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Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith Says Muslims Have No Right To Exercise Their Faith 'In Our Public Spaces'
07/07/2026
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Earlier this year, Indiana's far-right Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith caused outrage and generated controversy when he boasted that he was giving the residents of his state "permission to hate" the religion of Islam. Undaunted by the blowback, Beckwith steadfastly defended his statement and repeatedly doubled down on it, insisting that attacking Islam is "a political winner" for Republicans.
Recently, Beckwith appeared on the Conservative Review podcast, where he continued to attack Islam and called for Muslims to be banned from engaging in public displays of their faith.
"We should ban the calls to prayer, public calls to prayer," Beckwith declared. "If you're a mosque and you want to have a loudspeaker and you want to start pumping these out five times a day locally, the state can say, 'You're not going to do that. We're not allowing that. We're not going to let you put these words of death and destruction throughout the city streets in any of our cities.'"
"Listen, we are a Christian nation," Beckwith continued. "The Supreme Court in the Coach Kennedy case ruled that. They said, 'Hey, the heritage of America is a Christian heritage and so that's why Christianity takes precedent over all other faiths.' Everyone can worship how they want, but you don't get to implement Islam in our public spaces. You can't put the Quran up on school walls, but you can put the Ten Commandments up on school walls. Why? Because of our Judeo-Christian principles. That's our heritage."
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For the record, in no way did the Supreme Court's *Kennedy v. Bremerton School District* decision declare that "we are a Christian nation."
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AI Overview
Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith is an outspoken opponent of abortion rights. He supports the state's near-total abortion ban, advocates for a nationwide ban, and has voiced support for restricting women's reproductive privacy and banning out-of-state abortion advertising in Indiana. [1, 2, 3]
Stance on Reproductive Rights
- Strict Pro-Life Advocate: Beckwith believes abortion should be largely unthinkable and illegal. He has consistently called for the end of legal abortion access in both Indiana and nationwide. [1]
- Advertising & Access: He has actively campaigned against billboards advertising abortion care from out-of-state providers, arguing Indiana should treat them similarly to marijuana advertisements. [1]
- Medical Privacy: During his campaign, his strong pro-life platform drew criticism from advocates and Democrats over his support for requiring state tracking of private medical information for women receiving abortion care, including victims and those facing life-altering complications. [1]
Broader Views on Women and Politics
- Beckwith’s social and political rhetoric regarding women and reproductive rights has faced significant backlash. For instance, he previously referred to pro-choice advocates as "demonic," "vile," and compared them to "wife beaters". [1]
- He has also used polarizing religious rhetoric regarding female political candidates, claiming on a podcast that his opponents embodied the "Jezebel spirit". [1]
Official Administration Actions
- Since taking office, Beckwith has actively backed administration moves to enforce pro-life laws.
- He routinely appears at state-sponsored anti-abortion events (such as the Indiana March for Life) to support the state’s crackdown on terminated pregnancy reporting. [1, 2]
For more information on the administration's policies, you can monitor the Indiana Department of Health or read coverage of his office's work via The Statehouse Fil
[### Micah Beckwith Continues Braun/Beckwith Woman Hating ...
Indiana Democratic Party
https://indems.org › press-release › micah-beckwith-conti...](https://indems.org/press-release/micah-beckwith-continues-braun-beckwith-woman-hating-campaign/)
October 1, 2024. Accuses Democrats of Promoting the “Jezebel Spirit” on Recent Podcast. INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Republican LG nominee Micah Beckwith ...Read more
[### Krull Commentary: Micah Beckwith and the art of ignorance
the indiana citizen
https://indianacitizen.org › Christian Nationalism](https://indianacitizen.org/krull-commentary-micah-beckwith-and-the-art-of-ignorance/)
Mar 9, 2026 — This column was originally published by TheStatehouseFile.com. By John Krull TheStatehouseFile.com March 9, 2026 Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah ...
