Luke Goodrich

#BREAKING: In a 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit has just greenlighted the destruction of Oak Flat, an ancient sacred site of Western Apache and other Native peoples. This decision is wrong, and @BECKETlaw will appeal to the Supreme Court. becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20240301204150…

The Supreme Court just ruled unanimously that First Choice Women’s Resource Centers—a pro-life Christian ministry serving women facing unplanned pregnancies—can seek protection in federal court after New Jersey’s Attorney General launched an investigation that threatened their religious mission.

Native American sacred sites deserve the same protections as all other houses of worship in this country. America’s promise of religious freedom demands no less. The court should reverse the illegal transfer and protect the Apaches’ freedom to continue worshipping at Oak Flat for generations to come. becketfund.org/media/apache-s…

The Apaches have broad backing for their cause: 21 of 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona oppose the mine, as does the National Congress of American Indians. Recent polling also shows that 71% of Americans support protecting Oak Flat. #page=35" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20260204112526…

Last month, the feds illegally transferred Oak Flat—an invaluable Native American sacred site—to a Chinese-owned mining company for destruction. Today, @becketfund and @ProtectOakFlat filed a renewed lawsuit to reverse the transfer before it’s too late. becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20260422192643…

The @nytimes' "shadow papers" reporting frames the Court's Feb. 9, 2016 orders blocking the Clean Power Plan as the birth of the modern emergency docket — the first time the Court intervened against a major presidential initiative before any appellate merits ruling. That central historical claim is wrong. Two years earlier, on New Year's Eve 2013, Justice Sotomayor acted alone to block the Obama administration's HHS contraceptive mandate against the Little Sisters of the Poor — a one-paragraph order issued without briefing, oral argument, or explanation, before any appellate merits ruling. Three weeks later, the full Court extended that order, unsigned and without a recorded dissent. The pattern continued in Wheaton College (2014) and Zubik (2015), protecting large groups of religious objectors. The 2016 Clean Power Plan orders sit in the middle of a line of emergency docket orders. They do not begin it. That fact matters, because the emergency docket's real work across the last decade has been a check on government overreach across administrations of both parties — not the partisan artifact the reporting describes. My latest for @SCOTUSblog today: scotusblog.com/2026/04/the-em…

Huge win today from the en banc Fifth Circuit: Texas’s law that requires the Ten Commandments posters in public school classrooms is constitutional. becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20260421182244…

Just out: the en banc Fifth Circuit today upheld Texas SB 10 in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD. Judge Duncan's opinion is a tour de force of Founding-era history on the original meaning of "an establishment of religion." It's joined in full or in relevant part by Chief Judge Elrod and Judges Jones, Smith, Willett, Ho, Engelhardt, Oldham, and Wilson. Three things the opinion does, clearly and unequivocally: 1. Lemon and its progeny, including Stone v. Graham, are dead letter. Kennedy jettisoned the whole line, and there is nothing left of Stone once Lemon goes. 2. The history that governs Establishment Clause analysis is originalist and tied to the Founding, not some later tradition imported to do the analytical work. 3. It adopts the six hallmarks of an established religion that Kennedy referenced (drawn from McConnell's scholarship) as the operative framework for evaluating Establishment Clause challenges. Glad to see some citations to my work along the way, and I'm grateful for the court's careful engagement. This case is worth reading in full and likely to become the leading lower-court statement of the post-Kennedy Establishment Clause framework.

The next big religious freedom case at the U.S. Supreme Court. 👇👇👇

The Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s counseling speech ban as a textbook case of viewpoint discrimination. Becket’s @LukeWGoodrich joins @drmoore on the @CTmagazine's podcast to break down the near-unanimous decision in Chiles v. Salazar. christianitytoday.com/podcasts/the-b…

Congratulations to @ADFLegal and their courageous client, Kaley Chiles, on this monumental Supreme Court victory.

Today’s decision is yet more evidence that religious freedom, free speech, and parental rights are invaluable. They are worth protecting for their own sake. And, in cases like this one, they ensure that children can get the compassionate, evidence-backed counseling they need and want to receive.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court just ruled 8-1 to protect compassionate, faith-based counseling for kids struggling with their biological sex--blocking a Colorado law that pushed children down the harmful path of sex-rejecting medical procedures: supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf…

As I’ve said, the transgender conveyor belt is not inevitable. It is legally vulnerable because it contradicts religious freedom, parental rights, free speech, sound science, and common sense. It can and will be stopped. x.com/LukeWGoodrich/…

And the work of protecting kids and parents continues—e.g., we are suing Massachusetts for banning a Catholic couple from becoming foster parents, solely because of their religious beliefs about sex and gender: becketfund.org/media/catholic…

In the 23 months since I wrote this, we've seen over a dozen legal victories dismantling the transgender conveyor belt. A thread of key victories... x.com/LukeWGoodrich/…