Thomas More Law Center

The Sword and Shield for People of Faith

abortion

Federal Judge’s Decision In Favor Of Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors Appealed By The New York Attorney General

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   Less than a month ago, we announced that Federal District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon ruled that our clients, Angela Braxton and Jasmine Lalande as well as eleven other pro-life sidewalk counselors sued by the New York Attorney General’s Office (OAG), did not violate any laws and did not harass or intimidate women seeking abortions at the Choices abortion facility in Jamaica Queens, New York.

   On Monday, (8/20/18), the New York Attorney General’s Office filed a notice with the court that it was appealing Judge Amon’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The OAG appeal is not surprising, considering the fanfare accompanying the initial announcement of this lawsuit last summer, and the massive resources expended in the year-long investigation.

   Judge Amon’s ruling was a devastating blow to the Attorney General’s Office. Last summer, in a highly publicized press conference held in front of the Choices abortion facility, then-New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman (who later resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct), announced his federal lawsuit against the thirteen sidewalk counselors claiming they obstructed, harassed and intimidated women who were seeking abortions at the Choices facility.  He petitioned the federal court to create a sixteen-foot buffer zone around abortion premises and levy fines, attorney fees and compensatory damages against the Defendants. 

   After an extensive hearing held between February 12 and March 6, 2018, and oral arguments heard on May 22, 2018, Judge Amon rendered her written 103-page opinion which stated that there was not a single video introduced into evidence which substantiated the OAG’s allegations against the sidewalk counselors, which sought to ban them from further sidewalk counseling. Additionally, Judge Amon found the witnesses called to testify on behalf of the abortion clinic produced by the OAG were not credible.

   Despite Eric Schneiderman’s departure, the pro-abortion forces continue their zealous anti-life campaign. When he first announced his lawsuit against the pro-life sidewalk counselors, he made the astonishing remark that this is “not a nation where you can choose your point of view.”

   Even though there’s a new Attorney General in New York, the pro-abortion agenda remains. Pro-abortionists will not rest until this nation becomes a place where your only point of view is pro-abortion. TMLC, as always, will remain steadfast in its defense of the pro-life cause.

   Sincerely,

   Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel

Thomas More Law Center Defeats New York Attorney General’s Ballyhooed Attempt To Silence Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors

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July 23, 2018

   ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it has won a significant legal battle on behalf of Christian pro-life sidewalk counselors sued in a New York federal district court by the New York Attorney General’s Office (“OAG”). In a 103-page opinion issued last Friday evening, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon rebuked the efforts of the New York Attorney General’s Office to silence sidewalk counselors who regularly assembled outside of Choices Women’s Medical Center (“Choices”), a Queens abortion clinic, to plead for the lives of the unborn.

   Last summer, June 20, 2017, at a much-ballyhooed press conference held outside Choices, then-Attorney General of New York Eric Schneiderman (who later resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct), concluding a massive year-long investigation, announced his federal lawsuit against thirteen sidewalk counselors with the astonishing remark that this is “not a nation where you can choose your point of view.”

   TMLC attorneys Tyler Brooks and Kate Oliveri represent two of the thirteen counselors sued by OAG, Angela Braxton and Jasmine Lalande.  

   Tyler Brooks commented, “A radical state attorney general abandoned his duty to enforce the law fairly in favor of pursuing an ideological campaign intended to silence pro-life Christians. The federal court, however, has seen through the State of New York’s efforts and made clear that the free speech of Christians will not be censored simply because some people on the left do not like it.”

   Kate Oliveri added, “In denying the State’s preliminary injunction motion, the district court judge protected the true victims of harassment: the pro-life sidewalk counselors. Judge Amon sent a clear message to the New York Attorney General’s Office that the First Amendment does indeed guarantee the right of citizens in New York to have their own viewpoint.”

   Richard Thompson, TMLC President and Chief Counsel praised the great cooperation between TMLC attorneys and attorneys associated with the Thomas More Society and Liberty Counsel, who represented the other Defendants.

   In its lawsuit, OAG alleged that the thirteen sidewalk counselors violated federal, state and New York City laws prohibiting the obstruction of abortion facilities, and harassment and intimidation of women who were seeking abortions. It petitioned the federal court to create a sixteen-foot buffer zone around Choices abortion premises and levy fines, attorney fees and compensatory damages against the Defendants. 

