Elected in 2010 as Utah's 16th Senator, Mike Lee has spent his career defending the fundamental liberties of all Americans and advocating for America's founding constitutional principles.
Senator Lee acquired a deep respect for the Constitution early in life while watching his father, Rex E. Lee, serve as the Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan. He attended most of his father's arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, giving him a unique and up-close understanding of government.
Lee graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Political Science, and served as BYU's Student Body President in his senior year. He graduated from BYU's Law School in 1997 and went on to serve as law clerk to Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, and then with future Supreme Court Justice Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The free exercise of religion, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of assembly are each absolutely essential to the health of our Republic. That is why the Founding Fathers enshrined them all in the First Amendment.
Unfortunately, these freedoms are currently under assault.
Whatever one believes about the definition of marriage, one would hope that those who support same-sex marriage would respect the religious liberty of those who do not.
But that is not what is happening. Some same-sex marriage extremists are now trying to use the power of the state to punish those that have traditional religious beliefs about marriage.
Americans who believe in a traditional definition of marriage are now in danger of having their business licenses revoked; colleges with similar beliefs could lose their accreditation; military chaplains could be court-martialed; and faith-based hospitals could lose federal funding.
The freedom of speech is also under assault in Congress where some have pushed to repeal the First Amendment in a manner that would give sitting Members of Congress the power to control what is and is not said about them.