Victory: City Council Walks Back Unconstitutional Action, Hears Pro-Life Speakers at Extended Hearing, After First Disinviting Them

I have just returned to the ACLJ’s Virginia Beach office after a trip to Pueblo, Colorado, to defend the pro-life free speech rights of three of our clients.

As we informed you, one of the City Councilmembers in Pueblo introduced an ordinance – which passed on first reading – to regulate and limit abortionists within the city limits. This ordinance was introduced in order to limit notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who just recently opened up Pueblo’s first abortion clinic.

Councilmembers asked for additional information from people with expertise through comments during a work session on the ordinance. The sponsor of the bill reached out to our clients and requested assistance in bringing in the legal minds behind the ordinance to testify at the work session. Our clients did just that, and the pro-life speakers were added to the agenda – along with several pro-abortion speakers.

However, the evening before the hearing was scheduled, the chair of the meeting canceled the pro-life speakers – leaving only the pro-abortion speakers on the agenda.

I was notified by text around 7:30 PM on Tuesday (December 6th) that the pro-life speakers had been canceled. I quickly notified my colleagues, and by 10:30 PM our team knew that we needed to send an attorney to Pueblo to notify the City Council that they were engaging in egregious viewpoint discrimination. I immediately booked a flight to Pueblo, and an entire team of senior ACLJ attorneys began working on a legal demand letter to the City Council. I arrived on December 7th, just a few hours before the City Council Work Session began. I met up with our clients and our local attorney, and we provided the City Council with a legal demand letter, spelling out the legal ramifications that would occur if our clients were not allowed to speak.

At that point, adjustments were made to the work session agenda, and the City Council gave me the first ten minutes of the meeting to speak. I summarized what had occurred, and let the Council know that they had engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by disinviting our clients and their speakers. Ultimately, the Council agreed and extended the Work Session to take place on Monday, December 12th, where the legal arguments for both sides were to be presented. Our clients were added back to the agenda.

To ensure that our clients were allowed to speak, I personally attended the Work Session on Monday, where our clients’ pro-life speakers were given the first 20 minutes of the meeting, and answered Council’s questions for about 15 minutes. Our clients and their speakers gave clear legal reasoning and support for the pro-life ordinance.

This was a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and for the pro-life movement as the pro-life witnesses were heard. Only days before, their voices would have been unsanctimoniously squelched, but not after the ACLJ stepped in. We achieved what we set out to do in this case, and that was to ensure that pro-life speakers were not discriminated against because of their viewpoint and support of life. We cannot afford to be silenced when it comes to defending the sanctity of innocent human life. This was a decisive victory for free speech – and a perfect example of why it is important to contact the ACLJ if you believe that your free speech or religious rights are being violated.

Whether it’s filing at the U.S. Supreme Court or state Supreme Courts, or standing up at a local city council meeting, the ACLJ stands ready, willing, and able to defend life at every step of the way.