Thomas More Law Center

The Sword and Shield for People of Faith

pro-life

Thomas More Law Center Will Provide Legal Assistance To Students On National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day – April 12

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   ANN ARBOR, MI – Continuing its tradition of providing legal assistance to students who stand up for life on National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day (“NPLTD”) the Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced it will defend without charge, students whose school prohibits them from wearing their pro-life t-shirts.

   National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day will take place this Friday, April 12.

   Hosted by the Culture of Life Studies Program and Life Defenders, the goal of NPLTD is to empower young people to “speak up and defend the preborn, the elderly, the disabled, and the most vulnerable among us” by wearing their favorite t-shirt with a pro-life message.

   Students are encouraged to post pictures on social media wearing their t-shirts and use the hashtag #NPLTD19 to create awareness of the pro-life movement.

   If your child or a student you know requires legal assistance from TMLC, please be sure to email Margaret at Life Defenders: admin@lightandshield.org or call (571) 398-9904.

   TMLC proudly stands ready to support and defend students choosing to participate in National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day. 

Thomas More Law Center Will Provide Legal Assistance To Students On National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day

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   ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is again collaborating with American Life League’s annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day which will take place this Friday, April 20. TMLC lawyers will defend, without charge, the right for students to wear their pro-life t-shirts. Students requiring legal assistance from TMLC should contact Margaret at Life Defenders via email at mhaislmaier@all.org or by phone at 571-398-9904.

   American Life League has spearheaded National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day (“NPLTD”) for over two decades. The goal of NPLTD is to empower young people to witness to the dignity of all human beings by wearing their favorite t-shirt with a pro-life message. Students are encouraged to post pictures on social media wearing their t-shirts and use the hashtag #NPLTD18.

   This year’s featured t-shirt was designed by two teenage brothers, who created the shirt to resemble a nutrition label found on most packaged food products. The purpose of the design is to show the value of the preborn, the elderly and people of all abilities as being worthy of the right to life. The design features the “ingredients” as virtues needed to be pro-life: courage, compassion, charity, hope, understanding, and perseverance. View this year’s t-shirt design by clicking here.

   TMLC proudly stands with American Life League to support the students choosing to participate in the National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day.

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.