[### Pastor Micah Beckwith Runs for Lt. Governor- June 9, 2023
PBS
https://www.pbs.org › video › pastor-micah-beckwith-r...](https://www.pbs.org/video/pastor-micah-beckwith-runs-for-lt-governor-june-9-2023-zahzmz/)
Jun 9, 2023 — Micah Beckwith runs for Lt. Governor; An abortion clinic closes; Pence runs for President.
[### For Micah Beckwith, Indiana just isn't conservative enough
State Affairs
https://pro.stateaffairs.com › elections › micah-beckwith...](https://pro.stateaffairs.com/in/elections/micah-beckwith-lt-governor-2024)
Oct 9, 2024 — The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor is a slick speaker. After all, he makes his living as campus pastor at Life Church in Noblesville.Read more
[### Micah Beckwith wants the private medical information of all ...
Facebook · Indiana Democratic Party
20+ reactions · 1 year ago](https://www.facebook.com/indems/posts/micah-beckwith-wants-the-private-medical-information-of-all-hoosier-women-receiv/1082611013233575/)
Micah Beckwith wants the private medical information of all Hoosier women receiving abortion care — even victims and those suffering from ...
[### LG Beckwith's Haitian asylum-seeker post sparks ...
Indiana Capital Chronicle
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com › 2025/09/08 › lg-b...](https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/09/08/lg-beckwiths-haitian-asylum-seeker-post-sparks-conservative-backlash/)
Sep 8, 2025 — Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith on Friday landed himself in hot water with supporters over social media posts about Haitian asylum-seekers.
Videos
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Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith Is Giving Hoosiers 'Permission To Hate' Islam | People For
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wake up XiANS COMING FOR YOU
Micah Beckwith Calls Democrats 'Minions of Darkness'
393 views May 7, 2026 #ChristianNationalism #MicahBeckwith #PoliticalExtremism
- Micah Beckwith's Extreme Response to Virginia Redistricting Vot
- Analyzing Beckwith's War Metaphors and Historical Comparison
- Debunking Claims About Democratic Politicians and Assassination
- Questioning Republican Claims of Being Under Attack Despite Control Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith called Democrats 'minions of darkness' and compared Virginia's redistricting vote to World War II, claiming Christians must 'fight' rather than seek peace. I break down Beckwith's inflammatory rhetoric, his false claims about Trump assassination attempts being orchestrated by 'the left,' and his hypocritical stance on gerrymandering when Republicans have done the exact same thing. This is Christian nationalism wrapped in war metaphors, and it's dangerous. Beckwith's extreme rhetoric represents a growing trend of political leaders using religious language to justify increasingly authoritarian positions. His comparison of political opposition to literal evil and his rejection of peaceful democratic processes reveal the true agenda behind Christian nationalist movements in American politics.
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Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith Is Making Up Christian Nationalist Nonsense
03/30/2026
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Since taking office in 2024, Indiana’s far-right Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith has repeatedly used his position to spread baseless claims about the nation and its founding. This tendency was on display last week when Beckwith spoke at a TPUSA "Pick Up The Mic" event held at Purdue University Northwest.
During his remarks, Beckwith claimed that the doctrine of the separation of church and state was something concocted by Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in the 1940s because he did not like that Catholics were criticizing the Ku Klux Klan.
"How many people have heard that phrase before, separation of church and state?" Beckwith asked the audience. "Everybody. It's amazing. Do you know it's not anywhere in our founding documents? You can't find it. People say, 'The First Amendment.' No, it's not in the First Amendment; it does not say separation of church and state."
"That came from a letter that [Thomas] Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 as he was president because they were afraid the government was going to tell him what to preach," Beckwith continued. "And he said, 'No, the government's not coming into your church. We have a wall of separation of church and state.'"
"That got warped in the 1940s by a Supreme Court justice," Beckwith said. "His name was Hugo Black. There's a case that came before the Supreme Court. Hugo Black was a KKK member. He hated blacks and he hated Catholics and he did not like that Catholics were starting to stand up and say, 'What the KKK is doing to the blacks is not godly.' So he found a way in this case—he pulled this letter that was not a founding document, it was a private letter.—he says, 'Hey, Thomas Jefferson said separation of church and state; we should make this the standard so that all churches stay out of government policy,' which is the opposite of what actually Jefferson was saying.
