and even it's a very small amount, but some of the the land that had been part of their nation before some of these peace deals that they had to reach from some of the earlier wars, it is just encouraging and good news when we see these victories over in Israel. That is, as a believer, even in America, that is very encouraging. 

David Barton [00:11:44] And I want to jump on that, Tim, and then back to you for another one. But this is something that I've got to do. A shout out to former President Jimmy Carter on this because of all the things he got wrong with so many things with energy and with gas and inflation and education and the Department of Education. One thing I think he got right was the peace accords that he helped Egypt and Israel reach after that 1973 war. He comes in and he helps he negotiate that peace accords. And I did not at the time think that it was going to last. There was no way that I thought Egypt was going to respect that, that peace with Israel. And now here we are 50 years later, and Egypt is still respecting that peace. And even though Gaza is down and that Egypt held area, Egypt does not like does not like the folks in Gaza, does not like what's going on on there. They're not supporting them. Egypt has done a really good job of being an ally with Israel, and I think that's something Jimmy Carter got right. He got the Nobel Peace Prize for that. And so I think that's a shout out that he definitely deserves that He recognized the role of Israel and protected Israel and did a really good thing back when he when he reached that agreement. 76. 

Rick Green [00:12:56] There's that that intellectual honesty we talked about yesterday on Foundations of Freedom Thursday, given where props are due even to Jimmy Carter. All right, Tim, you get to stick another one in before we go to break, man. 

Tim Barton [00:13:06] Well, this one is basically the same topic as other things we've been talking about. So it's like it's basically one piece of good news. And you'll see the obvious connection when I start talking about it. So this headline says 29 abortion centers closed this year. Now, 14 states are abortion free. 

Rick Green [00:13:28] Is that right? Because you were in Israel a second ago. No, that's here in the U. 

Tim Barton [00:13:32] It's an obvious question. I can't believe we're even having Universal now. This is a connection. This is so obvious being it's like the same. 

Rick Green [00:13:39] Like father, like son. 

Tim Barton [00:13:40] I'm doing two with basically one, right? It's so obvious. But we we know when roe versus the way was overturned, the incredible victory that was and we've said it many times on this program, we will continue to say it. The idea that abortion can be a states rights issue is as foolish as saying that the Second Amendment is a states rights issue. It's as foolish as saying that slavery is a states rights issue. The fundamental right to life is one of our inalienable rights. That's right. Inalienable rights are not states rights. So the founding fathers started with first the right to life, then liberty, then property, Sam Adams said, together with the right to defend them, You go to the Bill of Rights. Those are recognizes God given the name. Animal rights and animal rights are not things that states can determine. Well, we don't believe you have the right of self-defense in this state. We don't believe you have the freedom of speech in this state. No, those aren't state rights. Those are inalienable rights that every state should protect and recognize. With that being said, the abortion issue and debate is not over. It's great that we finally had a Supreme Court to recognize the Constitution does not protect the fundamental, inalienable, quote unquote right. Of abortion. That's not real. That's on the Constitution. It's not a God given rights. So it's great that at least they recognize federally that's not a protected right. It is a challenge now that we have to deal with and states and the fact that there are now 14 states that are abortion free is huge. And actually. And this. The Civic article. It is a very long, extensive article. It's from Life News and I mean like dozens of pages long. And so I'm not going to the whole thing. It's actually if I had like ten of these piece of good news, my stack by themselves, I get one piece like why is your salary just all my I have ten piece of good news and not like my dad's version of good news where it's like ten stories for every piece. It's like, No, no, this is just 130 page piece of good news. Nonetheless, looking at the the tracking for the last, this is a chart for the last 15 years showing that back in 2009 there were 844 abortion clinics. In 2012, there were 856 abortion clinics. And at 2024, there were 667. And so the trend is definitely going down. And actually, there's the the reason it even looks like it's higher or as high as it is, there's actually been far more abortion clinics that have closed, but there have been abortion clinics that have now opened. But the abortion clinics that have now opened are largely the abortion clinics that are doing pill. Only the vast majority of abortion clinics opening are pill only. And this is also where we're going to see some legal challenges from states that have passed laws preventing saying we're not going to do abortion in our states. And there's other states that are sending these abortion pills like at will. No medical advice, no doctors involved in this. Like, yeah, if you need abortion pills, we'll send them to you. And it was one of the big stories of of the woman that died when people said it was a botched abortion. I think it was in Georgia where she was. And really it was actually the abortion pill is is what she was on. And so this is one of many of the problems with the abortion pill beyond the fact that it's killing an unborn child. Nonetheless, what is really great about this is it does track the the trend and the trajectory that, by and large, abortion is on decline in the nation. Now. There's still a lot of battles we're going to have to deal with. And the abortion pill is going to be like this kind of new territory that we're going to have to navigate and figure out how do we do this? And ultimately, I would say that winning the abortion issue, we're going have to win the argument before we get the culture. And so we have to we have to start thinking a lot more strategically about why is there value in life? Well, if there is no God, you can question, is there value in life? But if there is a God and if God is the one who is the author and giver of life and God does everything on purpose for a reason, and there is a reason, a value for that unborn child. So we have to go back to one the argument. But big picture, good news is really good that 29 abortion centers closed this year and there are now 14 states that are abortion free. 

Rick Green [00:17:41] Moving in the right direction. Absolutely. No question about it. All right. More goodies when we come back. Stay with us. Folks, you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Tim Barton [00:18:41] And see how it applies to today. Go to WallBuilders com and get your copy. 

Rick Green [00:18:54] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us on this good news Friday. We've got time for several more pieces of good news. David's up next. 

