Jay Alan Sekulow: Law and Advocacy Expert | LawCrossing.com

Jay Alan Sekulow is a leading American conservative attorney, Supreme Court advocate and TV personality who is currently chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Sekulow is a renowned constitutional lawyer and a frequent guest on TV and radio news programs where he shares his thought-provoking perspective on legal issues.

Sekulow was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in a Jewish family. He earned his undergraduate degree from Mercer University and his master's degree in Comparative Judicial System from Atlanta Law School. Sekulow is also a graduate of Regent University School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor degree.

Sekulow's legal career began in 1984 when he joined the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), first as senior vice president and later as chief counsel. In his role as chief counsel, Sekulow has argued before the Supreme Court 12 times since 1992 and has represented numerous clients in high-profile cases related to civil and religious rights, including the landmark case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.

Sekulow is also a frequent guest on numerous TV and radio news programs, including Fox News Channel, CNN, and ABC News. During these appearances, Sekulow offers his unique perspective on a range of legal topics and current events. In addition to his television work, Sekulow has authored several books including "The Master's Indwelling: The Divine Presence in the Life of the Believer," which explores the meaning of Christianity and the impact of faith on modern living.

Jay Alan Sekulow is a highly revered American attorney, Supreme Court advocate and TV personality. He is the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Sekulow was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Mercer University, Atlanta Law School and Regent University School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor degree. Since joining the ACLJ in 1984, Sekulow has argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court, and has represented numerous clients in high-profile cases related to civil and religious rights. He is a frequent guest on numerous TV and radio news programs offering his unique perspective on legal issues and current events. Sekulow is also the author of several books, including "The Master's Indwelling: The Divine Presence in the Life of the Believer." Jay Alan Sekulow is an impressive lawyer and TV personality who is sought after by viewers, clients, and the court alike.

Jay Sekulow: Supreme Court Advocate

Jay Sekulow is one of the most respected Supreme Court advocates in the United States, with over three decades of experience in constitutional and appellate law. Representing clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal, and State Courts, Jay Sekulow is best known for his work in First Amendment and religious rights cases.

Jay Sekulow was recently named as the Chief Counsel of the organization known as the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is a public interest law firm dedicated to protecting religious and constitutional freedoms. He is also the host of the nationally syndicated radio program “Jay Sekulow Live,” which is one of the most successful radio shows for legal advocacy in the United States.

Jay Sekulow graduated with a Master of Laws degree from New York University's School of Law in 1985. He also gained further expertise in constitutional and appellate law, which he has used in successfully defending clients in the Supreme Court. He has authored many books, including “Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies” and “Supreme Court Practice and Procedure.”

In addition to his success in the Supreme Court and legal advocacy, Jay Sekulow has also held leadership positions in many organizations, including the National Council of Higher Education and the Family Research Council. He has also served on the Board of Advisors of Liberty University, the National Advisory Board of the Christian Legal Society, and the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Community Foundation.
 

Jay Sekulow: An Advocate for Constitutional and Religious Freedoms

As a renowned constitutional lawyer, Jay Alan Sekulow has spent more than three decades advocating for civil liberties, including the constitutional and religious freedoms of Americans. He has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court as well as other federal and state courts. Additionally, Sekulow is known for authoring several books related to constitutional and appellate law including "Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies" and "Supreme Court Practice and Procedure."

Not only is Sekulow experienced in legal advocacy, he is also the Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). This public interest law firm is dedicated to protecting religious and constitutional freedoms. Additionally, Sekulow hosts the nationally syndicated radio program “Jay Sekulow Live,” which is one of the most successful shows for legal advocacy in the US.

In addition to success in the Supreme Court and legal advocacy, Jay Sekulow has held leadership positions in many organizations, including the National Council of Higher Education and the Family Research Council. He is also on the board of advisors of Liberty University, the National Advisory Board of the Christian Legal Society, and the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

At his bar mitzvah in 1969, Jay Alan Sekulow probably figured he had about as much of a chance of arguing a case before the Supreme Court as the Mets did of winning the World Series that year. That Sekulow would ultimately not only argue cases in the highest court of the land, but win them too put the odds even longer (say, Cubs-level). And that he would accomplish all of this on the behalf of Jesus made the whole scenario not only the unlikeliest of longshots, but one that exceeded all boundaries of plausibility. Little did young Jay know, as he stood before the congregation on that morning in June, that the Mets were less than six months away from winning the Series.

