Last week, 22 senators issued a statement calling for an end to the weaponization of the legal system by Democrats, calling on “activist lawyers” and the courts to attack pro-life Americans. A particularly egregious case was that of Mark Houck, a Catholic pro-life activist arrested in 2022 and acquitted in 2023. Last month, he filed a $4.3 million lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Houck's arrest made national headlines when 20 heavily armed federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested him on September 23, 2022, at his home in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, in front of his wife and seven children Months earlier, he had agreed to surrender peacefully in response to federal charges.
Houck was outside the Blackwell abortion facility in Philadelphia on October 13, 2021, when he pulled a Planned Parenthood escort away from his 12-year-old son after repeated attempts to fend off aggressive verbal harassment from the man. the incident, captured by the cameraportrays Planned Parenthood volunteer Bruce Love walking down the street away from the facility's entrance to intimidate and harass Houck and his son.
The local police and the district attorney rejected Love's attempts to take Houck to court and a lawsuit filed against Houck were dismissed by a Philadelphia municipal court. But the Department of Justice picked up and charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics Act, threatening a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison. In January 2023, a the jury acquitted Houck in less than an hour.
Houck is a regular participant in the pro-life movement 40 days for life campaigns and has associate with the organization's new in-house legal team, Institute of Law and Justiceto file the claim.
The 40 days for life The organization had previously relied on outside counsel to defend the rights of participants. But from the dump of Roe v. Wadehas been “overwhelming” law firms seeking help as abortion advocates and law enforcement have targeted their supporters, according to Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days.
A victory for all pro-life Americans
Houck initially filed a notice of claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, naming six police officers who assisted in the home invasion. The claim accuse the DOJ of Biden of “malicious prosecution, retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress committed by federal employees and agents against Mr. Houck, Mrs. Houck and their children.” Filed in November 2023, the claim has passed the required six-month notice period and is an active lawsuit as of the end of last month.
Houck's lawsuit has the potential to send a strong message to law enforcement agencies across the country that the constitutional rights of pro-life advocates must be protected and abuses of power will have legal consequences.
Matt Britton, general counsel for 40 Days for Life, says most lower court cases are not appealed due to lack of resources, so they generally go unreported. “Based on those that are appealed, the reported cases indicate to me that trial courts are more willing than they have been in the past to side with ideology over law,” he said. .
Because Houck's new case bypassed the lower courts, going straight to the federal level, it garnered extensive national media coverage. Against the odds of the feds' 95 percent conviction rate and a jury trial in Philadelphia, Houck and his legal team were confident of a victory. Houck rejected a plea deal while awaiting trial, a deal that would have voided his ability to sue and put “all pro-life Americans … at risk,” Carney said. “He has a very strong [suit].”
Escalated aggression
The escalation of aggression toward peaceful protesters has marked a turning point in pro-life activists' relationship with federal law enforcement since the repeal of Roe v. Wade, Carney said. Before the Dobbs v. Jackson 2022 ruling, a “strong working relationship with local and federal law enforcement” combined with 40 Days' “great peaceful reputation” resulted in equitable and fair protection for pro-lifers working with the organization
“One of the first actions our local leaders are trained to take when they decide to lead a campaign in their city is to meet with local police to brief them on keeping our volunteers safe,” Carney said. “We have worked well with the great men and women of the DOJ going back to Bush, Obama, Trump and even the first year of Biden. After the overthrow of Roe v. Wade we saw a new target on the back and apparent bigotry toward pro-life Americans from the DOJ.”
Houck's arrest represented an unprecedented level of aggression against 40 Days participants, Carney said.
“I have not found a single current or former DOJ employee who has ever heard of someone's home being raided after they offered to turn themselves in,” Carney said. “It's absurd and if it can happen to him, it can happen to any American.”
“There seems to be a movement for lawyers and litigants to do and say almost anything to advance a case, cause or agenda,” Britton added. “In my view, federal, state and local governments and courts have taken a decidedly pro-abortion approach in the cases they bring and prosecute.”
So far, the Institute of Law and Justice has won all the cases it has initiated. He currently manages about 35 active cases in defense of freedom of expression and other legal rights of volunteers.
“Many of those who support abortion and disagree with us support our legal efforts to support free speech,” Carney said. “At the end of the day, Americans don't want to see citizens arrested or assaulted for sharing their opinion in the public square. We all believe that we have a right to be right and a right to be wrong about anything.”
Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and a blogger for Ascension Press. His work has appeared in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and many other publications. She previously worked as a research associate at The Lexington Institute and as an editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the US military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member of a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four amazing children with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.
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