The doctrine of the separation of church and state, Beckwith concluded, was created out of whole cloth by "a Supreme Court justice who was a KKK sympathizer and member who wanted to get the church and godly people out of the way."
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As usual, Beckwith's interpretation of events is wildly inaccurate.
While Black was a member of the KKK in the 1920s, he claimed to have resigned before he became a U.S. senator and eventually a Supreme Court justice.
It was in his capacity as a Supreme Court justice that Black authored the majority decision in Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing in 1947, which established that the First Amendment's prohibition on the establishment of religion applied to the states and popularized the notion of a separation of church and state.
But contrary to Beckwith's assertion, the case had nothing to do with Catholics or the KKK and the decision that Black wrote actually protected a state law that allowed public funds to be used to transport students to religious schools.
At issue was a New Jersey law that reimbursed parents whose children used public transportation to get to school, including religious schools. A lawsuit was filed arguing that allowing state funds to assist in transporting students to parochial schools amounted to state support of religion, but Black wrote the 5-4 decision ruling that the law was constitutional.
No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups, and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State."
We must consider the New Jersey statute in accordance with the foregoing limitations imposed by the First Amendment. But we must not strike that state statute down if it is within the State's constitutional power, even though it approaches the verge of that power. New Jersey cannot, consistently with the "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment, contribute tax raised funds to the support of an institution which teaches the tenets and faith of any church. On the other hand, other language of the amendment commands that New Jersey cannot hamper its citizens in the free exercise of their own religion. Consequently, it cannot exclude individual Catholics, Lutherans, Mohammedans, Baptists, Jews, Methodists, Nonbelievers, Presbyterians, or the members of any other faith, because of their faith, or lack of it, from receiving the benefits of public welfare legislation. While we do not mean to intimate that a state could not provide transportation only to children attending public schools, we must be careful, in protecting the citizens of New Jersey against state-established churches, to be sure that we do not inadvertently prohibit New Jersey from extending its general state law benefits to all its citizens without regard to their religious belief.
Measured by these standards, we cannot say that the First Amendment prohibits New Jersey from spending tax-raised funds to pay the bus fares of parochial school pupils as a part of a general program under which it pays the fares of pupils attending public and other schools.
Given that Black penned the ruling allowing public funds to be used in the transportation of students to religious school, it is absurd for Beckwith to claim that Black wrote this decision to protect the KKK from Catholic criticism as part of some effort to ultimately "to get the church and godly people out of the way." [vid?]
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02/02/2026
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- Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is urging students "to organize a 'Pro MAGA' day in their public schools and organize walk outs while wearing maga gear and 'pro ICE / law enforcement' swag."
- Eric Metaxas says that those who doubt or criticize President Donald Trump are the "voice of the devil."
- Joel Webbon cannot even make it though a short video about the arrest of journalist Don Lemon without ranting that "there is Jewish preference in our nation."
- William Wolfe insists that "convicting Don Lemon and putting him behind bars for a long time is actually critical for the future of Western civilization": "If Christian churches are now fair game, the Left will attack, terrorize, and burn every single one that they can."
- Dale Partridge thinks that "gay couples should be banned."
- Everett Piper declares that "'progressive’ Christians, not evangelicals, are the moral sellouts."
- Finally, if you want to hang out with racist livestreamers Rebecca Hargraves and David Reilly, it'll cost you at least $1,000.
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Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith Blasts Republicans Who Refuse To Redistrict As 'Neville Chamberlain Type' Appeasers
12/08/2025
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Facing the prospect of seeing their current congressional majorities wiped out in the 2026 elections, President Donald Trump is pressuring Republican legislators all over the country to gerrymander congressional districts in their states in a desperate bid to hold on to power.
Currently, the focus is on Indiana, where an effort to do Trump's bidding is in danger of being thwarted by Republican hold-outs in the state Senate.
On Friday, Indiana's Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith appeared on the "FlashPoint" program, where he said that those Republicans who are refusing to bow the knee to Trump are "Neville Chamberlain type" figures, thinking that "they can make peace with Hitler."
