Pro-lifers back in court after arrests for ‘Black Preborn Lives Matter’ sidewalk message 

Pro-life groups are back in court in a years-long legal battle after their members were arrested for writing “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, D.C.

Alliance Defending Freedom on July 13 filed an opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on behalf of pro-life protesters who argue D.C. police in August 2020 selectively enforced public defacement ordinances against them while letting Black Lives Matter protesters run rampant. 

“Officers prevented Plaintiffs – two pro-life groups and their leaders – from writing ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ in washable chalk on a public sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood and arrested the two chalkers for defacement of public property,” the opening brief provided to Heartlander News reads. “Meanwhile, protesters spray-painted streets and sidewalks all over the city that summer and fall with Black Lives Matter messages. Yet none of the city’s arrest reports shows even a single arrest of a protester for BLM defacement.”

The case has been making its way through the courts for years – first dismissed by a district court, reinstated by the D.C. Circuit in 2023, and sent back to district court, which again ruled for the city. Now, the pro-lifers are asking the D.C. Circuit to let a jury hear the case.

The specifics of the case – a single word’s difference between competing sidewalk messages – are unique, but ADF legal counsel Gabriella McIntyre told Heartlander News that it reflects a wider pattern of discrimination against pro-life voices. 

“We have seen time and again that pro-life voices across the country have been attempted to be censored or silenced. Whether that is from attorneys general, that is from police officers who are enforcing the law in a viewpoint discriminatory manner,” she said. “But this is one particular instance in which we’re comparing our clients who wanted to chalk in washable sidewalk chalk outside Planned Parenthood ‘Black Preborn Lives Matter’ versus the thousands of individuals who were painting Black Lives Matter messages without a single arrest for defacement in 2020.”

The First Amendment claims in the case extend beyond the pro-life movement: “Everyone should be entitled to be able to speak freely without fear of government censorship or harassment,” McIntyre said.

Her words echo those of the D.C. Circuit court in 2023, which noted that the government “may not play favorites in a public forum.”

“The District permitted individuals expressing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message to violate the defacement ordinance, as evidenced by the widespread painting, graffiti, and other defacement on public sidewalks, streets, and buildings, and on private property. By making no arrests, the police effectively exempted advocates of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message from the requirements of the ordinance,” the panel wrote, adding that the police “showed up in force” against the pro-life protesters.

“The District may open up its streets for painting messages to all viewpoints; and the District may later decide to enforce its defacement ordinance against all viewpoints,” the judges continued. “What the District cannot do consistent with the First Amendment is open its streets for the painting of some messages and not others.”

Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins said the group will go back to court “as many times as it takes to protect the rights of Americans who care about babies in the womb.”

“Pro-abortion leaders in the nation’s capital must not be allowed to violate the U.S. Constitution by criminalizing pro-life speech they don’t like,” she said. “It’s striking that one of the few ways for protesters to get the attention of D.C. officials is not by violence or vandalism, but by voicing love and concern for the preborn with chalk.”

Frederick Douglass Foundation Chairman Troy Rolling agreed, arguing the government “has no business deciding which political viewpoints get a free pass and which get handcuffs.”

“If the First Amendment means anything,” he said, “it means government cannot silence Americans because it disagrees with what they have to say.”

Heartlander News reached out to the D.C. Attorney General’s office for comment on the case.