Just in time for the Christmas holiday, a handful of pro-life activists got a significant financial boost from President Joe Biden’s staff at the National Archives and Records Administration.
The American Center for Law & Justice, a conservative, Christian legal aid group, announced recently that the NARA had agreed to settle a case involving a First Amendment violation that targeted anti-abortion demonstrators.
According to media reports, the agency agreed to pay its clients $10,000 each to make the case go away.
Read: Donald Trump Jr. Fights Rumors That His Father Wants Former South Carolina Gov. Haley As VP
To recap, the ACLJ’s clients included a grandmother, a law student, and a high school student at a Catholic school all visited the National Archives at different times on Jan. 20, 2023 to view the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other artifacts.
All three were in Washington for the March for Life rally, the largest annual anti-abortion gathering in the country.
“To our clients’ horror,” ACLJ noted in its release, “each was told by armed guards to take off their religious, pro-life apparel or leave the museum.”
“When one of our clients questioned the order, a National Archives security officer said that the apparel would ‘incite others’ and that she was ‘disturbing peace.’ Yet another one of our clients was told that her T-shirt was ‘offensive’ and had to be covered up or removed. Her shirt read simply, ‘MARCH 4 LIFE 2014: Saint Cecilia’s Youth Group, Glen Carbon, IL.’”
According to ACLJ’s documents, a captain with the private security firm guarding the National Archives building directed officers to tell pro-lifers to cover up or remove their clothing and paraphernalia. Yet the same order was not directed at pro-choice protesters who entered the National Archives the same day.
An internal investigation by the company, Allied Universal Security Services, claimed that the unidentified captain gave “flawed” instructions to his staff and that the disparate treatment of the two groups resulted from a “communication breakdown.”
Read: Clinton-Appointed Judge Blocks Idaho Child Sex Change Ban
The company further claimed that the captain’s directions were not “in any way politically motivated.”
Yet the captain was briefly suspended and then later removed from his duties at the National Archives.
In the press release, ACLJ Executive Diorector Jordan Sekulow noted that “the National Archives expressed regret regarding the events of January 20, 2023, and affirmed that plaintiffs never should have been asked to remove or cover articles of clothing expressing their religious and other beliefs.”
Additionally, the National Archives signed a consent order that prohibits the agency from blocking members of the public from wearing clothing with religious and political speech while in any of its facilities.
“This is an especially important victory, as one month from today, pro-life Americans will once again gather in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life. Our victory today ensures that they will be free from harassment and that their First Amendment rights will be protected should they choose to visit the National Archives and view the very documents that protect those sacred rights,” Sekulow said in the press release.
“At the ACLJ, we will be vigilant because the National Archives was not the only federal institution to engage in this unlawful discrimination against pro-lifers,” he noted, as a similar case remains pending against the Smithsonian Institution.
“We stand ready and able to defend the First Amendment rights of pro-lifers in our nation’s capital next month,” he added. “We are working to ensure that no federal institution can target and discriminate against pro-lifers – especially on the day of the March for Life.”
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help. Visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps.