{"id":870179,"date":"2021-10-12T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T09:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=870179"},"modified":"2021-10-12T05:14:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T09:14:18","slug":"pro-life-cop-sues-dem-mayor-for-violating-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pro-life-cop-sues-dem-mayor-for-violating-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Life Cop Sues Dem Mayor for Violating Religious Freedom"},"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\">18<\/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%2Fpro-life-cop-sues-dem-mayor-for-violating-religious-freedom%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=870179&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--><div readability=\"29.470790378007\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/\">Latest News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Law suit: Authorities targeted Louisville cop for praying outside abortion clinic<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_gettyimages-1232764304-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_gettyimages-1232764304.jpg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_gettyimages-1232764304-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_gettyimages-1232764304-703x491.jpg 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tProtesters and employees in front of an abortion clinic in Louisville, Ky. \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/patrick-hauf\/\" title=\"Posts by Patrick Hauf\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Patrick Hauf<\/a> \u2022 October 12, 2021 4:58 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"80.259029745042\">\n<p><span>A Louisville police officer sued the city&#8217;s Democratic mayor for violating his First Amendment rights when he was suspended for praying outside an abortion clinic while off-duty.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Louisville police department investigated Officer Matthew Schrenger for more than four months this year over his alleged violation of a policy that prohibits police from participating in political demonstrations. The department dropped the investigation and reinstated him after it admitted the policy was not enforced fairly. Last week, Schrenger filed a lawsuit against the department, its police chief, and Mayor Greg Fischer, who he claims violated his right to religious expression in pursuit of the investigation. The city investigated Schrenger months after local Planned Parenthood Action and Black Lives Matter chapters called on Fischer to resign in response to concerns over police brutality. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Schrenger, a 13-year veteran of the department, prayed outside the EMW Women&#8217;s Surgical Center at roughly 6:00 a.m. on Feb. 20 while he wore a jacket over his police uniform. Pro-choice volunteers at the clinic noticed Schrenger leave in a police car and took photos of him. Schrenger, a father of four, was locked out of his computer and suspended later that day after the department found out he prayed outside the clinic, according to the lawsuit. He was reinstated on June 29.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The officer\u2019s attorney said there was never a legitimate reason to launch an investigation\u2014let alone one that lasted more than four months and only consisted of one interview with Schrenger. Matt Heffron of the Thomas More Society, the religious liberty firm representing Schrenger, said the suspension was a clear example of the city targeting an employee for political reasons.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;There is no room in our society for people in power to abuse those who simply disagree with them\u2014and that\u2019s what\u2019s happened here,&#8221; Heffron told the <em>Washington <\/em><\/span><i><span>Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span>. <\/span><span>&#8220;They don\u2019t like the fact that he was praying in front of an abortion clinic.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Neither Fischer\u2019s office nor the Louisville police department responded for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Schrenger prayed at the abortion clinic with his father as a participant in the &#8220;40 Days for Life&#8221; movement\u2014an international Catholic prayer effort to end abortion. Heffron noted that the city never took any action against police officers who participated in Black Lives Matter protests or gay pride marches, which he said shows the policy on political demonstrations for officers was nothing but an excuse to target Schrenger. The investigation, he said, was about sending a message.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;This is not a protest\u2014not by a longshot. This is prayer,&#8221; Heffron told the&nbsp;<em>Free Beacon<\/em>. <\/span><span>&#8220;We\u2019re asking law enforcement to follow the law. Ironic, isn\u2019t it?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest News Law suit: Authorities targeted Louisville cop for praying outside abortion clinic  Protesters and employees in front of an abortion clinic in Louisville, Ky. \/ &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870179","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}