   An extensive preliminary injunction hearing was held between February 12 and March 6, 2018. In addition to videos, photographs and other documentary evidence, OAG called seven witnesses and the Defendants called ten witnesses. On May 22, 2018, Judge Amon heard oral arguments on OAG’s motion for a preliminary injunction. In her 103-page opinion and order, Judge Amon denied the OAG’s motion finding that the OAG had failed to substantiate any of its allegations against the Defendants.

   For years, Choices has had security cameras trained on its entrance. And in June 2016, the OAG installed a high-mounted surveillance camera to capture the exterior of Choices’ main patient entrance surrounding sidewalk. Moreover, OAG investigators obtained additional video evidence in undercover operations where they approached Choices, pretending to be patients and their companions, while wearing hidden cameras recording video and audio.

   Despite these investigative activities, Judge Amon found that not a single video introduced into evidence substantiated the OAG’s allegations against the sidewalk counselors.

   The Court also heard testimony from several Choices employees and escorts, including Merle Hoffman, the owner of Choices who proudly accepts the title “Millionaire Abortionist” and who has said that pro-life advocates should be considered the “American Taliban.” Judge Amon found the witnesses produced by the OAG were not credible.

    OAG can appeal Judge Amon’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. However, the appellate court is required to defer to the findings of fact made by Judge Amon, making any such appeal very difficult for the State.

   Click here to read the Court’s opinion.

9/11 Survivor And Humble Christian Sued By The New York Attorney General Finally Tells Her Story In Court

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   ANN ARBOR, MI – Over eight months after first being sued by the New York Attorney General, and after a marathon preliminary injunction hearing that stretched over four weeks, Angela Braxton, a pro-life Christian and side walk counselor, finally took the stand late last week to explain why she spent years regularly ministering outside of a large abortion facility in Jamaica, Queens.

   Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who complained about “a sense of entitlement by protestors to run their mouth,” named Braxton and more than a dozen other Christians as defendants in his federal lawsuit filed last June. The lawsuit asked a federal court to impose a sixteen-foot buffer zone around the abortion premises and levy draconian fines, attorney fees and compensatory damages against the defendants. 

   The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is defending Braxton and co-defendant Jasmine Lalande, another Christian sidewalk counselor, in the lawsuit. Tyler Brooks, TMLC’s lead attorney in the case, who conducted the direct examination of Ms. Braxton, commented, “It is a privilege to be able to defend these two brave individuals against the Attorney Generals’ unconstitutional assault on free speech.”      

   Richard Thompson, TMLC’s President, added, “After over a dozen witnesses called during the four-week hearing, the only picture of our clients emerged was that they were two humble Christian women peaceably making the last chance effort to save the lives of unborn children.”

   In her moving testimony, Braxton described growing up in Brooklyn, New York, including being among the first African-American students bused to majority white schools as part of desegregating the New York City school system. She also explained having suffered numerous miscarriages as a young woman—an emotional experience that made her realize the preciousness of all life.        

Her Life Changed After 9/11

   Braxton further told the Court how her life changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On that day, Braxton was working on the 80th floor of One World Trade Center. Braxton detailed for the Court the harrowing experience of trying to escape the burning building until she made it to the underground mall below the World Trade Center Complex. While trying to make her way out of the mall, she suddenly felt rumbling, which she would later learn was caused by the collapsing of Two World Trade Center above her. The force of the building’s collapse caused her to be “thrown around like . . . being thrown up in a tornado,” Braxton testified. In that moment, Braxton said, “I’m screeching for God not to let me die.”

   An Associated Press photographer took an iconic photo of the debris-covered Braxton as she escaped from the fallen tower. That photograph now hangs in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.  To view the photo, click here.

   Following the 9/11 attacks, Braxton turned to faith and became a Christian. Several years later, she felt called to start ministering to patients entering abortion clinics. In her testimony, Braxton explained why she used to spend Saturday mornings trying to speak to women who might be contemplating abortion:

   “I believe because of what I went through as far as wanting so many children….It’s the worst thing. It’s never healed. You always long for them.  And I wanted other people to know that.  But more importantly, God saved me when I was a sinner. Christ died for me. He gave me a new heart, and He gave me a heart to love Him, to love my neighbor….Why wouldn’t I love my neighbor enough [to share this]? That’s my belief, and I believe God’s Word is true.”

   Braxton, who has numerous medical conditions linked to her injuries from 9/11, also described being fearful of how a victory by the Attorney General in this lawsuit would prevent her from continuing to evangelize and spread the Gospel. If the fees sought by the Attorney General are assessed, Braxton said she would lose her apartment, but she courageously added: “I know God would provide.” 

