(April 29, 2021 – Brooklyn, NY) In a battle to uphold their First Amendment rights, peaceful pro-life advocates have requested an en banc (before the entire bench) rehearing by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of the decision rendered by a three-judge panel. Thomas More Society attorneys have filed the petition for a rehearing on behalf of pro-life sidewalk counselors from Brooklyn’s Church@TheRock. These church members and their pastor, Rev. Kenneth Griepp, were originally targeted by now-disgraced former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The federal lawsuit, brought against Pastor Griepp and nine
members of his congregation in June 2017, charged the Church@TheRock members
with harassment of abortion-bound women outside of the Choices Medical Clinic
abortion facility in Jamaica, Queens, despite the fact that the Attorney
General’s lengthy targeted surveillance campaign produced no evidence that they
violated the law.
The church members regularly engaged abortion bound women
in discussion, offering information about life affirming alternatives and a
willingness to listen. They also shared factual information and participated in
prayer.
Schneiderman labeled their speech “harassment” and asked
the court to declare it to be “obstruction” under the Federal Freedom of Access
to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits blockage of abortion facility
doorways.
“The FACE Act specifically exempts constitutionally
protected advocacy from its prohibitions,” explained Thomas More Society Senior
Counsel Stephen Crampton. “We argued that almost the entirety of the Attorney
General’s case consisted in prosecution for just such protected expressive
activity. The district court agreed, rejected the credibility of the state’s witnesses,
the merits of the state’s arguments, and the request for the injunction
itself.”
“Had Schneiderman succeeded,” observed Crampton, “the
current United States Attorney General, operating under a pro-abortion
administration, would be filing similar complaints in every state, and every
pro-abortion state attorney general in the country, like Schneiderman, would be
doing the same. The effect on pro-life sidewalk advocacy across the country
would be disastrous. The abortion industry was watching this case, and still
is.”
After a sexual abuse scandal forced Schneiderman out of
office, his successors, first Barbara Underwood, and then Letitia James, each
have continued to prosecute the baseless lawsuit.
Crampton and Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin
Cannon represented the Church@TheRock throughout the lengthy trial in New York.
The trial was marked by notorious moments. The owner of the Queens abortion
facility – one of the biggest and oldest in the country -- called pro-life
advocates the “American Taliban.” A prosecution witness falsely accused the
church members of violence, but her testimony was later shown to have been
lifted from an article about the actions of other people at a different
abortion clinic several years earlier.
The July 2018 decision by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley
Amon, of the Eastern District of New York, denied the state’s request for a
preliminary injunction in People v. Griepp et al. On March 10,
2021, the Second Circuit reversed that decision in part, issuing an opinion
favoring the state’s position in this contentious court case that had featured
fabricated evidence against the Church@TheRock defendants.
The Second Circuit classified the following as “physical
obstruction” under the FACE Act:
- Approaching
patients and attempting to hand them a leaflet, causing them to “deviate
slightly from their path” and to be delayed by “one second” “at most”
- Causing
a patient to walk around a life-advocate in the cramped, crowded context
of the sidewalk entry area (crowded primarily by clinic “escorts”)
- Delivering
a leaflet to the driver of a vehicle who has voluntarily stopped the car
and rolled down the window to communicate with the life advocate
The court further held that even minor, inadvertent contact
with a patient or an “escort” could constitute a “use of force” violation under
FACE, and that a person commits “harassment” under a local ordinance if she
continues speaking, even for a moment, with a person who has indicated even
implicitly that he or she does not welcome the message. The court decided that
such an implicit indication has occurred where a person remains silent or
declines to receive printed information.
Read the Petition for Panel Rehearing En Banc here [https://thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Griepp-Petition-for-Rehearing-as-filed-04.07.21.pdf].
Read more about the case here [https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/rock-solid-for-life-the-outcome-of-a-federal-trial-in-new-york-is-critical-to-the-future-of-pro-life-sidewalk-counseling/].
About the Thomas More Society
The Thomas More Society is a national
not-for-profit law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family,
and religious liberty. Headquartered in Chicago, Omaha, Rancho Santa Fe,
California, and Fairfield, NJ, the Thomas More Society fosters support for
these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial
courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. For more information,
visit thomasmoresociety.org
No comments:
Post a Comment