Press Release

Laying to Rest an American Hero in Arlington National Cemetery: Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.

July 21, 2014 by TMLC

ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow morning, July 22, 2014, Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. will be laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

The services will begin at 8:45 AM at the Old Post Chapel where Senator Jeff Sessions and Representative Sam Johnson are expected to give remarks. The ceremonies will also include a 13 cannon-salute, a 21 gun-salute and a military fly-over.

Admiral Denton, a retired Naval rear admiral and former U.S. senator who survived nearly eight years of captivity in North Vietnamese prisons, and whose public acts of defiance and patriotism came to embody the sacrifices of American POWs in Vietnam, died March 28, 2014 at a hospice in Virginia Beach. He was 89.

President Reagan in his 1st State of the Union address in 1983 stated of Admiral Denton, “We don’t have to turn to our history books for heroes, they are all around us. One who sits among you here tonight epitomized that heroism … .”

Admiral Denton, also served as the president of the Thomas More Law Center’s Citizens Advisory Board. The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, helped share Denton’s commitment to faith, family and the preservation of traditional values.

Admiral Denton, first captured the attention of the nation when in a television appearance orchestrated by the North Vietnamese as propaganda and broadcast in the United States in 1966, he appeared in his prison uniform and blinked the word “torture” in Morse code — a secret message to U.S. military intelligence for which he later received the Navy Cross.

At one point, the reporter asked him what he thought about the “so-called Vietnamese War.”
“Well, I don’t know what is happening,” Adm. Denton replied. “But whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. . . . I am a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.”

Adm. Denton was subjected to four years in solitary confinement. Living in roach- and rat-infested conditions, he endured starvation, delirium and torture sessions that sometimes lasted days.

On Feb. 12, 1973, shortly after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords that helped end U.S. involvement in the war, Adm. Denton and hundreds of other POWs began coming home. He was the first returnee to disembark from the plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

“We are profoundly grateful to our commander in chief and to our nation for this day,” he said in remarks on behalf of his fellow POWs. “God bless America.”

Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was born on July 15, 1924, in Mobile, Ala. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1946 and received a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1964.

He was promoted during his captivity to the rank of captain and later to rear admiral. After the war, he served as commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Va., and retired from the Navy in 1977.

In addition to the Navy Cross, his honors included the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, three awards of the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America. The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

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Female Owner Challenging HHS Mandate’s Contraceptive Coverage Gets Relief from 6th Circuit Court of Appeals

July 10, 2014 by TMLC

ANN ARBOR, MI – Karen Mersino, one of 14 female owners of for-profit companies challenging the HHS Mandate, is finally free to continue offering health insurance to her employees that does not cover contraceptives and abortion causing drugs. Reacting to the 6^th Circuit Court’s order, she commented, “It’s a real win for religious freedom.”

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which represents Karen Mersino, her husband Rod, and their business, Mersino Management Company, announced that yesterday the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals, issued aninjunction halting enforcement of the HHS Mandate. The 6^th Circuit acted in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby and without opposition from the Department of Justice.

Click Here to Read the Order

Erin Mersino, TMLC Senior Trial Counsel, stated, “In the aftermath of the Hobby Lobby decision, we were able to gain concurrence for immediate relief from the illegal aims of the HHS Mandate that violate our clients’ sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The initial challenge to the HHS Mandate, which forced employers to provide health insurance which included co-pay free coverage for abortion causing drugs and devices or pay cripplingIRS fines, was filed by TMLC in March 2013. In all, TMLC represents 10 for-profit companies totaling 30 plaintiffs in challenges to the HHS Mandate. TMLC is also challenging the HHS Mandate on behalf of 6 non-profit entities.

The Mersinos provide their employees with health care coverage which is superior to coverage generally available in the Michigan market. Based on their deeply held religious beliefs, however, the Mersinos have never offered insurance which included coverage for contraception, sterilization, abortion, or abortion causing drugs and devices. They believe, in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, that these procedures involve gravely immoral practices and the intentional destruction of innocent human life.

All of the Mersinos’ corporate offices display a document that reflects their core value: “Honor God in all we do by serving our customers and employees with honesty and integrity.”

TMLC’s Erin Mersino, reflected, “It has been an honor to represent Karen and Rod Mersino- two individuals who truly live out their faith everyday through the integrity with which they treat others, through their numerous charitable works, and through their overwhelmingly selfless devotion to their community and Church.”