   Federal District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon will hear oral arguments on the Attorney General’s motion for a preliminary injunction on May 10, 2018 at 2:00 PM.  Yet to be decided is TMLC’s motion to dismiss the Attorney General’s case, which was filed on July 17, 2017.

New York State Attorney General’s Office Complicit in Fake Facebook Profile to Persecute Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors

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ANN ARBOR, MI – In startling courtroom admissions during cross examination by Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”) attorney, Tyler Brooks, the New York Attorney General’s star witness admitted she created a fake Facebook page pretending she was a pro-life Christian to develop dossiers and entrap pro-life sidewalk counselors who appeared in front of the Choices Women’s Medical Center (“Choices”) in New York City’s Jamaica neighborhood. She then passed on the information to the Attorney General’s Office, which was already well aware of her fraudulent activities.

The startling testimony came during a hearing last Thursday (2/15), conducted by U.S.  Federal District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon, to determine whether she should grant Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s request for a preliminary injunction prohibiting pro-life sidewalk counselors from coming within sixteen feet of the Choices premises. The hearing before Judge Amon continues tomorrow (2/21), and is expected to last several more weeks.

During last Thursday’s cross-examination by Brooks, the witness admitted creating the Facebook page under the fake name of Shelly Walker. The witness described her elaborate scheme to entrap the unwary pro-life counselors named in the Attorney General’s lawsuit. She went to great lengths to invent an entirely fictitious identity; using someone else’s photo she had found on the internet, listing her occupation as a bank teller and stating she was from Saginaw, Michigan, even posting weather reports from Saginaw, as if she were there. 

Moreover, in order to make her Facebook personality of Shelly Walker appear legitimate, she sent out hundreds of friend requests, friending hundreds of pro-lifers throughout the country. She purposely searched out pro-life and conservative groups and even claimed to be a supporter of Ted Cruz and Father Frank Pavone, an ardent pro-life Catholic priest. She fabricated an emotional personal story of being talked into an abortion by her husband, who she later divorced (none of it true).

In real life, she’s a Choices escort leader who is strongly pro-abortion.  She does not share any conservative or pro-life views. Nevertheless, she created this fake persona of Shelley Walker to appear as a concerned pro-life advocate to gather information on and entrap pro-life counselors. In fact, she sent a friend request to Angela Braxton, one of TMLC’s clients in this lawsuit.  Braxton, not realizing this was really one of the Choices escorts, accepted her friend request, thinking Walker was a pro-life advocate like herself.

She also admitted that she shared the information of the targeted pro-life counselors with the Attorney General’s Office.  The Office never told her to stop or to delete the information based on her fraudulent Facebook postings. In fact, the Office outfitted her with a concealed video camera to record pro-life counselors in front of Choices. Ironically, just three weeks ago, in an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, the Attorney General highlighted his crack-down on fake identities, impersonations and fraud on the internet. Read the transcript of the interview here.

On June 20, 2017, the Attorney General held a press conference in front of the Choices Center where he announced his lawsuit against fourteen pro-life sidewalk counselors, claiming they violated the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (“FACE”), the New York State Clinic Access Act and City laws. His lawsuit asked the Court to create a sixteen-foot buffer zone around the Choices premises and to levy fines, attorney fees and compensatory damages against the defendants. 

During the press conference, the Attorney General boasted that he had dropped out of school at seventeen years of age to work at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.  Astonishingly, the Attorney General claimed, “We are not a nation where you can choose your point of view,” and that pro-life Christians “run their mouths” with “unlawful, un-American rhetoric.”

The Thomas More Law Center is a leading pro-life national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. TMLC represents two of the fourteen persons sued by the Attorney General.

Richard Thompson, TMLC’s President and Chief Counsel, commented upon the courtroom revelations of the Attorney General’s star witness: “I’m appalled at the Attorney General’s lack of respect for the First Amendment and his Offices’ encouragement and use of fraudulent means to obtain information so that he can persecute peaceful pro-life citizens who have become the voice of the voiceless. He has forsaken his responsibilities as an independent law enforcement officer and is now acting as an agent of the abortion industry.” 

