How Unelected Bureaucrats Target Pro-Life Speech
For twenty-five years, the ACLJ has been fighting to protect the life and liberties of the American people, including the unborn. From standing up to Planned Parenthood to protecting pro-life counselors’ free speech rights, we have fought to preserve life on all fronts.
One of our most recent battles involves the City of New York. As you may recall, we represented The Evergreen Association and Life Center of New York. These two organizations operate pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in New York City and serve countless women and unborn children in the city. The problem: they became the target of a New York City ordinance subjecting them to burdensome and unfair requirements. We filed a federal lawsuit.
In March 2011, the City enacted a pro-abortion law that restricts the speech of pro-life pregnancy centers, forcing them to comply with onerous disclosure requirements. The law specifically provides the Commissioner—an unelected city official appointed by a pro-abortion mayor—with the power to create the rules regarding the required disclosures. In addition to what the law actually says, the Commissioner has the authority to write the rules and decide how to apply the law. And what did the Commissioner do? He used his power to push the pro-abortion agenda by targeting pro-life crisis pregnancy centers with the oppressive requirements.
In our brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, not only did we challenge the validity of the law, but we also fought for much-needed parameters on the Commissioner’s decision-making authority. We argued the law gives the Commissioner unbridled discretion and allows for arbitrary enforcement of the law. After a lengthy legal battle, we succeeded in convincing the court to strike down two of three of the provisions of the law that we challenged as unconstitutional. An important victory for life.
The unchecked power of unelected bureaucrats is a major problem in our nation today. Unelected officials have too much power. They should not be able to side-step the Constitution and impose their political agenda.
We, along with every high school civics student, understand that our government is composed of three branches—the legislative, executive, and judicial. However, in reality, our government actually functions with an even more powerful fourth branch: bureaucracy. Today—more than ever—unelected bureaucrats have taken it upon themselves to make law and force their political views upon us, the citizens who did not elect them.
To learn more about how we can resist illegal abuse from government bureaucracy, reform our broken system, and restore our Republic, Pre-Order “Undemocratic” NOW. ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow’s new book will be available May 19th. Join the fight to learn more about the crises we face and what we can do about it at UndemocraticBook.com.