David Barton [00:19:00] Where we're going back to courts. And this deals with the National Labor Relations Board. So National Labor Relations Board, you know, this is an agency I don't think should ever have existed. It's not the role of the federal government to get into labor relations and negotiate that stuff. And that's just that's that's business side belongs to the private sector, not the government. But in the era of big government where all these boards were added and thousands of boards have been added. What's happened to the National Labor Relations Board is they have appointed administrative law judges. So they have appointed judges to help make decisions on these various controversies, the rise in their labor, etc.. And what's happened is those judges, those administrative law judges have come under what they call the Merit Oversight Board and the U.S. Merit System Protection Board. This is what watches over the federal judges. And so as you look at federal judges, an article we call them Article three judges, Article three, the Constitution allows those judges to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. And so there is there is this board that, again, they called the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board to oversee judges. Well, these judges, these administrative law judges weren't put in there by the president and put there and confirmed by the Senate. They were put there by the National Labor Relations Board. So you now have agencies installing judges within certain areas. And it's not just the National Labor Relations Board. Others have done this, too. And lo and behold, the federal judges stepped up and said, hey, these judges that you've appointed, they do not get the protection of the Article three judges. The president can remove them any time he wants to. And so if President Trump wants to remove these administrative law judges, they they can. And the federal judges said you're not supposed to have two layers of bureaucratic insulation between any official and accountability. And they said, what what's happened is the president doesn't have any type of accountability of these administrative law judges because they're protected by the merit board, and that's unconstitutional. So what you actually have is the judiciary removing actual protection for other judges by saying you've got to read the Constitution. And the Constitution does not put anybody two levels of bureaucracy away from being removed. And the Constitution. So, again, a great thing for the judges to say. The judges don't have ultimate power. They have to be limited by what the Constitution says. And the president should be able to remove judges that are that are not. Article three judges merit judges, regardless of what you call them, judges or not. They don't fit what the Constitution says. This just airs again, another great decision by the courts where the court is limiting its own power. It would be so easy for to reach out and protect other judges and protect the judiciary and say separation of powers. But they're reading the Constitution saying, but that's not what's supposed to be protected in the Constitution. Well, they going to protect what the Constitution says. This is this really, really, really good news for the judges to tie their own hands simply because the Constitution says so. 

Rick Green [00:22:13] And I'm. I'm. I feel like this is what Donald Trump promised. You know, 10 or 12 years ago. Right. You're going to get tired of winning. We're winning, winning, winning. And but I'm not tired of it at all. I love hearing these good news stories. All right, Tim, what's your next piece of good news, sir? 

Tim Barton [00:22:26] Well, this one is another one of the stories of a Democrat leaving the Democratic Party, that the title of the headline of this article says Detroit Mayor Leaves Democratic Party Launches Independent Gubernatorial Bid. Now, Detroit is the most populous city in Michigan. And this Democrat mayor who who's been mayor since 2014, this Democrat mayor, came out and said this doesn't make sense anymore. The Democrat Party does not. It's going too far. He said, I can't I can't lead. I can't govern this city under this kind of philosophy. And he said, it's clear to me that there's a lot of people in this country who are tired of both parties and tired of the system. And then he announced that he wants to give people a choice in Michigan. So he's going to have an independent gubernatorial bid. Now, currently, Gretchen Whitmer is the governor up in Michigan, and she's term limited out. So it's going to be an open seat. It could be very interesting to see who runs. But there's no doubt that the Democrat policies have not been effective and certainly not in Detroit. When you go back, I think it was the 1980s when Detroit was the wealthiest city in all the United States, maybe was 1970s, but it was somewhere in that area. I mean, Detroit is like the pinnacle of America. And now there are tens of thousands, maybe maybe over 100,000 uninhabitable homes. We have friends that have told us there's areas like there's wild packs of dogs that roam the streets like Detroit, as has fallen into so much brokenness and chaos, so many not just economic problems, but crime ridden problems. And so to see a Democrat lawmaker again, or in this case a not a lawmaker, but a mayor, come out and acknowledge the failure of the Democrat position. This is one of many we've seen over the last however many months or years that are recognizing the failed position of the Democratic Party. And, guys, obviously, we we know that there's got to be a lot of education where it takes place over the next couple of years. We just from the polling know the reason President Trump won was there was a a high depression among Democrat voters that did not turn out because they weren't inspired by their candidates and not take away from the fact that President Trump had a resounding victory. Absolutely. But the idea that the vast majority of people are now supporting conservative Republican or biblical principles, I don't know that that is correct, based on the numbers and the data. And so certainly there's a lot of work to be done. So even though we see people leaving the Democratic Party, I don't think that's an indication that we are instantly becoming more conservative. But it does help us identify that people have begun to see more openly the brokenness and the failures of the Democrat side and those policies where we're starting to finally judge a tree by the fruits. And that is the good news is people are beginning to distaste for what doesn't work, and they are more open to looking for what does work. And this is where there's such an opportunity for us to disciple them. And some of the foundational principles of why is America been so successful and stable and what do we need to restore the premise from the Declaration? There's a God and He gave us rights and government exists to protect those rights. And and we go through some of these ideas of the free market and capitalism and why socialism doesn't work. There are so many opportunities. But this is just one more piece of good news indicating in that direction that the Detroit mayor is leaving the Democrat Party because he recognizes it doesn't work. 

Rick Green [00:26:10] Man Tim That is that is really a great precursor to the whole year. Right, that we have this window. We talked about the window of opportunity for big changes in government, but the window of opportunity to convert millions of people to the principles of liberty. That's the one I'm most excited about. What you just described. They're hungry. They're looking. Their eyes have been opened, The scales have been removed. They realize the lies of the past and now they're looking for truth and we have the chance to share it with them and teach them those truths. Share this program, folks. Make sure you go to WallBuilders Dot show and click on this link and share it with your friends and family. Be a force multiplier. Have a great weekend. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.