{"id":2001618,"date":"2023-08-15T17:34:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T21:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-authorities-selectively-enforced-defacement-rules-against-pro-life-groups-over-blm-protestors-court-rules\/"},"modified":"2023-08-15T17:35:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T21:35:49","slug":"d-c-authorities-selectively-enforced-defacement-rules-against-pro-life-groups-over-blm-protestors-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-authorities-selectively-enforced-defacement-rules-against-pro-life-groups-over-blm-protestors-court-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Court rules D.C. authorities unfairly enforced defacement rules on pro-life groups, favoring BLM protestors."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fd-c-authorities-selectively-enforced-defacement-rules-against-pro-life-groups-over-blm-protestors-court-rules%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2001618&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A Victory\u200d for Free Speech: Appeals Court Rules Against \u2062Selective Enforcement<\/h2>\n<p>In a major ruling on Tuesday, a federal appeals court \u200bdeclared \u200cthat Washington, D.C. had\u2064 &#8220;selectively enforced&#8221; defacement\u200d ordinances against\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americans-remember-the-48th-annual-march-for-life\/\" title=\"Americans remember the 48th annual March for Life\">pro-life advocates<\/a> while allowing far-Left protestors to graffiti &#8220;Black \u2063Lives Matter&#8221; messaging on city streets during the Summer of 2020.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The government may not enforce the laws in a manner that picks winners and losers in public \u200bdebates,&#8221; stated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in \u2064its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cadc.uscourts.gov\/internet\/opinions.nsf\/19D8F951CCCB10F685258A0C0052C071\/$file\/21-7108-2012552.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">42-page opinion<\/a>. &#8220;It would\u200d undermine the First Amendment&#8217;s protections for\u200b free speech if the \u200bgovernment could enact a content-neutral law and then discriminate \u2064against disfavored viewpoints under the cover of prosecutorial discretion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The appeals court overturned a lower district court&#8217;s decision, which dismissed a \u200cFirst and Fifth Amendments lawsuit filed against the nation&#8217;s capital city by the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of \u2064America.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint\u200b alleged that D.C. authorities violated the constitutional rights of \u2062two pro-life activists by arresting them on August \u20631, 2020, for chalking &#8220;Black Pre-Born Lives Matter&#8221; on a public sidewalk outside of a local Planned Parenthood facility. Although the groups acknowledged the graffiti violated the ordinance, they \u2063claimed that authorities mistreated the \u200btwo activists in comparison to thousands of\u200d protestors who were free to deface \u200cstreets, sidewalks, and storefronts with paint and chalk with anti-police messages\u200d and other BLM-related content during \u200dthe same summer.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The markings were ubiquitous and in open violation \u200dof the District&#8217;s defacement ordinance, yet none \u2062of the protesters were arrested,&#8221; wrote \u2063Judge Neomi Rao in\u200b the 42-page opinion for the court.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Judge Rao&#8217;s\u200d opinion for the court in <em>Frederick Douglass Foundation v. District of Columbia<\/em> was supported by Judges J. Michelle Childs\u2064 and Robert L. Wilkins, who\u200c concurred in\u200b reversing the district court&#8217;s dismissal\u200b of the Foundation&#8217;s First Amendment claim. They\u2064 also \u200caffirmed the dismissal of\u200b an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-upholds-law-enabling-tribes-to-bar-non-native-families-from-adopting-native-children\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Upholds Law Enabling Tribes To Bar Non-Native Families From Adopting Native Children\">equal protection claim<\/a> and remanded the case for further proceedings.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;We affirm the district court&#8217;s dismissal of\u200d the Foundation&#8217;s \u200cequal protection claim because the Foundation has not plausibly alleged invidious \u2064discrimination by District officials,&#8221; the court \u2064stated.\u2064 &#8220;Discriminatory motive,\u200c however, is not\u200d an element of a First Amendment free speech selective enforcement claim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The \u200bFirst Amendment\u200c prohibits discrimination\u200b on \u200bthe basis of viewpoint\u200c irrespective of the government&#8217;s motive,&#8221; the opinion continued. &#8220;We \u200dhold the \u200dFoundation has plausibly alleged the\u200c District discriminated on the basis of viewpoint in the selective enforcement of its defacement ordinance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys, representing members of the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America, celebrated \u2062the\u200b victory for free speech at the D.C. \u200bCircuit, affirming the groups&#8217; rights to &#8220;exercise their\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-dems-pass-massive-voting-rights-bill-conservatives-claim-it-will-chill-speech-demolish-election-integrity\/\" title=\"House Dems Pass Massive\u00a0\u2018Voting Rights\u2019 Bill; Conservatives Claim It Will Chill Speech, Demolish\u00a0Election Integrity\">constitutionally protected freedom<\/a> to peacefully share their views\u200d the same as anyone else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Washington officials \u200dcan&#8217;t censor messages they disagree with,&#8221; said ADF\u2063 Senior \u2062Counsel Erin Hawley, vice \u200bpresident of the ADF Center for Life and \u2063Regulatory Practice,\u200b in a \u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedia.org\/press-release\/pro-life-groups-chalk-free-speech-victory-dc-circuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news release<\/a>. &#8220;Every American deserves for their voice to be heard as they engage \u200bin important cultural and political \u2062issues of the day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Frederick Douglass Foundation Virginia Chapter President J.R. Gurley expressed in a \u2064news release that D.C. officials &#8220;shouldn&#8217;t allow some groups to participate in the public forum and shun others from doing so \u2063just because city officials disagree\u200c with their viewpoint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The First Amendment protects our right to peacefully share \u2063our pro-life message in Washington, D.C.\u2062 without \u2064fear of unjust government punishment and thankfully, the D.C. Circuit\u200d agreed,&#8221; Gurley said.<\/p>\n<p>Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America, called the court&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-authorities-selectively-enforced-defacement-rules-against-pro-life-groups-over-blm-protestors-court-rules\/\" title=\"Court rules D.C. authorities unfairly enforced defacement rules on pro-life groups, favoring BLM protestors.\">unanimous decision\u200d favoring free-speech rights<\/a> for pro-life students &#8220;very encouraging.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Viewpoint discrimination is un-American, and as the case proceeds, we look forward to learning more\u200c about \u2064how D.C. officials picked winners \u2063and losers in their enforcement,&#8221; Hawkins said. &#8220;Free\u200c speech rights you&#8217;re afraid to use don&#8217;t really exist, and we\u2064 will keep fighting for the rights of our students to\u200b stand up for the preborn and\u2062 their mothers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal appeals court ruled that Washington, D.C. violated free speech rights by selectively enforcing defacement ordinances. Pro-life advocates were targeted while far-Left protestors were allowed to graffiti &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; on city streets. The court emphasized that the government cannot favor certain groups over others when enforcing laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":2001619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2001618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2001618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2001618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2001618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}