CV NEWS FEED // Lawyers representing Lauren Handy filed an emergency motion to appeal a lower court’s denial of her request to be released from jail prior to sentencing. Handy is a pro-life activist who was convicted, along with four other defendants, of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act in late August.

Mary Margaret Olohan of the Daily Signal reported:

Attorneys with the Thomas More Society filed their motion to appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday asking to reverse a lower court ruling that denied Handy’s immediate release from jail.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly had ordered that Handy and four other pro-life activists be immediately detained on Aug. 29, the Thomas More Society said in a release, after a Washington, D.C., jury has convicted the five pro-life activists of violating the [FACE] Act when they sought to prevent the abortions of unborn babies by blocking women from accessing a D.C. abortion clinic in 2020.

>> ‘SHAM AND BIASED’ TRIAL RESULTS IN CONVICTION OF FIVE PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES <<

In the appeal, Handy’s attorneys make the case that, based on court precedent, their client should not be jailed pending sentencing:

The Supreme Court has recently taught that, for a violation to be a “crime of violence,” it must categorically and always require the Government to prove that a defendant used or threatened violent physical force against another’s person or property. While a misdemeanor FACE Act violation on the basis of force may require a significant application of force—sufficient to injure—the Act does not require that one’s “force” be directed or targeted at another, nor that it be exercised with intent to harm another.

Olohan added that The FACE Act 

protects both abortion clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers, but the Justice Department has disproportionately used it to charge pro-life activists with FACE violations since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade.

And the Justice Department has said that it is targeting pro-life activists through the FACE Act as a response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.

The DOJ charged at least 26 pro-life individuals in 2022 with violations of the FACE Act. No far-left attackers were charged with the FACE Act in 2022, and the DOJ has charged only four people with FACE Act violations in 2023 for attacking Florida pro-life pregnancy centers.

Read CatholicVote’s previous report on Handy’s legal battle here.

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