By RAY WHITE
Spring, 1998 -- A pair of recent federal court rulings should send
shivers up anyone's spine who espouses pro-life family values and wants
to be able to communicate these values freely to others in the public square.
First, the federal racketeering law known as RICO was applied to anti-abortion
protest organizers in Chicago. "This is the biggest courtroom defeat
for the anti-abortion movement ever," said Fay Clayton, a lawyer for
the National Organization for Women (NOW) which filed a lawsuit in
1986. The ruling ordered pro-lifers to pay "only" about $258,000.00
in damages, due to being "conspirators" against the abortion mills
by exercising their formerly free right of expression. However, the class
action ruling opened the door for many more claims by clinics across the
country which could cost the movement millions.
RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was passed
by Congress in 1970 as a weapon against organized crime, but in recent years,
businesses have also become targets of the civil provisions in the law.
One of the defense lawyers in this case, Tom Brejcha, said RICO should not
have been used in the case, calling it "terribly flawed, vague and
over-broad." Defense lawyers said the verdict would be appealed and
Cardinal Francis George announced that the Chicago archdiocese would consider
joining the appeal as a friend of the court, calling the verdict "unjust."
The Cardinal further said "the decision in this case effectively equates
freedom of speech with racketeering."
Essentially, NOW argued that anti-abortion activists hatched an extortion
conspiracy that deprived women of their rights to receive abortions and
other medical services. They further tied the defendants to more than a
decade of bombings and arsons at clinics across the country. One of the
defendants, Joseph Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action
League, denied encouraging violence saying that he and his co-defendants
could not help the excesses of a few individuals. "We wanted to come
out as a legitimate force in America and not as racketeers," Scheidler
said. "There is no honor in being a racketeer and we're not racketeers."
However, the president of NOW, Patricia Ireland, said "a jury of six
men and women saw through the thugs' shameless attempt to pervert the First
Amendment." Of course, the RICO statue was never envisioned to be used
to chill free speech of legitimate protesters, or to economically harm those
who participate in legitimate means of protest, but this is where we have
come to in our age of political correctness and activist judiciaries.
As Joseph Scheidler said, "They want to bankrupt us-there's no question
about that." Leading
legal scholars, including the primary author of the RICO statute, Professor
Robert Blakey, have argued that the law was aimed at countering "mob"
rackets where economic gain is at issue. Can anyone tell me what economic
gain the pro-life movement has in protesting against abortion?
In another disturbing situation, a judge in DeKalb County, Alabama has not
only outlawed any religious expression in public schools but is also threatening
criminal prosecution. Federal district judge Ira DeMent last fall imposed
draconian restrictions on religious expression in public
schools. Basically the Judge banned any prayer at graduation ceremonies,
even if it was student initiated, threatening anyone who resisted with arrest.
Now Judge DeMent has further ordered five hundred teachers and staff from
DeKalb County schools to attend a mandatory three hour training session
under which they will be taught how to deal with his restrictions on religious
expression.
In an open letter from the DeKalb County school board's attorney, it was
stated that " a person who chooses not to abide by the Court's order
could soon hear the knock of federal marshals on his or her front door with
a free ride to a very unpleasant place." This "re-education"
session is essentially a brainwashing under federal court order with the
consequence of becoming a criminal if not obeyed! It is probably just a
matter of time until other judges will be implementing similar orders on
subjects like abortion and homosexuality. Maybe they could even establish
"re-education camps" or something like that! Remember, this is
not some future Orwellian fictional vision, this is the here and now; this
is reality today in DeKalb County.
A local ACLU attorney revealed the mindset of the education elitists when
he called Alabama teachers and government officials "civically illiterate
people" and then went on to do what all good academic types do - play
the race card - when he equated resistance to the DeMent decision as with
defense of segregation!
Christians are about to see how much they believe in their convictions as
great persecution is about to come upon them, with the full weight of the
federal government behind these outlandish decisions. Are we ready???
--Posted 1998