"We're living in an era of Neville Chamberlains versus the Winston Churchills," Beckwith said. "Those 18 senators are Neville Chamberlain types. They think they can make peace with Hitler, make peace with evil, pet a demon, and that the demon will leave him alone."
"What I'm trying to tell them is, 'Guys, the Democrat Party is not your grandparents' Democrat Party. This is not the party of JFK; JFK fought against the communists, now his party wants to be the communists," Beckwith continued. "We're trying to get them to wake up and see, guys, it is time to fight."
"For crying out loud, they tried to assassinate Donald Trump twice," he added. "They did assassinate Charlie Kirk. They are doing everything to destroy this great nation that God has given us and it is now time for us to pull out the rod—be the shepherds that God has called us to be—and go fight."
"They think we can just be peaceful, we can be non-conflict and it will go away," Beckwith griped. "It's not going to blow over. We lose this fight, we lose our future and so that's what they just don't understand. I think they're slowly starting to wake up to it, but it's been a lot harder than it should have been in Indiana."
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10/29/2025
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- Alex Kaplan @ Media Matters: Right-wing figures and Trump allies are calling for Trump to declare a “national emergency” to prevent supposed election fraud
Jerome Corsi has claimed he’s been involved in drafting an executive order “to be implemented for the 2026 elections."
- Lisa Rubin and Brandy Zadrozny @ MSNBC: Kat Abughazaleh indicted over protests outside Chicago-area ICE facility
The progressive Democratic congressional candidate’s videos of confrontations with federal agents have fueled right-wing calls for her arrest.
- Matt Christy @ Fox 59: Grand jury investigating allegations of ghost employment, deepfake porn inside Micah Beckwith’s office
A grand jury in Marion County is taking a closer look into allegations within Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith’s office. A report filed by the Marion County Grand Jury confirms the grand jury heard testimony on Aug. 18 and Sept. 30 “in the original investigation into the distribution of an intimate image(s) and ghost employment in the office of the Indiana lieutenant governor.”
- Robert Downen @ Texas Tribune: Colleagues condemn Tarrant County GOP leader for repeated use of slurs
It’s the latest backlash over Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French’s online behavior.
- Nathan Taylor Pemberton @ The New York Times: Following in the Footsteps of Charlie Kirk?
In a crowded field of would-be successors, Brilyn Hollyhand hopes to capture the minds of young conservatives across America.
- Sarah Rumpf @ Mediaite: DOJ Puts Two Prosecutors on Leave After They File Sentencing Memo Accurately Describing Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
The Department of Justice put two federal prosecutors on administrative leave just hours after they filed a sentencing memo in the case of a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter convicted of new crimes that included a short, accurate description of the Capitol riot.
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10/28/2025
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Last week, far-right Christian nationalist pastor and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith appeared on the "Save Heritage Indiana" podcast, where he declared that non-Christian elected officials have no right to "force [their] values" on the people because this is a Christian nation.
Save Heritage Indiana is a hardline anti-immigration organization that was created to "save Indiana’s heritage by reversing mass migration" because "the world we grew up in is being destroyed" by immigrants. During the podcast, one of the co-hosts asked Beckwith his thoughts on how to prevent people like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Zohran Mamdani—who the host said "don't represent American values"—from being elected to office.
"We are a Christian nation, but we are increasingly becoming a non-Christian people," Beckwith replied. "So a Christian government, a Christian value system, the Judeo-Christian ethic, the Decalogue, Leviticus 19; Blackstone's common law was taken right from scripture [and] our Founders took right from that to create the system of governance. It's all based in the Judeo-Christian ethic."
The Founders did nothing of the sort, nevertheless Beckwith continued.
"While someone like an Ilhan Omar is welcome to be here legally, that does not mean she has a right to change the foundations of this nation," Beckwith said. "The Supreme Court just ruled in the Kennedy case that long-standing historical tradition is the constitutional precedent. So what's the long-standing historical tradition in America? It's Christian values. It was not rooted in Islam, it was not rooted in socialism, Marxism, it was rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics and capitalism. So when a socialist/Marxist like Mandami tries to force his values onto New York, I would say, 'No, you're not welcome to do that because the long-standing historical tradition is constitutional. What you're bringing is something new. You're trying to remove the foundations.'"