The Day After Hobby Lobby Decision, Supreme Court Rules For Another Corporation Challenging the HHS Mandate

July 2, 2014 by TMLC

ANN ARBOR, MI – The day after its ruling in Hobby Lobby, the US Supreme Court granted review of the Thomas More Law Center’s petition on behalf of Eden Foods and its president Michael Potter, vacated the judgment, and remanded the case back to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for further consideration in light of the Hobby Lobby decision.

Click Here for Supreme Court Order

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, filed Eden Food’s initial challenge to the HHS Mandate in March 2013. After being denied a temporary injunction preventing enforcement of the HHS Mandate by a federal district court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, TMLC filed a petition for review with the Supreme Court. That petition had been held in abeyance pending the decision in the Hobby Lobby case.

Eden Foods, co-founded by Potter in the late 1960s, is the oldest natural food company in North America and the largest independent manufacturer of dry grocery organic foods. In 2009, Eden Foods was selected as the best food company in the world by Better World Shopping Guide, which also acknowledged the company’s outstanding record in social and environmental responsibility. The company employs 150 employees.

For years, Michael Potter, a Roman Catholic, President and sole shareholder of Eden Foods Corporation, for religious reasons, had arranged for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance coverage he designed for his employees to specifically exclude coverage for contraception and abortifacients. In accordance with his Catholic faith, Potter believes that any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation, whether as an end or means”—including abortifacients and contraception—is wrong.

The HHS Mandate forced Potter to make a choice between violating a foremost tenet of his faith or face fines up to $4.5 million per year.

Potter brought the lawsuit because he cannot compartmentalize his faith and his business practices.

Mr. Potter said in a statement, “We are grateful for the Hobby Lobby decision and look forward to further developments.”

Erin Mersino, TMLC’s Senior Trial Counsel who is handling the Eden Foods case commented on yesterday’s Supreme Court order, “The Supreme Court’s ruling in Hobby Lobby preserves the religious freedom we are guaranteed under the Constitution. The HHS mandate required business owners to directly violate their faith. The Supreme Court relied upon the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was signed into law by President Clinton and passed in a bipartisan effort to protect our First Amendment rights, to strike down the mandate. Under RFRA, the government has to establish a basis for substantially burdening one’s religious faith. Here, the government failed to do so.”

Mersino continued, “Justice Ginsburg’s dissent and proposed parade of horribles has no basis in reality. No flood gates have been opened. The truth is that the Supreme Court struck down an unjust law.”

BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules Abortion Buffer Zone Unconstitutional; Thomas More Law Center Welcomes Decision

June 26, 2014 by TMLC

ANN ARBOR, MI – The U.S. Supreme Court this morning released its unanimous decision in McCullen v Coakley ruling that the Massachusetts law which established 35- foot “buffer zones” around abortion clinics violates First Amendment free speech rights. Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the court held that, “The buffer zones burden substantially more speech than necessary to achieve the Commonwealth’s asserted interests.” Justice Scalia joined by justices Kennedy and Thomas wrote a concurring opinion.

Click Here for the Supreme Court Decision

Today’s court decision is welcome news for the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan which has a pending case in the Maine Federal District Court challenging the City of Portland, Maine’s ordinance that sets up a 39-foot buffer zone around that City’s sole abortion facility. Violation of the ordinance subjects the offenders to a minimum fine of $100 dollars.

Just a week ago, Thursday, June 19, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen heard oral arguments from TMLC attorney Erin Kuenzig on a motion filed by TMLC seeking a preliminary injunction of the Portland Buffer Zone ordinance. During Thursday’s arguments, Judge Torresen suggested that the outcome of the case as well as the motion for preliminary injunction likely hinged upon the Supreme Court’s decision in McCullen.

Responding to today’s Supreme Court decision in Coakley, Kuenzig commented, “This is a clear message to other states and municipalities that they may not take the extreme step of closing a substantial portion of a traditional public forum to all speakers simply because this extreme step would be easier than enforcing other less restrictive laws that already exist. The First Amendment deserves greater protection.”

Since November 18, 2013, when the Portland City Council enacted the 39-foot no-entry “buffer zone” around the abortion facility, pro-life sidewalk counseling has been effectively curtailed because pro-life advocates, including TMLC’s plaintiffs Leslie Sneddon and Marguerite Fitzgerald and her family, are forced to stand across the street from the abortion facility, separated from anyone entering the clinic by busy traffic.

Kuenzig continued, “With today’s Supreme Court decision, I am confident that Ms. Sneddon and the Fitzgeralds will soon be able to continue their loving message with information and counseling about abortion alternatives, without fear of being fined, to women who may be contemplating abortion.”

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