Abortion foes to get National Archives tour, apology after filing suit over clothing ban

The incidents that sparked the lawsuits occurred Jan. 20, when the plaintiffs were visiting the capital city for the annual March for Life, which opposes abortion. The march was the first to be held since the Supreme Court‘s June decision that overturned its nearly 50-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade, which had established a federal right to abortion.

Both the National Archives, which is a federal entity, and the Smithsonian Institution, the federally funded organization that operates the Air and Space Museum, last week said their security staffs were wrong to make access to the buildings conditional on visitors hiding clothes with anti-abortion phrases.

The First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits governments and their agencies from restricting free speech.

The proposed order filed Tuesday in the National Archives suit says that one of the plaintiffs, Wendilee Walpole Lassiter, plans to return to the National Archives Museum on Friday wearing clothing and other attire bearing “pro-life messaging.” The Virginia resident is a student at Liberty University School of Law, a religious school.

The other plaintiff covered by the order, a 17-year-old Michigan Catholic high school student identified in court records as L.R., plans to return there with such messaging next January for the March for Life.

Each woman is “fearful” that she “will be targeted and will not be permitted to exercise her First Amendment right to freedom of speech,” the order says.

Under the agreement, Lassiter and L.R. each will get a “personal tour of the National Archives Museum” during their respective visits, and National Archives staff will extend “a personal apology” to them during those tours.

“The National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) represents that its
policy expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, etc., that display protest language,
including religious and political speech,” the order says.

“NARA regrets the events of January 20, 2023, and will remind all NARA’s security officers at NARA’s facilities across the country of the rights of visitors and of the policy,” the order says.

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Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/15/abortion-foes-to-get-national-archives-tour-in-lawsuit-order.html