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09/23/2025
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- Jim Garlow says that Charlie Kirk's memorial service "will go down in history as one of America’s – and maybe the world’s – most significant days."
- Tony Perkins, on the other hand, was "troubled by a few of the speeches" at Kirk's memorial service because some of the speakers seemed to be delivering "a political Gospel."
- Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith believes that Kirk is now in Heaven "getting handshakes from Moses."
- Tim Barton claims that Democrats who refused to vote for a House resolution honoring Kirk were "choosing the side of the devil."
- Joel Webbon thinks that Erika Kirk's decision to forgive her husband's killer shows "why you can't have women in leadership."
- Finally, in the wake of Kirk's murder, Andrew Isker wants to see "a maximum amount of force is wielded against the left in this country to such an extent that even I might get uncomfortable": "If I start to be uncomfortable, then it's like, okay, we are on the right track."
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09/17/2025
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- Lance Wallnau claims that Charlie Kirk was "the first martyr of the Third Great Awakening."
- Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith says that "the radical Left doesn’t just tolerate political violence—they weaponize it": "They nod, they wink, they issue their pathetic 'generic condemnations,' and then they watch as their mobs do the dirty work: burning cities, terrorizing families, silencing dissent, and celebrating assassinations of conservative leaders. Let’s stop pretending this is some fringe accident. This is the Left’s playbook. They thrive on fear and chaos. They want Christians hiding. They want patriots intimidated. They want America crushed under their boot."
- Elijah Schaffer and Olivia Krolczyk celebrate getting some 400 people fired for allegedly mocking Kirk's death.
- Tim Barton continues to insist that "the majority of the ideas that influenced the Founding Fathers came from the Bible" even though it is not true.
- Finally, Alex Stein will be speaking at an upcoming Moms For Liberty summit, which seems like a ... questionable choice.
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Micah Beckwith Says There's No Difference Between Being A Pastor And Being A Politician | People For
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07/14/2025
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Earlier this month, Indiana’s far-right Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith appeared on far-right broadcaster Steve Deace's program to discuss his first six months in office.
Deace opened the interview by asking Beckwith to describe the biggest difference between being an elected official and a pastor, which is a position Beckwith held before taking office.
"I don't think there is much," replied Beckwith. "I always tell people listen, [while wearing] my pastoral hat, I find out what God says about things and I tell people; as a politician, my job is to find out what God says about things and to tell people."
"A pastor's job is to shepherd the flock, to protect the flock, defend the flock from evil," he continued. "A politician's job is the same way. You look at King David, he was a shepherd and the Lord raised him up to be king and and he did very similar things—he protected the innocent from evil. And you look at Xerxes, you know, Esther walks into Xerxes' presence and he extends the scepter. Well, that scepter is the rod that kings or shepherds would carry. Shepherds would carry a rod to defend the flock from the wolf, and that was symbolic for, as a king, I defend the people from evil."
"I think politicians have that same mantle and anointing to do the same," Beckwith declared. "So it's very similar. I don't see a whole lot of difference between being a pastor and a politician."
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06/18/2025
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Indiana’s far-right Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith posted a new episode of his "Jesus, Sex, and Politics" podcast in which he doubled down on his warning that Pride Month is "the rainbow beast" and "a state-corporate-pagan alliance to reprogram society."
For nearly an hour, Beckwith and his co-host Nathan Peternel railed against Pride Month and the LGBTQ agenda in general, which Beckwith called "demonic."
"If you've ever studied the origins of, just the history of the LGBTQ movement throughout ancient history and all the way up to today, this is the same demonic spirit that basically just keeps coming back again," Beckwith said. "Back in ancient Israel, there was a goddess, her name was Ishtar, and she was the goddess of transgenderism, a gender-warping goddess. She was a homosexual goddess. Men would give themselves over to lustful acts with other men, women the same, pedophilia, everything like that. They would warp their genders. All those things. Same things that we're seeing today in the LGBTQ movement."
