A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. ruled on Tuesday that the city violated the U.S. Constitution in the summer of 2020 when police arrested two anti-abortion activists for chalking pro-life messages on the sidewalk in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic, while racial justice protesters who wrote “Black Lives Matter” on public spaces elsewhere faced no such consequences.
In the unanimous decision, the three judges — Trump appointee Neomi Rao, Obama appointee Robert Wilkins, and Biden appointee Michelle Childs — reversed a decision by a lower court to dismiss a lawsuit that was brought by pro-life protesters in late 2020. The judges instead found that while D.C.’s law prohibiting the defacement of public or private property is constitutional, it was unconstitutionally enforced against the pro-life protesters when they were arrested in August 2020 for chalking “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” outside the clinic in NoMa.
“The District permitted individuals expressing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message to violate the defacement ordinance, as evidenced by the widespread painting, graffiti, and other defacement on public sidewalks, streets, and buildings, and on private property. By making no arrests, the police effectively exempted advocates of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message from the requirements of the ordinance,” wrote Rao for the majority, citing the racial justice protests that exploded across D.C. in the wake of the police...
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