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On Thursday, December 27, 2012 Americans learned of the passing of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.  General Schwarzkopf was best known for his successful command of U.S. and Coalition Forces in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990’s, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

After attending Valley Forge Military Academy, Schwarzkopf attended the United States Military Academy.   His father, Major Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, was also a West Point graduate who fought in both World Wars and founded the New Jersey State Police.  Schwarzkopf, Jr. graduated 43rd in his West Point class in 1956.

During his 35-year distinguished military career, General Schwarzkopf served in various positions including an infantry platoon leader, aide-de-camp in the Berlin Brigade, military instructor of mechanical engineering at West Point, task force adviser to the South Vietnamese and infantry battalion commander in Vietnam.

During his second tour in Vietnam Schwarzkopf received word that men under his command encountered a minefield on the Batangan Peninsula.  He rushed to the scene in his helicopter and found several soldiers still trapped in the minefield. One man tripped a mine and was severely wounded. As he flailed in agony, Schwarzkopf, also wounded by the explosion, crawled across the minefield to the wounded man and held him down using a “pinning” technique he learned while wrestling at West Point.  Another soldier splinted the man’s shattered leg and Schwarzkopf eventually led his surviving men to safety, ordering the engineers to mark the locations of the mines with shaving cream.

During the 1970’s, Schwarzkopf attended the Army War College and rapidly rose through the ranks.  While serving as Commander, 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, at Fort Stewart, Georgia, Schwarzkopf was named Deputy Commander of the Joint Task Force during operations in Grenada.  He returned to the Pentagon in 1985.

In 1988 Schwarzkopf was promoted to General and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida.  As commander, Schwarzkopf prepared a detailed plan for the defense of the oil fields of the Persian Gulf against a hypothetical invasion by Iraq.  Schwarzkopf’s plan was then executed following the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

During Desert Storm, the commander’s alleged temper earned him the nickname, “Stormin Norman.” But others knew he preferred the name given by his troops: “The Bear.”  Schwarzkopf noted, “An awful lot has been written about my temper. But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I’ve ruined, anyone whom I’ve driven out of the service, anyone I’ve fired from a job,” he said. “I don’t do that. I get angry at a principle, not a person.”

After the war, Schwarzkopf was offered the position of Chief of Staff of the United States Army, but he declined. He retired from active service in August 1991, and shortly thereafter wrote an autobiography, It Doesn’t Take a Hero, published in 1992.  In his 1992 autobiography, Schwarzkopf downplayed the notion of personal valor and recalled an interview with Barbara Walters in which he said: “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”

General Schwarzkopf’s remarkable career and unsurpassed leadership are emblematic of his training at West Point and its motto of Duty, Honor, Country.  Schwarzkopf is survived by his wife and three children.

The Thomas More Law Center offers our prayers and condolences to the family and friends of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.  He is a true American hero and patriot.

ANN ARBOR, MI — On Saturday morning, December 15^th, John Satawa with the help of family and friends and the Boy Scouts once again erected the Nativity on a public median in Warren, Michigan. The joyous occasion was the culmination of a four year legal battle in defense of the Nativity waged by the Thomas More Law Center against the County Road Commission and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

While the Nativity was being erected, Warren police controlled traffic as well-wishers gathered, reporters and TV stations conducted interviews, carolers sang Christmas songs, a priest from nearby St Anne’s Catholic Church blessed the display, and passing cars and trucks sounded their horns and drivers gave a ‘thumbs-up” in approval.

