Welcome to the TMS Weekly Dispatch for July 14, 2025—with the latest news and updates from the front line, to keep you in-the-know on all things Thomas More Society. If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.  

Here’s a look back at the past week:

“A FAUX SETTLEMENT ON ABORTION” - TOM BREJCHA IN WALL STREET JOURNAL: Thomas More Society Founder and President Tom Brejcha penned a Letter to the Editor appearing in the July 10^th edition of The Wall Street Journal, explaining why the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent decision to invalidate an 1849 law protecting the preborn was tantamount to “judicial overreach.”  

Brejcha argues that instead of being a display of “judicial restraint,” as a previous editorial had attempted to portray the decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court “usurped the Legislature’s authority to set policy.”

The letter explains that as Roe v. Wade (1973) remained binding precedent, Wisconsin lawmakers sought to protect life during that time, enacting bans on partial-birth abortion, abortions after 20 weeks, and viability. But the liberal majority construed that to mean legislators intended to ‘impliedly repeal’ the 1849 pro-life law. But that’s not the case, Brejcha argued in the letter. Those laws “were enacted to protect life within Roe’s constraints,” and intended to complement and coexist with the 1849 law, not supposedly repeal it by implication.

“Courts exist to interpret laws, not craft policy that mimics political deals,” concluded Brejcha. “This judicial activism sets a dangerous precedent, allowing judges to rewrite law and history under the pretense of resolving policy disputes.’

You can read Tom Brejcha’s full Wall Street Journal Letter here.  

OPINION: BISHOP ROBERT BARRON ON DEFENDING THE SEAL OF CONFESSION: In an op-ed for Fox News, Bishop Robert Barron highlighted the stakes of a legal challenge to Washington State’s unconstitutional law threatening the seal of Confession, an essential part of the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Church’s mandate of absolute confidentiality, known as the “seal,” is required by the Church’s canon law with automatic excommunication as the penalty for violating it. The seal is largely protected in American law as the “clergy-penitent privilege.”

Bishop Barron wrote:

“I was very pleased to submit, with the help of the Thomas More Society, an amicus curiae letter in support of my brother bishops. As I said years ago in California, we have to draw a line in the sand...

The breaking of the seal results in automatic excommunication of the priest in question. And this explains the awful dilemma currently presented to the priests of Washington state: either they break the seal of confession (and hence face excommunication) or they remain faithful to the sacrament (and hence face jail time).”

Today, July 14, a Washington federal court heard oral arguments on whether to grant a preliminary injunction in the legal challenge to Washington’s unconstitutional law targeting the seal of Confession.

Bishop Barron urged Americans of faith to “[Not] sit still, draw a line in the sand, fight back.” Thomas More Society is committed to doing just that, and we are proud to stand with Bishop Barron in supporting his brother bishops and all Americans fighting to uphold our fundamental First Amendment rights.  

You can read Bishop Barron’s op-ed here.