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:

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.”

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