I 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6023 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain forms of 
interference with military recruiting. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 12, 2008 
Mr. AKIN (for himself, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. BROWN of South 
Carolina, Mr. PITTS, Mr. WAMP, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mrs. MYRICK, Mrs. 
BACHMANN, Mr. DAVID DAVIS of Tennessee, Mr. FEENEY, Mr. GINGREY, 
Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. BARRETT of South 
Carolina, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. KLINE 
of Minnesota, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. POE, Mr. CONAWAY, 
Mr. CHABOT, Mr. COBLE, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. HELLER of 
Nevada, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, and Mr. BISHOP of Utah) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain 
forms of interference with military recruiting. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom to Serve Act 
of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) According to article I, section 8 of the 
United States Constitution, Congress has the power 
to raise and support armies and to provide and 
maintain a navy; and to make all laws necessary and 
proper to carry out these powers. 
(2) The First Amendment states: ‘‘Congress 
shall make no law respecting an establishment of re-
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or 
the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of griev-
ances.’’. 
(3) According to the United States Supreme 
Court, the right to peaceable assembly is a right 
similar to those of free speech and free press and is 
equally essential. (De Jonge v. Oregon). 
(4) The key word being ‘‘peaceably’’, the First 
Amendment protects peaceful, not violent, assembly 
and protest. 
(5) The successful recruiting of men and 
women to serve in the armed services of the United 
States is fundamental to the security of the Amer-
ican people. 
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(6) Serving in the military is highly honorable, 
and often requires great sacrifice and courage by the 
men and women of our armed services. 
(7) United States military recruiters have been 
subject to an escalating number of acts of vandalism 
and violent protest, including but not limited to: 
(A) March 2003: Anti-war protestors in 
Ithaca, NY, target a recruitment center that 
had been hit before with Molotov cocktails. On 
St. Patrick’s Day, wielding cups of their own 
blood, they entered a Lansing military recruit-
ment office and splashed their blood over re-
cruiter posters, military cutouts and the Amer-
ican flag. 
(B) January 20, 2005: At Seattle Central 
Community College, Army recruiter Sgt. Jeff 
Due and his colleague Sgt. 1st Class Douglas 
Washington were hounded by an angry mob of 
approximately 500 anti-war students. The re-
cruiters’ table was destroyed; their handouts, 
torn apart. Protesters threw water bottles and 
newspapers at the soldiers. A far-left anti-war 
group had been agitating to kick the recruiters 
off campus. The college administration refused 
to punish the radicals. 
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(C) January 31, 2005: Recruiters in Man-
hattan reported that a door to their office had 
been beaten in. Various anti-war symbols were 
scrawled in red paint on the building. On the 
same day, New York police arrested a young 
Manhattan College junior and charged him with 
throwing a burning rag into an Army recruiting 
station and ruining the door locks with super 
glue. 
(D) February 1, 2005: At a South Toledo, 
Ohio, recruitment center, protesters hurled ma-
nure all over the building. They broke windows 
and sprayed vulgar graffiti on office property. 
(E) March 2005: In East Orange, NJ, 
young anti-military protesters shattered the 
windows of an Army recruitment station and a 
neighboring Navy office. 
(F) March/April 2005: Anti-war protestors 
at New York’s Bronx Community College shut 
down several military recruitment sessions. At 
UC Santa Cruz, protestors drove recruiters off 
campus after an hour-long demonstration of 
shouting and window banging. 
(G) 
May 
2005: 
Student 
protestors 
swarmed the booths of the U.S. Army Corps of 
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Engineers and the USAF at a San Francisco 
State University career fair. In Wisconsin, an 
Air Force ROTC information day was canceled 
due to threats by an anti-war group at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Madison. 
(H) April 2006: UC Santa Cruz students 
ambushed military recruiters. Vandals at the 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
tossed cans of red paint in front of an ROTC 
office and spray-painted vulgarities all over its 
doors. University of Minnesota students splat-
tered red paint all over an Army recruiting sta-
tion. 
(I) December 2006: Protesters in Law-
rence, Kansas crippled business at an Army/ 
Navy recruitment center, where workers’ car 
tires were slashed and bomb-proof glass had to 
be installed. 
(J) January 2007: Pittsburgh protestors 
shut down a recruitment station for a day, 
wielding signs calling recruiters ‘‘child preda-
tors’’. 
(K) March 2007: Vandals broke into a Mil-
waukee recruitment station wielding crowbars. 
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