'A disturbing development that strikes at the heart of our constitutional freedoms'
Joe Biden’s Army secretary is being told in a formal legal letter to apologize, in writing, for allowing a popular pro-life organization, Operation Rescue, to be characterized as “terrorist” in a training session for soldiers.
Or legal ramifications will follow.
“Our demand is a simple one: Apologize and acknowledge in writing, using clear and direct language approved by us, that not a single organization named in the aforementioned materials is considered a domestic terrorist organization by the United States Army, including by name our client, Operation Rescue. It must express an assurance that such baseless labeling and training will not reoccur absent lawfully sound justification, describe steps taken to ensure the same, and provide information regarding when and where these training materials have been used in other Army installations,” explains a letter from the American Center for Law and Justice to Christine Wormuth.
The organization’s concerns are based the Army’s public characterization of Operation Rescue and other organizations as terrorists.
That came during a presentation for soldiers being prepared to guard the perimeter of a military base.
An anti-terrorism brief was held on Fort Liberty (Bragg) today where they listed several Pro-Life organizations as “terrorist organizations.”
The slide you see here followed right after a slide about ISIS, a terror group in the Middle East.
The organizations labeled by the… pic.twitter.com/vlO6XjyGzE
— Shoe (@samosaur) July 11, 2024
It happened at Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
The ACLJ pointed out that the situation followed none of the recognized processes for designating terror groups, which “is no light thing.”
“The Supreme Court has stated that ‘. . . the right of the individual to engage in any of the common occupations of life . . . [is] essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.’ Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 572 (1972) (quoting Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (1923)). Here, the burden of a terrorist designation without any process available whatsoever to challenge the designation, has been imposed on Operation Rescue and all its members. It is inherently inconsistent with due process to identify a nonprofit organization as a terrorist group, with all the attendant legal penalties, without even attempting to properly adjudicate whether the organization is itself in that category, giving it an opportunity to respond, or acting according to the proper requirements before a group can be designated as a terrorist entity.
“In contrast with what occurred here, the authority to designate an entity a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ rests with the Secretary of State. 8 U.S.C. §§ 1189(a)(1), (d)(4), who can only make such a designation in certain enumerated circumstances. An entity designated a foreign terrorist organization may seek review of that designation before the D.C. Circuit within 30 days of that designation. § 1189(c)(1). There is thus more process available to actual foreign terrorist organizations to challenge their adjudication as such than there is to Operation Rescue, designated a terrorist organization for its political activity.”
The letter explained “even more protections are in place before someone is designated a domestic terrorist.”
The organization said the Army “unjustly” targeted Operation Rescue.
It’s a “disturbing development that strikes at the heart of our constitutional freedoms,” the ACLJ warned.
“The idea that those who stand for the sanctity of life – a fundamental tenet of many faiths and a constitutionally protected belief – could be equated with terrorists is not only factually incorrect but also represents a dangerous conflation of peaceful advocacy with violent extremism. This situation is reminiscent of past attempts by government entities to stigmatize and marginalize conservative and Christian viewpoints. It echoes the IRS Tea Party targeting scandal, where we defended conservative groups who were targeted for unconstitutional scrutiny, and it aligns with a broader pattern of hostility toward traditional values in various government institutions,” the legal team explained.
The offense was even worse because the mischaracterization being used “to train soldiers.”
“In other words, you were fortifying the access points of Fort Liberty so that a pro-life individual attempting to enter would be considered a terrorist on the same level of Hamas. And you have [publicly] admitted that this identification has been going on for seven years. The full effects of this cannot be known, but they are inevitably catastrophic; for example, a family member of a service member could easily have been denied access, based on this identification of Operation Rescue as a terrorist organization,” ACLJ said.
Without compliance by the Army, the ACLJ said, it will pursue “appropriate legal remedies.”
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