Thomas More Law Center Files Federal Lawsuit to Stop City’s Silencing of Pro-Life Prayer and Counseling

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     November 20, 2017

     ANN ARBOR, MI –  The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, on Friday (11/17/17), filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, the mayor, and several city employees to stop the City’s unconstitutional censorship, intimidation, and harassment of peaceful pro-life advocates. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Cities4Life, a Christian pro-life ministry, and its Executive Director, Daniel Parks, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

 

     For over a decade, Cities4Life volunteers have peacefully assembled outside of Charlotte’s busiest abortion facility to pray and provide faith-based pro-life counseling for mothers seeking an abortion. However, responding to pressure from pro-abortion groups, the City of Charlotte has recently acted to silence this pro-life message by using an ordinance that unconstitutionally discriminates against signs based upon their content. In July of this year, City officials began enforcing the ordinance in a discriminatory manner so as to target the activities of pro-life religious groups, but not those of pro-abortion organizations.

     Since July, Daniel Parks has been issued at least 4 citations by the City alleging a violation of the ordinance. 

     Tyler Brooks, the TMLC attorney handling the case, commented: “The City of Charlotte and its code enforcement officials have used the City Code to violate the First Amendment by restricting Cities4Life’s use of signs, and therefore its speech, because they object to the content of those signs. Thus, despite their desire to exercise their constitutional rights and speak freely, Cities4Life and its volunteers have encountered unconstitutional censorship.” 

     Cities4Life, headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, has chapters in Nashville, Tennessee; Tampa Bay, Florida; and Lexington, Kentucky as well as other parts of the country. David Benham, of Benham Brothers fame, is Founder and Chairman of the Board of Cities4Life. Cities4Life’s approach is peaceful, prayerful, and non-violent as it seeks to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ, clearly seen in this video (5 minutes).

     Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented: “This is the second pro-life lawsuit we’ve filed in the past month.  Despite the many pro-life victories in recent years, pro-abortion forces, which control the government in many large cities, have waged a guerrilla war against courageous pro-life advocates, like Cities4Life, who are engaged on the front lines of the battle. Cities like Charlotte are using their law enforcement powers to silence the voice of these pro-life warriors.”

     The complaint asks the federal court to declare the City’s ordinance unconstitutional and to permanently enjoin its enforcement. 

Read TMLCs Complaint Here

Thomas More Law Center Asks Supreme Court to Prevent Maine’s Persecution of Pro-Life Pastor

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November 8, 2017

     ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”)  petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (11/06/17) to review a U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s decision that allows government officials to use a noise provision to prevent peaceful sidewalk counseling in front of abortion facilities. The petition for review is the latest step in TMLC’s legal battle to prevent the State of Maine from silencing peaceful, pro-life sidewalk counselors.

     Kate Oliveri, the TMLC attorney who drafted the petition, commented: “The First Circuit’s dangerous opinion would allow all levels of government to restrict any speaker with whom they disagree by creative legislation that targets the reason the speaker engages in speech rather than the actual words spoken. This, however, is a distinction without difference that affords governments the right to silence all speech they find disagreeable.”

    In 2015, TMLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of Pastor Andrew March against the Maine Attorney General and several police officers challenging the constitutionality of a noise provision in the Maine Civil Rights Act (“MCRA”). That provision prohibits noise outside healthcare buildings made with the intent to interfere with health services. Under Maine law, the term “health services” includes abortions.

     Accordingly, this seemingly innocuous statute gives law enforcement officials the power to stop pro-life counselors from speaking on the public sidewalk in front of abortion facilities because they equate an intent to discourage a woman from having an abortion as an intent to interfere with a medical procedure.

     The federal district court agreed with TMLC’s legal position and barred the State from using the noise provision because it was a content-based restriction on speech in violation of the First Amendment. However, the Maine Attorney General appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which reversed the lower court and created the false dichotomy that the content of speech can somehow be separated from the purpose of the speaker.

Click here to read TMLC’s entire petition asking for Supreme Court review.

     TMLC’s lawsuit on behalf of Pastor March is the third case in three years in which the Law Center has defended pro-life speakers on the public sidewalks of Portland, Maine.  The first federal case, which was filed in 2014 on behalf of several sidewalk counselors, successfully challenged the constitutionality of Portland’s ordinance that established a 39-foot buffer zone around abortion facilities.

    However, only two weeks after conceding that the buffer zone was unconstitutional, the Maine Attorney General filed a state lawsuit against Pastor Brian Ingalls under the noise provision of MCRA. TMLC is still defending Pastor Ingalls in the ongoing litigation.

    The third case occurred less than a month after charges were filed against Pastor Ingalls. Police, citing the same noise provision in MCRA, issued an official warning to Pastor March, who had taken up Pastor Ingalls’ mantle preaching outside the abortion facility. TMLC filed the federal lawsuit that the petition asks the Supreme Court to review.