August 30, 2021

Appeals Court Upholds Rights of Pro-Life Protestors

Last Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that pro-life protestors had the right to peacefully protest outside an abortion business in Queens, New York. Thomas Moore Society lawyers represented ten members (including the pastor) of Brooklyn's Church@TheRock; refusing charges made by three consecutive attorneys general that the Christians had threatened and harassed women.

“This is a great win, to be sure,” declared Stephen Crampton, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel, “but the case should never have been brought in the first place. It was always about politics, not justice. The New York Attorney General has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money pursuing bogus claims and persecuting law-abiding Christians. The real crime here is not the actions of the defendants, but the actions of the Attorney General in ever filing this case.”

Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston, Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, and Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler handed down the unanimous opinion on August 26, 2021. They affirmed the ruling by US District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon which denied the state's motion for a preliminary injunction against the pro-life advocates.

A panel of judges from the Second Circuit initially took a year and a half to make its ruling against the pro-life advocates on May 28, 2021. It's good to see that the District and Circuit Courts were much more timely in their decisions to defend the first amendment rights of pro-life protestors.

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