A Nativity at that location was a tradition begun by John Satawa’s father in 1945. It was observed every year thereafter without a single complaint until 2008 when the Road Commission capitulated to a demand letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and ordered Satawa to take it down.  That is when John Satawa contacted the Thomas More Law Center, a national Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The beginning paragraph of the U.S. Court of Appeals opinion which ruled in favor of the Nativity, described the clash between the Thomas More Law Center and the Freedom From  Religion Foundation as follows:

“The Macomb County Road Commission faced a dilemma.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation,an organization dedicated to “protect[ing] the fundamental constitutional principle of separation of church and state,” had written a letter objecting to a private citizen’s placing a crèche on a sixty-foot-wide median at Christmas time, as the citizen and his family had done for more than sixty years. The county immediately ordered the crèche removed. In response, the Thomas More Law Center, an organization dedicated to “restor[ing] and defend[ing] America’s Judeo-Christian heritage,”took up the citizen’s cause . . .” (emphasis added)

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation conducts seek and destroy missions of Christian expressions throughout America.  But thanks to the perseverance of John Satawa and the insight of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel that heard our case, this is one battle they lost. John Satawa is now able to resume this wonderful tradition started over 60 years ago.”

As a result of the Court of Appeals ruling, the Macomb County Road Commission agreed to allow John Satawa to resume the annual tradition of erecting the Nativity display during the 2012 Christmas season and all future Christmas seasons.  The Nativity display will stay up until December 29^th.

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, late last Friday filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Tom Monaghan and his Domino’s Farms Corporation challenging the constitutionality of the HHS mandate promulgated by the Obama Administration.  The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The HHS Mandate requires employers to pay for health insurance that covers abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilization or pay draconian fines.

The purpose of the lawsuit is to seek a court ruling that declares the HHS Mandate violates the Constitution and Federal statutes.  In addition, the lawsuit seeks to permanently block Government enforcement of the HHS Mandate because it violates deeply held religious beliefs of employers like Mr. Monaghan.

Tom Monaghan, a staunch pro-life advocate and Catholic philanthropist, argues in the complaint that his religious beliefs and the principles of Christian Stewardship require that he provide health insurance for his employees and their families, which he has always done. But those same beliefs prohibit him from paying for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilization which he has never done.  Thus, the lawsuit.

Monaghan has been a successful businessman for more than 50 years, and in 1987 he founded Legatus (Latin word for “ambassador) an organization of Catholic businessmen and CEOs to bring together the three key areas of a Catholic business leader’s life – Faith, Family and Business.  A little more than a decade later, Monaghan founded Ave Maria University and the Ave Maria School of Law.    He has been an unwavering supporter of pro-life efforts and the promulgation of Catholic education at all levels.  His pro-life beliefs and the very teachings of the Catholic Church are under direct attack in the HHS Mandate.

Thomas More Law Center attorney, Erin Mersino, the lead counsel in the lawsuit, is an Ave Maria Law School graduate.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the HHS Mandate under the First Amendment rights to the Free Exercise of Religion, Free Speech and the Establishment Clause.   It also claims that the HHS Mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

The first paragraph of the lawsuit succinctly sets forth its basis: “This is a case about religious freedom. Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father of our country, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and our third president, when describing the construct of our Constitution proclaimed, ‘No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.’”

Click here to read entire 40 page lawsuit.

Named as Defendants in the lawsuit are Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Hilda Solis, Secretary of the Department of Labor; Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Department of Treasury; and their respective departments.

This is the second lawsuit brought by the Thomas More Law Center that challenges the HHS Mandate.  Earlier in the year, the Law Center represented Michigan-businessman Daniel Weingartz and his Weingartz Supply Company, as well as the Legatus executive staff.  It was successful in obtaining a Preliminary Injunction banning the Government from enforcing the Mandate against Weingartz and his company.  Legatus remained free of the mandate under its safe harbor provision.

The Thomas More Law Center’s mission includes the restoration and defense of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the sanctity of human life and the religious freedom of Christians.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief of the Thomas More Law Center, commented:  “The Government intentionally declared war on a specific religion using the HHS mandate as its weapon.  Through its coercive powers the Government forces Christians to choose between violating their religious beliefs and violating the law. Because Mr. Monaghan believes it is his religious duty to provide insurance coverage for his employees and their families, he will not abandon them.  Yet he intends to show his vehement opposition to this unconstitutional mandate which threatens the religious liberties of all Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs. We are honored to represent him in this endeavor.”