:{:{"It's really interesting when you study it because she was always celebrated in the month of Tamar Beckwith presumably meant the month of [Tammuz], which is our month of June, the exact same time," Beckwith claimed. "And she was represented by rainbows in her eyes. Anytime you saw her, you'd see rainbows. And it's like, wow, this is the same demonic playbook just playing out all over again."}:
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06/18/2025
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- Tim Barton says that the Juneteenth holiday celebrates "the end of a Democrat policy position—slavery—when it was overthrown by a Republican policy position and a Republican president."
- Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is promoting the work of Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton and his WallBuilders organization: "Share WallBuilders with your pastor, your school board, and every freedom-loving neighbor."
- Bradlee Dean asserts that there is no such thing as LGBTQ rights because "criminals do not have rights; they have forfeited their rights when they committed the crime ."
- Todd Starnes is dusting off some of the same talking points from the run-up to the Iraq war over 20 years ago.
- Finally, Shane Vaughn is bizarrely celebrating the result of a defamation lawsuit in which Mike Lindell was ordered to pay millions of dollars as a win for Lindell.
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'Revisionist History': Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith Insists 'The Three-Fifths Compromise Was A Good Thing'
05/09/2025
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Indiana’s Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith stirred up controversy last month when he posted a video on social media defending the Constitution's infamous "three-fifths clause"—a compromise made by the framers that gave southern states greater power by counting three-fifths of each enslaved person when determining representation in Congress—as a "great move" that made sure "that slavery would be eradicated in our nation."
Beckwith's interpretation of the compromise was entirely wrong because instead of ensuring that "slavery would be eradicated," it actually ensured its survival for nearly another century.
On Thursday, Beckwith appeared on the "FlashPoint" program, where he defended his original argument and revealed, predictably, that he got it from Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton.
As Beckwith explained, he made his video in response to remarks delivered by members of the state’s Black Caucus citing the compromise during a debate over legislation to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in schools, state government, and health profession licensing.
"I know you have David Barton on a lot on the show," Beckwith said. "I called him because I know history too. I called him right after she goes off on this tangent of how the three-fifths compromise was used to vilify people like her in our founding. I said, 'David, I'm pretty sure that that was the opposite. Am I wrong in this?' He said, 'No, you're absolutely right. This was not a pro-slavery, this was an anti-slavery move by the north to keep the south from having more congressional representation.'"
"[Critical race theory] and DEI and the cultural narrative has shifted over the last 50 years [because] we have not corrected the truth," Beckwith continued. "So I did a video and I just explained it. I said the three-fifths compromise was a good thing. It laid the foundation for America to get rid of the evils of slavery years down the road. Had we not done that, we wouldn't have the Constitution, nor would we have freedom and liberty for all."
"Yes, it was a good thing," Beckwith insisted. "That is exactly what the founders were doing. ... Our founders were laying the groundwork for liberty for all I wanted to defend that. I'm not gonna let people impugn the character of the institutions of America because of revisionist history."
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The only one engaged in "revisionist history" here is Beckwith.
His claim that the compromise "laid the foundation for America to get rid of the evils of slavery years down the road" is laughable and directly contradicted by Article I's prohibition on Congress passing any law to ban the slave trade for at least 20 years, and Article IV's Fugitive Slave Clause, which required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners.
More importantly, as noted above, the provision ended up strengthening the power of the slave-holding states, as Right Wing Watch explained in depth last year:
When the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, the issue of how the proposed new government would deal with the institution of slavery was a pressing concern, as southern slave-holding states made it abundantly clear that they would not join any union that threatened the practice.
During the debate over how to allocate seat in the House of Representatives, which was to be based on population, southern delegates asserted that their slaves should be included in the count whereas northern anti-slavery delegates insisted that slaves should not be counted at all since they were legally regarded as property in slave states. Eventually, a compromise was reached in which seats in the House would be "determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."
While southern states did not get to count all of their slaves as part of their population in determining representation in the House, the compromise nevertheless gave them a distinct and powerful advantage.
