Defenders of the Constitution receive Legion’s highest award
The American Legion presented its highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, to First Liberty Institute on stage at the 104th National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 29.
“The brilliant legal minds that we are honoring today, defend the ability of Americans to live according to one’s beliefs no matter one’s faith, ideology or background,” American Legion National Commander Vincent J. “Jim” Troiola said. “Because the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not conditional.”
Troiola highlighted First Liberty Institute’s efforts of defending a high school football coach’s right to pray on the field, to winning the 2019 landmark Supreme Court case, The American Legion vs. the American Humanist Association that saved the Bladensburg World War I veterans memorial.
“As they defend the use of the cross and other symbols on veterans memorials, they remind us that the framers of the Constitution believed in protecting religious beliefs, not cancelling or removing them,” Troiola said.
First Liberty Institute Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer David Holmes accepted the Distinguished Service Medal.
“It is a pleasure to accept, on behalf of all our employees and our CEO Kelly Shackleford, this award. It’s with a humble heart that we accept it,” he said.
Holmes, a retired Air Force colonel and former fighter pilot, said, “I know full well the value of The American Legion. You help protect some of the most precious tributes of our country, and it’s most appreciated. We at First Liberty for 20 years have been standing alongside the Legion as we’ve tried to protect these rights starting 20 years ago in Mt. Soledad overlooking San Diego Bay … to Bladensburg, Virginia, where we won a monumental case with the United States Supreme Court.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on June 20, 2019, that the 40-foot (Bladensburg) memorial erected by Gold Star mothers can remain on public land in Prince George’s County, Md., where it has stood since 1925 to recognize 49 Prince George’s County veterans who died during World War I.
“It’s with enormous gratitude we accept this award,” Holmes said, noting that First Liberty Institute looks forward to a continued relationship with The American Legion. Holmes looked at the list of people who have also received this award and was happy to see that the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are a past recipient because “my combat call sign was Dallas with a secondary call sign of Cowboy.”