Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Mon, 17 Aug 1992 08:40:00 EDT
From:         "Carl A. Lahetta" <U952020@RUTADMIN.BITNET>
Subject:      RE: ACLJ Activities

Politicos,
    This post is about people being denied their freedom of religion and
their freedom of speech.  If you thought it couldn't or doesn't happen,
then you are wrong.  And if you don't like this post I am forwarding, then
too bad.  It is about politics.

Carl--------+

-------------------------TEXT-OF-FORWARDED-MAIL--------------------------------

Date:         Sat, 15 Aug 1992 00:03:44 EDT
From:         MKLINE%VDH.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      ACLJ Activities

Subject: ACLJ Activities

    700 Club, 8/13/92 show.

    There was an article on the Randall Terry and the Shank trials.

    Pat: Well 2 of the court cases are also showing the attitude of many
of America's judges towards Christianity and the Pro-Life movement. CBN
news reporter Andria Francis brings us these stories.

    "Buffalo Pro-Life leaders Paul and Rob Shank go before a judge today
to find out if they will spend the next 30 days in jail. The brothers
were arrested last week, one for praying quietly during a trial recess,
the other for reading from a Bible before court was called to order.
Their attorney, retired judge William Owstrowski calls the arrest a
violation of the men's constitutional rights, since the judge has
prohibited religious oriented speech in the court house, while no general
ban on talking during court recess had been issued.
    And in another case, Operation Rescue leader, Randall Terry was in
Federal court Wednesday. He was charged with criminal contempt for
allegedly encouraging Harley David Balou to show an aborted fetus to
Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton during last month's Democratic
National Convention. Terry had entered a plea of "Not Guilty."
    Earlier this month, the United States Attorney in Manhattan refused
to prosecute Terry. He said his decision is based on the Justice
Department position that the Federal court does not have jurisdiction in
the case. The judge issued an injunction to stop Terry and Operation
Rescue under an 1871 law known as the Klue Klux Klan Act. (I know,
probably spelled wrong. Oh well.) That law was intended to protect blacks
from intimidation from the KKK. The judge applied the provisions of that
law to Operation Rescue, the idea to protect women who were seeking
abortions from intimidation by Operation Rescue.
    Since the US Attorney has refused to prosecute the case, the judge
has asked the State Attorney General's office to step in prosecute. He as
agreed to take the case. The trial is set for October 14th, and
Presidential Candidate, Bill Clinton, will be called to testify as a
witness.
    Andria Francis, CBN News."

    Pat: Jay Sekulow, of the America Center for Law and Justice is
defending Randall Terry in court and he is here with us now. Again, are
we talking about KKK? I mean, that's the whole Bray case, isn't it?

    Jay: The court took jurisdiction over this political speech case, and
that's what it was, when that unborn child was allegedly shown at
Clinton's political speech, protected by the constitution, that's our
position. Because of the KKK act, the courts have said, the New York
Court said that we can take jurisdiction over Pro-Life Christians who are
protesting abortion, just like when blacks were being harassed in the
1870s, the late 1860s after they were freed as slaves, they say it's the
same thing.
    The State Attorney General of New York is the one who brought the
suit here, against Randall Terry and the other Operation Rescue
defendants.

    Pat: Well now, am I under the impression that the United States
Justice Department would not prosecute?

    Jay: That's correct. Judge Word decided, on his own, that this is
going to be a criminal contempt case against Randall Terry. That means he
goes to a New York jail for up to 6 months, if he's convicted. He asked
the US Attorney's Office, which is the appropriate vehicle, to prosecute
a contempt case. The good news is, and we felt like this would happen,
the Department of Justice, which has backed us up at the Supreme Court in
Bray, backed up in Witchata last year, again backed us up and refused to
prosecute Randall Terry for criminal contempt.
    However, the judge then appointed, unconstitutionally in our
position, the State Attorney General to be the prosecutor.

    Pat: Why is that unconstitutional?

    Jay: Because the law says this, Pat. The Supreme Court said in 1987
that you have to have a disinterested prosecutor. It's a justice issue.
Madness. Here you have a judge that brings a criminal contempt charge and
he assigns a lawyer in the State of New York who's the plaintiff in the
main case to go after Randall Terry. So you've got judge and jury, it's
the same thing.

    Pat: Does the judge know that he's going to have egg all over his
face? He'll get reversed? He'll look like a jackass? (Did Pat really say
that? Yep.)

    Jay: The positions that they've taken, consistently, is that when it
comes to abortion, the rules change. The laws change. I call it "The
Abortion Distortion Factor." But, the laws change. and they take the Bill
of Rights and they try to throw it out, they try to throw them out on all
grounds.
    What we're doing, Pat, in all these cases across the country is we're
establishing the record at the trial court. Are we expecting justice at
the trial court? Quite frankly, no. Sometimes we get it. We're surprised
when we get it at the trial court, but we're establishing a record.
Because what we have to do in this case, and all the other cases we're
involved in just like these... Every step of the way, we have to defend
our client, and defend the position and make the state or the government
or who ever prosecuting the Pro-Life person involved in the case to jump
over ever single hurdle, and we're making their life "not pleasant".
    The court asked us to stipulate facts. We said, "Absolutely not." The
court said, "Well, would you agree to do this?" We're agreeing to
NOTHING. They are trying to put Randall Terry and others in jail for
speaking out against abortion.  This was not a case involving the
blocking of a clinic even, just a speech.