As author David O. Stewart explained in his book, "The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution":
*The politicians in the East Room calculated instantly the value of the three-fifths rule. If congressmen were allocated on the basis of population, an owner of 100 slaves (such as Washington or Madison) would count as 61 people-himself plus three-fifths of his slaves. This effect would be extended to presidential elections when the delegates created the electoral college to choose the president. The additional southern representation in Congress, and added sway in voting for the president, would be significant. With almost 700,000 slaves in the southern states from Maryland to Georgia, and an allocation of one congressman for every 30,000 persons, the three-fifths ratio gave the South at least a dozen additional congressmen, and a like number of additional electoral votes. To defeat the small states and achieve representation based on population, Wilson paid a high price: powerful reinforcement of the slave interest.
Predictably, southern states used their increased power in Congress to protect their interests, much to the outrage of northern states, which quickly realized the error of the "compromise."
From "The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution" by Harvard professor Michael Klarman:
*Over time, the three-fifths compromise that the convention had approved became increasingly objectionable to many northerners. After the presidential election of 1800, some Federalists attributed Jefferson's narrow victory over John Adams to the three-fifths rule, which led them to disparage Jefferson as the "Negro president." Northerners' dissatisfaction with the Three-Fifths Clause only grew when, in 1803, President Jefferson consummated the Louisiana Purchase, which vastly extended the geographic scope of the United States, adding territory that was ripe for the expansion of slavery. In a letter written that year, Rufus King [an anti-slavery signer of the Constitution] called the Three-Fifths Clause one of the Constitution's "greatest blemishes," and he urged northerners to treat the clause as inapplicable to states added to the union as a result of Jefferson's bargain with Emperor Napoleon. King also insisted that northerners had been "injudiciously led to concede to this unreasonable provision" on the supposition that Congress "must resort to direct taxes," in combination with “the maxim that taxation and representation are inseparable." In 1804, the Massachusetts legislature proposed repeal of the Three-Fifths Clause, though only Connecticut and Delaware supported such a constitutional amendment.
*By 1820, the Three-Fifths Clause was in effect translating into eighteen additional southern congressional representatives, and it had become a consistent target of northern criticism. That year, when Congress was consumed by heated sectional debate over the admission of Missouri to the union as a slave state, King acknowledged in the US Senate that "the disproportionate power and influence allowed to the slaveholding states was a necessary sacrifice to the establishment of the Constitution," and that "faith and honor stand pledged not to disturb it." Yet he insisted that "the extension of this disproportionate power to the new states would be unjust and odious"—especially since none of the Founders had "anticipated the fact that the whole of the revenue of the United States would be derived from indirect taxes which cannot be apportioned."
Beckwith's argument is precisely the sort of ignorance that results when people rely on the likes of David Barton for their historical knowledge, which is why Right Wing Watch has spent more than a decade tirelessly debunking his lies and working to correct the historical record.
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Right-wing media launched a migrant witch hunt in rural Indiana
Hate groups, a local politician, and the Heritage Foundation tried to take advantage of the misinformation-fueled panic
Written by Olivia Little
Published 12/05/24 MMA
Months after the Trump campaign’s flagrant lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, went viral, right-wing media continue to fuel fear of Haitian migration. In Indiana, a small city was the focus of a misinformation-fueled migrant witch hunt led by right-wing media that emboldened hate groups and is now being used as a case study to justify anti-immigrant policies.
Logansport is a rural city with a population of about 18,000 residents. In mid-September, Kayla Blakeslee, a right-wing talk radio host based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, posted on Facebook screenshots of emails that claimed “20,000 plus Haitian immigrants” were “dropped off” in Logansport over the last six months. Blakeslee wrote, “Is Logansport, IN the new Springfield, OH???”
Blakeslee’s factually inaccuratepost — the mayor said the numbers originated from a social media satire page — was the first snowball in an avalanche of misinformation and hate that spread about Haitian migrants in Logansport.
Logansport's mayor acknowledged that there is an increased immigrant population, but noted that the community has been diverse for “a very long time.” According to census data, Logansport has about a 30 percent Latino population.
