Anti-Abortion Activists Get Free Speech Enforcement Suit Revived

A suit alleging the District of Columbia selectively enforced defacement ordinances against anti-abortion protesters in violation of the First Amendment during the summer of 2020 was revived by a federal appeals court Tuesday.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation Inc. and Students for Life America adequately alleged the city enforced the ordinance during their protest but not during Black Lives Matter protests, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said.

The anti-abortion groups sued the city after two students were arrested for writing “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” in washable chalk on the sidewalk during an August 2020 protest.

The lack ...