(LifeSite League) — On Tuesday, August 8 in Washington DC at the United States Court House on 333 Constitution Avenue, five out of nine pro-life rescuers and their attorneys had their final pre-trial hearing before Judge Kollar-Kotelly.
Lauren Handy, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, H. Geraghty, and Will Goodman were in the courtroom today.
Earlier in the case, the judge divided the “Garland 9” (nicknamed after Attorney General Merrick Garland) into two different groups of defendants who would have two separate trials.
This first group’s trial begins Wednesday, August 9th.
The second group’s trial, with rescuers Joan Bell, Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall, and Jonathan Darnel begins in September.
RELATED: Trial to start Wednesday for pro-life activists facing 11 years in jail for trying to save babies
In the Tuesday hearing, Kollar-Kotelly essentially handed the whole trial to the US prosecutor’s office on a silver platter.
She affirmed her judgement against virtually all of the pro-lifers’ most important motions:
No — to a motion for a necessity defense. (Hence, no expert witnesses on the matter.)
No — to a motion for a defense of person or persons. (Hence, no expert witnesses or evidence on the humanity of the preborn).
No — to considerations of vindictive or prejudicial federal prosecution.
No — for any 1st Amendment considerations or defenses.
No — to admitting any witnesses to testify to the defendants’ good examples or good behavior.
No — to any mention of abortion by defense counsel to the anonymous witness who claims to have been a patient at the abortion mill, nor any questions about her “reproductive health care” choices.
No — to jury nullification (which allows the jury to find the defendants “not guilty” even if the evidence shows they broke a law).
At one point in the hearing, prosecutor John Crabb complained to the judge that Will Goodman was wearing a shirt that was “offensive.”
Kollar-Kotelly asked Goodman to stand and show her the shirt.
Goodman stood up and showed his bright blue pro-life shirt to the court. It had three large rectangular boxes — two with photos of successively larger babies in the womb, and one that was black. Under the two beautiful photos were the words: “Growing… Growing…” And under the empty black box it said, ” Gone.”
Then in huge white letters over the top of the three boxes was the word ABORTION
The judge said that this shirt, or any like it, would be considered “advertising” and would not be allowed to be worn at trial.
Such is emblematic of the federal court’s insistence to flush any evidence of the unborn babies’ lives right out of the courtroom.
“This case should be about a constitutional defense of equal protection, due process rights, and legal personhood for an entire class of persons suffering deadly oppression,” said Goodman, “but the judge wants this to be merely a sanitized, vacuous trial about the DOJ’s vague interpretation of ‘obstruction’ and ‘interference’ with the ‘rights’ of big people to kill small people.”
This trial is the result of a peaceful rescue effort on October 22, 2020, at the notorious late-term abortion mill run by the butcher Caesar Santangelo.
Speaking to the pregnant mothers and abortion staff, and participating in a non-violent direct-action sit-in, the rescuers engaged in their demonstration for over an hour inside the killing facility.
The DC police responded to the scene of mass murder, but essentially sat around waiting for the FBI to show up and monitor the rescuers before initiating their unjust arrests.
More than a year later, there was a federal indictment by the Attorney General Garland’s office in the District of Columbia which led to an unprecedented 7 state dragnet and a series of FBI raids of these peaceful protestors, a number of whom are grandparents.
And all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in this ridiculous effort comes at taxpayers’ expense.
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is prosecuting this case.
They must certainly be very pleased with this federal judge and her Tuesday rulings against the defendants’ motions.
In previous writings outside of this case, Kollar-Kotelly has indicated that subsequent to the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the “constitutional right to abortion” might still be found in other amendments. She suggested, “like in the 13th amendment.” What?! This was the amendment to abolish slavery!
It would seem she thinks that basic human biology and natural human reproduction is “slavery” for women, and therefore they have a “right” to murder their babies if they wish.
In the upside-down world of the culture of death, the present “Civil Rights Division” would almost certainly find such murderous logic very satisfying.
On the DOJ website, this division is described as thus:
“The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, created in 1957 by the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Rescuer Lauren Handy commented, “Sadly, this arm of the government under the current administration is being used as a weapon against the ‘most vulnerable members of our society’ — the pre-born babies. Furthermore, this particular division has been working tirelessly to undermine and deny all constitutional rights of these most defenseless human persons.”
It’s clear that the federal judge is working in seamless lockstep with the DOJ.
The obnoxious indictment includes felony FACE (freedom of access to clinic entrances) charges, and an entirely new invoked felony statute “conspiracy to obstruct rights” which alone carries the potential of a 10 year federal prison sentence!
“This unprecedented attack on rescuers by the federal government, including terrorizing raids and potentially draconian prison sentences, has not been seen in this country since the enforcement of the immoral Fugitive Slave Act,” stated veteran rescuer John Hinshaw.
Hinshaw added, “Peaceful pro-lifers committed to non-violent direct action in the American tradition of civil disobedience are being treated like ‘enemies of the state’ and are refused any legal opportunities to advocate for the constitutional civil rights of the pre-born humans in the womb.”
Lauren Handy said, “We are not surprised that we rescuers are being treated unjustly by the DOJ and federal courts when our brothers and sisters in the womb continue to be totally denied all justice and dignity. They are being assigned a gruesome death penalty by the powers of a collaborating federal government. The blood is on their hands.”
While each defendant has their own attorney, Mr. Martin Canon with the Thomas More Law Society, who is representing Handy, is lead counsel for the entire group.
Wednesday’s trial begins at 9 AM.
Please pray that there might be justice for the babies who are being killed by the thousands every day in our nation.
RELATED: Top Biden DOJ official says overturning Roe made it more ‘urgent’ to target pro-lifers