‘DOJ Will Come After You If They Disagree With Your Free Speech Rights,’ Says Subpoenaed Nonprofit

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a subpoena to Alabama-based conservative non-profit Eagle Forum for exercising its constitutionally protected free speech rights in a case involving transgender treatments for children.

Eagle Forum had lobbied the Alabama legislature to pass a law that blocks children from treatments that alter their gender. Earlier this year, the legislature passed the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which bans hormone therapies, puberty blockers, and surgeries aimed at changing the biological sex of a minor. Left-wing organizations sued the state and the DOJ intervened in the lawsuit claiming that the new law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The DOJ then issued a subpoena to Eagle Forum, which is not even a party in the lawsuit. The subpoena is asking for five years of records of Eagle Forum on anything having to do with the issue of gender dysphoria.

In an interview on NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Kris Ullman, president of Eagle Forum, said that the DOJ is coming after them because of their differing opinion on the issue of gender-altering treatments for kids. The department wants to “make an example” out of the small nonprofit, she stated.

Ullman points out that the issue of puberty blockers “is not really key” to the case. The issue at heart is that the DOJ is attempting to “harass” a nonprofit group into silence because the federal government “does not like their stance” on a specific issue.

“Whether you’re on the right or the left, you should be concerned that the DOJ will come after you if they disagree with your free speech rights, the position you’ve taken. The right to petition, the right to free speech, the right to assembly—all these rights are at issue in the case.”

Pressuring Nonprofits

Eagle Forum has filed a