ACLJ Files Opening Brief Defending Husband-Wife Pro-Life Advocates’ Free Speech

On Monday, we filed our opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in the case of Zachary and Lindsay Knotts. This marks a major new stage in our fight to protect pro-life advocates whose voices are being shut down on public sidewalks.

ACLJ members will remember the facts from our earlier coverage. Zack and Lindsay Knotts were peacefully sharing their pro-life message outside an abortion clinic in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. They used a small battery-powered megaphone so they could be heard. Clinic escorts responded by blasting whistles and kazoos to drown them out and even threatened violence.

Shockingly, the police showed up because of one complaint about the pro-life message, yet they ignored the escorts’ louder noise and harassment and cited only Zack – after his megaphone had already died. A supervising sergeant then warned that Zack could be arrested again for causing “annoyance,” with or without any amplification. The city dragged the case out for months before dropping it on the day of trial.

That kind of one-sided enforcement is wrong. It punishes people for speaking up for unborn life while letting the other side’s disruptive tactics go unchecked. Sign our petition: Stop Criminalizing Saving Unborn Babies.

The ACLJ Steps In

After we got the criminal charges dropped, the Knotts refused to be silenced. Working with us, they filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The complaint challenged the city’s noise ordinance as unconstitutional on its face and argued that it had been enforced against them in a viewpoint-discriminatory manner – punishing their pro-life speech while ignoring louder, disruptive conduct by those on the other side. The district court dismissed all their federal claims at an early stage, before the case could move forward. That ruling is what brings us to the Sixth Circuit today.

Taking the Fight to Sixth Circuit

The district court threw out the Knotts’ case too early and too harshly. Today we’re asking the Sixth Circuit to reverse that decision and let their claims move forward.

Our brief explains that the city’s noise ordinance is unconstitutional on its face. It doesn’t apply even-handed rules. Instead, it carves out big exemptions for favored institutional speakers – educational, charitable, governmental, or religious organizations – while ordinary citizens like the Knotts on a public sidewalk receive no protection. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the government can’t favor some speakers over others this way.

Even more troubling is how the ordinance was actually enforced. The escorts used instruments covered by the same law to deliberately silence the Knotts’ message, yet only the pro-life side was cited and threatened with future arrest. This wasn’t neutral policing. It was viewpoint discrimination – punishing speech the government disliked while tolerating louder opposing noise.

The district court should have allowed this case to proceed so the full facts could come out. Instead, it dismissed the claims at the very beginning. We’re now asking the appeals court to correct that mistake and give the Knotts a real opportunity to vindicate their rights.

Part of a Larger Pattern

This case is part of a troubling pattern we’re seeing nationwide. Pro-life voices – whether sidewalk advocates or Pregnancy Resource Centers – are facing increasing efforts to silence them. The ACLJ is currently fighting in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Your Options Medical Centers (YOM), a Christian pregnancy center in Massachusetts that has helped women for over 25 years. State officials there launched a public campaign to discredit and pressure such centers simply because they offer life-affirming alternatives instead of abortion.

At the same time, our attorneys represent Brandon Hamman in the Seventh Circuit after a city took down his pro-life advocacy signs outside an abortion facility. Officials literally removed the signs he was using to offer hope and share his message about the sanctity of life. These cases – among others – show a consistent effort by some local governments to limit or eliminate pro-life speech in public spaces – whether through noise ordinances, sign removals, or pressure on pregnancy centers. We’re pushing back in courts across the country to protect the right to speak for the unborn.

We just passed the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, and it’s clearer than ever why pro-life advocates like the Knotts, Brandon Hamman, and the teams at centers such as YOM are so essential. The legal victory against Roe was historic, but the battle to protect life is far from over. Now the work of winning hearts and minds has become more urgent than ever. Tragically, abortions have actually risen in many states since Dobbs. That’s why we cannot allow pro-life voices to be silenced on sidewalks or anywhere else – these advocates are on the front lines offering women real hope and helping change the culture one conversation at a time.

We Will Keep Fighting

The goal in each and every one of these cases is the same: Make it harder for people to hear the message that every life is sacred and that women deserve real support. That’s why we are proud to stand with Zack and Lindsay Knotts as we take this fight to the Sixth Circuit. Pro-life advocates have a constitutional right to speak on public sidewalks without facing selective enforcement designed to shut them up.

Please stand with us as we defend those who defend the unborn. Sign our petition: Stop Criminalizing Saving Unborn Babies.