On August 8, Life Legal filed a motion to dismiss the vindictive lawsuit that the Biden/Harris/Garland Department of Justice brought against pro-lifers for a June 2021 intervention at the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, a murder mill that operates in the Akron metropolitan area. The DOJ’s suit is part of an unrelenting campaign of lawfare against pro-life activism and, like similar federal actions, is rooted in an indefensibly expansive interpretation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Our clients, Laura Gies and Audrey Whipple, are alleged to have violated FACE with a sit-in in the mill’s waiting room, after which they passively resisted arrest by going limp.
The sit-in and the passive resistance are not in dispute. Nor is it disputed that these two dedicated activists were tried and convicted of trespass in state court.
However, on behalf of our clients, we unambiguously deny that these actions constituted a violation of the federal FACE Act and thus a justification for the aggressive DOJ civil suit.
Indeed, our central argument in this motion goes right to the heart of the Biden/Harris/Garland DOJ’s unjust persecution of pro-life activists who strive hard to save babies from the bloodthirsty abortion industry. And we mean to put a stake through that heart.
The federal complaint against participants in this pro-life intervention is so smug in its false interpretation of FACE that it does not even allege any physical obstruction on the part of our clients. Rather, it lists changes to the mill’s schedule and mentions the ancillary effect of a police presence outside the facility. It was these, according to the DOJ itself, that “obstructed” client access to the killing center – not the physical actions of defendants.
Our motion points out that the FACE Act prohibits only physical obstruction of a mill’s entrance. The language of the statute is so clear that all argument should end here. It’s really so clear that the DOJ should never have brought suit in the first place.
Nevertheless, our motion takes pains to anticipate and refute bogus points that the DOJ may raise. We consult recognized authorities to define “interfere with” and “physical obstruction.” We do the same for “facility.” We contrast physical with “constructive” obstruction. We clarify interpretative principles. And so on.
A layman reading our motion may wonder why we go into such detail on such seemingly obvious points. But we know what we’re about. If the Biden/Harris/Garland DOJ were honest enough to acknowledge obvious points, its campaign against pro-life activism would never have taken its current form.
And we don’t stop there. Rather, when we have been as thorough as possible in presenting a proper reading of the FACE Act, we assail the act itself. In 2002, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of FACE under the Commerce Clause. We protest that even the actions actually prohibited by the act do not affect interstate commerce to any significant degree – and we reserve the right to argue on appeal that the FACE Act should be invalidated as an unjustifiable exercise of federal power.
We’ve gone to considerable trouble to make our motion complete. Of course, our immediate motive is to serve our clients. At Life Legal, we always try to give every pro-life activist the most ironclad defense available – because we know that these brave people face the scorn of the pro-aborts and the hostility of the federal government to save innocent children from the machinery of casual annihilation.
Yet we are also hoping that a favorable reception of our argument will help to end the whole program of persecution from the Biden/Harris/Garland DOJ. If we can effectively limit FACE enforcement to the literal language of the statute, we can undercut DOJ arguments in every one of these cases.
- Please pray for Laura Gies and Audrey Whipple, who risked their own safety and freedom for babies menaced by the abortion cult!
- Please pray for other pro-life activists around the country, more and more of whom are turning to Life Legal for the representation they need!
- Please pray that the arguments in our motion will stop this vengeful pro-abortion lawsuit – and even put an end to the Biden/Harris/Garland DOJ’s attempts to suppress pro-life activism!