In a life and career that have taken him from the postwar Jewish shtetl of Long Island to the post-civil rights battleground of the South, from a belief that Jesus was just an unlucky rabbi to a firm conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, and from a high school academic transcript that Sekulow himself calls "mediocre" to one of the most distinguished winning records in the history of the Supreme Court, Jay Alan Sekulow has embraced the unconventional. He is a fierce combination of will and belief - both in himself and in others - who successfully toes the line between respecting one's opponents and antagonizing them. His career has known only one direction (up -- and up and up) since it first began over twenty years ago, but it is the nature of this upward trajectory that separates Sekulow from his peers and makes him such a fascinating example of success. One that, if a bit untenable for use as an everyday template, at least provides much by way of a testament to the positive role that faith can play in one's career.

Jay Alan Sekulow was born on June 10, 1956 in Brooklyn, but his family moved to Long Island shortly after he was born and resided there until Jay was in his teens. The demographic shift from a more urban lifestyle - the only life most Jews had known since arriving at Ellis Island in the wave of Jewish immigration that had peaked at the beginning of the twentieth century - to the outer reaches of Long Island had been made possible by Robert Moses, the aptly named Jewish planner whose bridges and highways had led the Jews, among others, from the cramped environs of the city to the promised land (and lawns) of the suburbs. "Religion," says Sekulow in recounting his experiences growing up, "was not a big topic of discussion in our home. Sometimes my father referred to 'The Supreme Being,' but he usually reserved such references for the holidays." The terminology employed by Sekulow's father seems especially ironic given the court in which Sekulow would later become famous, and the nature of the cases he would be arguing in its hallowed halls.

Sekulow recalls being secure in his Jewish identity, which, as far as he knew, included not including the word "Christ" after the word "Jesus." He recalls enjoying his bar mitzvah and remembers clearly not only the color and texture of the religious garments he wore, but also his performance reading the Torah (which, he claims, was also "mediocre"). The Sekulows were active participants in many Jewish celebrations sponsored by the temple and did much by way of reinforcement of their Jewish culture and heritage. Sekulow's earliest questions about Jesus and his role in the Jewish faith involved the friendly insults he and a Catholic friend would toss at each other while running around the neighborhood. "We were never really serious about it," says Sekulow, recounting their good-natured fun, "but I do remember wondering for a brief moment whether Shaun could possibly be right about Jesus." It was the kind of "huh" moment that tends to stop a curious teenager dead in his tracks for approximately one-point-five seconds, which is about as long as it took Sekulow to shrug it off and go back to the one-upsmanship of their insult battles.

Two years after Jay's bar mitzvah, Sekulow's family moved to Atlanta where they joined a temple that he describes as "very Reform." The Reform movement, as connoted by its name, is a denomination of Judaism in which religious services are shortened and conventional beliefs such as keeping kosher are the decision of the individual. Reform Judaism became especially popular in America following World War II and the Holocaust, when many Jews sought to downgrade their commitment to their faith and become more assimilated. However, with its choirs and frequent inclusion of English in the prayers sung by the congregants, many Orthodox and Conservative Jews have derided the Reform movement as bearing too close a similarity to Christianity. Sekulow does not go into detail about the effect, if any, the new synagogue and its practices had on him other than to note that it was much fancier than the one his family had attended on Long Island and its purple seat cushions were considerably more comfortable to sit on.

By Sekulow's own account, his first true interest in Jesus came while he was a student at Atlanta Baptist College. Sekulow hadn't performed terribly well in high school; not out of laziness, he claims, but rather out of a short supply of motivation (Sekulow's ability to persuasively argue that this is not only a distinction but a difference is one of the many things that make him such a formidable attorney). Following his graduation from high school, Sekulow intended to attend a two-year college while taking business administration courses. While attending classes at the local junior college, however, he developed an unexpected love of learning and decided to enroll in a four-year school. Wanting to remain close to his family and realistic about his prospects, Sekulow decided upon Atlanta Baptist College (which would later become Mercer University). Sekulow recalls asking his father whether it would bother him if his son attended a school with so obvious a Christian affiliation. To which his father, in a response so stereotypical it almost seems scripted, replied: "Baptist, shmaptist. Go get yourself a good education."