    Pat: A speech.

    Jay: A speech case. Now the low Pro-Abortion that are out there, NOW,
PP, have used 3 primary weapons, the KKK Act, that's one big one. The
Anti-Trust Laws, and the Rico Laws. Those are the big 3.

    Pat: That's ridicules. The one's about criminal racketeering
influence in corrupt organizations.

    Jay: Well the good news is this. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, we
had a case that went up on appeal, where they applied Rico and
Anti-Trust. And US Law Week, which is the National Legal Publication,
covers what they call significant cases. The 3rd Circuit, which is in PA,
ruled against Operation Rescue, a case we were not involved in, and they
said you could apply Rico and the Anti-Trust Laws.
    We defended a case in Chicago and it went up to 7th Circuit. Let me
read you the headline: "ABORTION CLINIC PROTEST ACTIVITIES NOT ACTIONABLE
UNDER SHERMAN ACT. Abortion rights groups were recently divested of 2
weapons used to fight Anti-Abortion Activists. The US Court of Appeals
for the 7th Circuit ruled unanimously that alleged illegal activities
designed to shut down abortion clinics are not actionable under either
the Sherman Act or the civil liability provisions of the Rico Act."

    Pat: Tremendous progress....

    Jay: The next step on that case is it went to the 7th Circuit for
full review. They backed us up again. Next step is the US Supreme Court.
So we are going to take it to the Supreme Court.

    Pat: They're going to appeal?

    Jay: They will appeal to the Supreme Court. We're going to fight it
every step of the way.

    Pat: What is wrong with these people? What is this INCREDIBLE
Pro-Death thrust that's coming into our society?

    Jay: We have reached a new hostility level in religious liberties.
And the message needs to go out. The tyrant of judicial tyranny that
we're starting to see in state courts and federal courts has reached an
unprecedented level when you have people who are praying silently in a
courtroom arrested and put in jail, as with the piece Andria Francis had.
Those kinds of things are happening all over the country.
    We have right now, Pat, cases involving protests on abortion, I'm not
talking about clinic blockades. We've got cases in Chicago, Atlanta,
Virginia, California, and Texas, all over the country, and we're
basically hitting every corner of the country.
    It is a massive attack on free speech, and the idea is, to use all of
these laws, Rico, Anti-Trust, KKK to shut the valve of free speech and to
create in the minds of the public that Christian citizens are not
entitled to freedom of speech rights, and to treat us basically, as
second class citizens. But we're winning.

    Pat: And you're going win, and it's going to win big. Well, when that
happens it's going to establish a new level of rights for Christians,
isn't it?

    Jay: It will. And the next big test that's coming up is we've got the
major motions in the case in New York, but here's what's interesting.
We've got on Sept 24th, we're arguing the case in New York on the motions
whether they can even appoint this special prosecutor to attack Randall
Terry. Then next week, we argue Bray (What was that one?) in the Supreme
Court. The next week after that we go back to New York to have the trial
on the merits on Randy Terry's case. So it's a Sept/Oct turning up...

    Pat: Is Bill Clinton going to have to go?

    Jay: Bill Clinton, service of process will be issued, probably today,
and Bill Clinton will have to testify since it is a criminal case, and we
will have the pleasure, privilege, and opportunity to cross examine
Governor Clinton.

    Pat: Wow! All Right! If I were he, I wouldn't relish that
opportunity.

    Jay: I'm sure they're going to fight it every step of the way, but
the law is, if it's a criminal case, he's got to testify.

    Pat: Ladies and gentlemen, I just want everybody to understand how
important the American Center for Law and Justice is. We're talking about
the rights of Christians. We're talking about the rights of speech. This
is a major assault on the freedom of religion in America, the freedom to
speak out what somebody believes about what seems to be a gross violation
of God's law. We're talking about the defense of people who've been
murdered, and why those on the left can't see the parallel between this
and those in the Christian movement who stood for the abolition of
slavery, I don't know, but it's the same basic issue.
    The slaves, black people, were said they weren't humans under the
protection under the protection of the constitution. The courts have said
unborn children are not humans or persons under the protection of the
constitution. It's the same issue.
    And we've got to fight, for the unborn, and fight also for the right
to express this. This is a major, major constitutional struggle in
America.

    Jay: The most important free speech cases in the United States is
Bray, and the Georgia Supreme Court case in September. Probably, not
probably, we have THE 2 most significant cases in the country.

    Pat: Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to pray for Jay and his team as
they're going into court.

Maks.
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