By now, the world has heard the news. A municipal mayor in Brussels attempted to shut down a peaceful gathering of conservative leaders simply because he disagreed with their message.
The resultant outcry was enormous — the very essence of free speech was at stake — culminating in a rapidly executed emergency court order allowing the conference to resume, but not before the police had stepped in, relegating the first day of the event to abject chaos.
I was honored to lead the legal challenge against this authoritarian overstep, and in so doing, play a key part in this watershed moment for fundamental freedoms.
It was business as usual as I prepared to attend the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels from April 16–17. Known as “NatCon,” the event presented nothing out of the ordinary in a city that regularly ebbs and flows with gatherings across the political spectrum. As the center of the European Union, discussion, dialogue, and even peaceable demonstratio …