Story spreads through the right-wing ecosystem
Central Indiana’s Fox affiliate picked up the story on October 10, with the headline “Logansport officials say immigrant population growth is unsustainable.”
The report pointed to “strain on schools,” first quoting a county health department administrator who said she didn’t “think our school system can sustain what they are doing right now.” The district’s superintendent, the actual authority on the district’s capacity to handle new immigrant students, was optimistic, saying, “We can handle it.”
The report also pointed to strain on a local hospital because of increased births and emergency room visits, but the hospital responded by issuing a statement pointing in part to shuttered obstetrics departments at other area hospitals as a cause of increased births at Logansport Memorial Hospital.
Right-wing X account Libs of TikTok quickly shared the accompanying video segment.
A slew of other right-wing X accounts then amplified the story, including RNC Research and Jack Posobiec.
The day after the Fox affiliate’s report came out, Indiana’s now-newly elected lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith, posted false claims about Logansport’s migrant population, including a conspiracy theory that a “money trail” was responsible for “DUMPING double a town’s population in unassimilated migrants.” Beckwith also cited Blakeslee’s coverage of the story.
On October 14, Breitbart published a story about Haitians in Logansport, claiming that the town has been “targeted by the Biden regime” and that “Biden has dumped thousands of Haitians there.”
On October 16, Fox News’ Fox & Friends hosted a segment about Logansport’s “migrant influx” and The New York Post spotlighted the segment in a separate report.
The following day, Blakeslee interviewed Beckwith, who described the increased Haitian population as “an invasion” and argued that Logansport officials should deport legal Haitian immigrants.
Newsmax aired a segment about Logansport’s “immigrant influx” on October 19.
Education quickly became the focal point of the manufactured migrant crisis, even though the district’s superintendent stated that the system can handle the additional students.
The New York Post published two pieces attacking migrant students in Logansport, claiming in an editorial that migrants are “robbing Logansport kids of an education” and in a news report that “kids are being pushed out of schools.”
On the same day, the Daily Mail published a piece about the “tiny Midwestern town where ‘explosion’ of Haitian migrants is overwhelming schools,” writing that “locals … say students are being muscled out of public schools by an influx of thousands of foreign newcomers.” The Daily Mail quoted a retired teacher, who said that “the native born are now a minority in the local school system.”
The next day, Fox News’ America Reports hosted a segment about Logansport, which Libs of TikTok later posted on X.
Hate groups take advantage
On October 23, Logansport’s local newspaper, the Pharos-Tribune, reported that stickers recruiting for white nationalist hate group Patriot Front were found in the city.
Around the same time, at least one Logansport resident received a flyer from the “Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” reading “3RD WORLD IMMIGRANTS BRING 3RD WORLD CONSEQUENCES.”
Springfield residents faced a similar situation when hate groups swarmed the city after false claims about Haitian immigrants there went viral.
Indiana’s AG calls for investigation, and the Heritage Foundation uses Logansport to support anti-immigrant policies
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita responded by launching an investigation into the local health department, school system, and a Tysons Food plant (Logansport’s largest employer), seeking information about supposed human trafficking and other issues.
Rokita said the investigation is “focused on the coordinated efforts among international and local nonprofit ‘refugee resettlement’ organizations and employers, like Tyson Foods, to bring large numbers of migrants to Indiana.”
On November 19, the Heritage Foundation published commentary about Logansport, using the city to claim rural American towns are struggling due to an influx of immigrants.
Heritage proposed that Indiana and other states should “pass legislation prohibiting business licenses for organizations involved in facilitating illegal migration” and “prohibit the use of any state and local taxes from funding immigration [lawyers] and NGOs providing legal representation for aliens.”
President-elect Donald Trump has been emboldened by anti-migrant misinformation, threatening mass deportation and promising to end Temporary Protective Status, a program that allows people from select countries, including Haiti, to live and work in the United States. Ending TPS would likely force family separations and negatively impact communities, like Logansport, where TPS holders have lived and been employed for years.
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