Jeremy Tedesco, Esq., serves as senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom at its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he currently leads litigation efforts to protect the rights of Christian students, faculty, and staff at public schools across the nation. In 2004, he earned his J.D. from the Regent University School of Law. Tedesco is admitted to the State Bar of Arizona; the Supreme and District Court of Arizona; the District Court of Colorado; the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th Circuits; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He serves on the Board of Ratio Christi.
He has extensive experience litigating religious freedom for Christian students, faculty, and staff at public schools, colleges, and universities across the nation. He serves as senior legal counsel and the director of the Secondary School Project with Alliance Defending Freedom at its headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., directing public school litigation efforts for the Center for Religious Liberty.
Since joining Alliance Defending Freedom in 2004, Tedesco has passionately defended religious liberty, free speech, and the sanctity of human life. He currently specializes in protecting the First Amendment freedoms of students and faculty at public colleges and universities nationwide.
Tedesco has numerous courtroom victories, including Krestan v. Deer Valley Unified School District, where he prevailed in defending a Christian club’s right to publicize meetings via PA announcements. In O.T. v. Frenchtown Elementary School District Board of Education, he successfully argued that a student should be allowed to sing a Christian song during a school talent show. He obtained a favorable court ruling in Ward v. Polite on behalf of a Christian student unfairly expelled from a graduate counseling program because she was unwilling to affirm sexual relationships that are contrary to biblical teachings. He authored a friend-of-the-court brief in Van Orden v. Perry, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a carved granite display of the Ten Commandments on the Texas State Capitol grounds did not violate the Establishment Clause. He was also the primary brief writer in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, where the Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers who are offended cannot make unwarranted constitutional challenges. This significant victory curtailed one of the main avenues through which “offended observers” filed lawsuits under the federal Establishment Clause despite having no personal legal injury.
A staunch pro-life advocate, Tedesco’s career path was shaped by the heated debates he had on abortion with his high school friends. After studying Roe v. Wade, he discovered a love of constitutional law and our country’s legal heritage. He continued to be an activist in college, taking on the homosexual agenda. He experienced first-hand, as do so many of his current clients, the vilification and mistreatment of Christians for expressing their faith on campus. Without a doubt, Tedesco knew he needed to pursue a law degree and defend religious freedom.
Tedesco has numerous media appearances, including numerous radio and print interviews and as a guest on Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom and Fox and Friends. He has also published an article in the Pepperdine Law Review.
Tedesco obtained a B.A. in political science from Canisius College in 1997 and an M.A. in public policy from the Regent University School of Government in 2004. He earned his J.D. in 2004 from the Regent University School of Law, where he was a recipient of West’s Academic Achievement Award.
Ratio Christi (Latin for ‘The Reason of Christ’) is a global movement that equips university students and faculty to give historical, philosophical, and scientific reasons for following Jesus Christ.
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