DINNER JOURNAL AND VIDEO of

the 20th Annual

Great Defender of Life Dinner

OCTOBER 12, 2023

FINAL-complete-Dinner-journal-2023

the 20th Annual

Great Defender of Life Dinner

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Honoring

Thomas Brejcha, ESQ. and Professor George McKenna

https://humanlifereview.com/great-defender-life-dinner/

ABOUT OUR HONOREES:

Thomas Brejcha is the founder, President, and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit, national public interest law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. The Thomas More Society has assisted thousands of clients including some of the nation’s most renowned pro-life and religious leaders: David Daleiden, David Bereit, 40 Days for Life, Lila Rose and Live Action, Joe, Ann and Eric Scheidler and Pro-Life Action League, Sidewalk Advocates for Life, Catholic Bishops, and Catholic Charities. Recently, as reported in our Winter Review (Julia Duin’s “Crisis Pregnancy Centers Suffer Record Attacks”), Thomas More has defended CompassCare pregnancy center in Buffalo, NY–firebombed last June by the group “Janes Revenge”—as well as anti-abortion activist Mark Houck of Pennsylvania, who was acquitted of violating the federal FACE act.

Brejcha earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and received his law degree from New York University School of Law. From 1969-1970, Tom served as an Army Captain in Vietnam and was awarded a Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal.

(For more, see https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/attorneys/tom-brejcha)

George McKenna is professor emeritus of political science at City College of the City University of New York, where he taught for 40 years. He received his PhD from Fordham University. He is the author of The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism (2007) and The Drama of Democracy (1990) , and co-editor of several books in the series, Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Political Issues. His articles have appeared in the U.S. and abroad in such periodicals as Atlantic Monthly, Yale Review, History of Political Thought, and First Things. McKenna’s superb Atlantic article, “Abortion: A Lincolnian Position,” was reprinted by the Human Life Review in 1995; since then, Mckenna has written over 20 original articles for the HLR, including the influential “Criss-Cross: Democrats, Republicans and Abortion” (2006) and “The Odd Couple: Freedom and Liberty” (2021)—the latter continuing with “Liberty to do What” (2022), which was the topic of a panel discussion in New York city last June with McKenna, Professor Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno, editor of First Things. His most recent essay “Getting There” is the subject of a powerful symposium, with responses from 9 past Great Defenders of Life, now available online as a Spring preview.