We are urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly supporters) before the end of October to help save babies from abortion 365 days a year. Your first gift as a Life Defender today will be DOUBLED. Click here to make your monthly commitment.
Smithsonian forced to apologize to pro-life students after lawsuit
Two months after a group of pro-life students was discriminated against at a Smithsonian museum, a lawsuit was successful in garnering the students not only an apology, but also assurances that this kind of discrimination would not happen again.
After the March for Life, a group of students from South Carolina visited the federally-funded Smithsonian Air and Space Museum but were kicked out for wearing pro-life beanies. Shortly afterwards, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) announced it had filed a lawsuit on the students’ behalf.
“The victims were students,” the ACLJ said in a statement. “They wore matching hats from their Catholic school so their chaperones could keep track of them, which is a very common practice in museums like this. It’s for the safety and organization of the group. It wasn’t a demonstration.”
The ACLJ has now revealed that lawyers have come to an agreement. The Smithsonian apologized, and agreed to enter into a consent order and preliminary injunction, in which the museum will no longer harass pro-life patrons or discriminate against pro-life speech. According to the consent order:
Dear Reader,
Every day in America, more than 2,800 preborn babies lose their lives to abortion.
That number should break our hearts and move us to action.
Ending this tragedy requires daily commitment from people like you who refuse to stay silent.
Millions read Live Action News each month — imagine the impact if each of us took a stand for life 365 days a year.
Right now, we’re urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly donors) to join us before the end of October. And thanks to a generous $250,000 matching grant, your first monthly gift will be DOUBLED to help save lives and build a culture that protects the preborn.
Will you become one of the 500 today? Click here now to become a Live Action Life Defender and have your first gift doubled.
Together, we can end abortion and create a future where every child is cherished and every mother is supported.
Smithsonian shall further reiterate to all security officers stationed at all Smithsonian museums open to the public and the National Zoological Park, that Smithsonian policy does not prohibit visitors from wearing hats or other types of clothing with messages, including religious and political speech.
Yet the ACLJ said the battle has not ended.
“[W]e will enter a period of mediation with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to see if we can get to the bottom of why our clients were targeted,” Jordan Sekulow, the executive director for the ACLJ, said in the press release. “This is just one of many coordinated efforts to harass and abuse pro-lifers in federally funded institutions. That directive came from someone, and whoever it was must be held accountable, and we’re going to do the work necessary to hold them accountable.”
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Newsbreak