Sekulow enrolled in Atlanta Baptist College fueled by a typical first-year student's ambition to succeed, but also by something else: a desire, as he puts it, to "outsmart all the Christians." Aware that his beliefs, or lack thereof, about Jesus placed him squarely in the vast minority of his classmates, the smart young Jewish student approached his pre-law studies with the zeal and fervency of a young man on the defense. Armed only with his renewed passion for knowledge and the little he remembered from his days studying for his Bar Mitzvah, he set out to dispel any and all notions among his fellow classmates that Jesus was the Messiah.

And then something strange happened. The proselytizer became, if not exactly proselytized, a believer. In the Bible classes that were mandatory for every student at Atlanta Baptist, Sekulow met a fellow student named Glenn Borders. Borders wore a wooden cross around his neck that was, by Sekulow's estimates, only slightly smaller than the one upon which Jesus had been crucified. But Borders had no interest in preaching to Sekulow. Instead, in the course of the friendship that ensued from the many hours the two spent studying and playing sports together, Sekulow found himself becoming curious about the role Jesus had played in the Bible. Sekulow's account of his experience reading Isaiah 53, which contains a description of a "suffering servant" who sounded much like Jesus to him, is the stuff that life-changing experiences are made of. He compared that passage to various rabbinic interpretations but still came away convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. So much so that, in February, 1976, while attending a performance of the Jews for Jesus singing group The Liberated Wailing Wall, Sekulow declared out loud that he wanted to commit his life to Jesus.

Certainly Sekulow had to be concerned about what his parents would think of his decision. As one member of Jews For Jesus, of whose ranks Sekulow would become an active member, put it, "if you get kicked out of your home tonight, you can stay with us." As it turned out, no such measures would be necessary; out of tolerance and a love of their son, the Sekulows did little but shrug and tell Jay that what he believed was up to him. Free of his fear of being ostracized by his family, and armed with the lance of what he considered to be his true calling, Sekulow turned his sights upon the perpetual battleground fought by religious groups who felt that the line between church and state had been drawn in a somewhat darker shade on their side.

The result would be an attitudinal upgrade in religious groups with regard to their prospects for winning before the Supreme Court: from quixotic to optimistic. Beginning with his first sweaty-palmed appearance before the Supreme Court in 1987 - in which he served as lead counsel for Jews for Jesus in Board of Airport Commissioners v Jews For Jesus and won them the right to distribute pamphlets in airports - Sekulow has single-handedly given religious groups the powerhouse legal authority not only to have their day in court, but to win as well. Two of the cases he has argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, for whom he now serves as lead counsel, have become benchmarks in the area of religious-liberty litigation: in Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v Mergens (1990), Sekulow cleared the way for public school students to form religious clubs and organizations on their school campuses. And in Lambs Chapel v Center Moriches School District (1993), his successful arguments ensured that all religious groups would be treated equally with respect to the use of public facilities. Recently, Sekulow appeared before the Supreme Court again, this time to argue Locke v Davey (2003), which involved a student who had sued the state of Washington for revoking a scholarship they had awarded him when they found out that he intended to major in theological studies. And while the results in these cases are no doubt the product of a talented, well-prepared lawyer, it is worth noting that converts to Judaism are frequently among that religion's most vocal and passionate spokespeople. In Sekulow's case, the reverse is true, and it is this passion and this sense of having a calling that has played a considerable role in his success.

The points Sekulow espouses as a Jew for Jesus are not without challenge from Jewish scholars who insist that much of what that religious group believes is taken out of context. And Sekulow is not without his detractors, as the top brass of the American Civil Liberties Union do consider themselves card-carrying members of the anti-Sekulow movement. Though they do not agree with Sekulow on several matters, they are quick to note the absence of antagonism in his style and his willingness to live and let live. This ability to confront without being confrontational is perhaps a testament to the tolerance Sekulow was himself shown while he grappled to make sense of an unpopular belief. As Jesus might have said, "let he who has a free hand among us cast the first stone." It is thanks to Jay Alan Sekulow, the Brooklyn-born Jew who came to believe in Jesus, that the casting in stone in Washington will be our laws for the next century.