For those tracking the chaos in Minnesota, here’s a detail that might shed some light on the lawlessness of state officials, like the attorney general. To qualify to be attorney general of Minnesota, you must: 1) be a qualified voter, 2) be at least 21, and 3) be a resident of the state for at least 30 days. For those watching the attorney general’s response after protestors barged into a church last Sunday and disrupted a worship service, this probably doesn’t surprise you. In Minnesota, you don’t have to be a lawyer — or even know the law — to be attorney general. Even though he is an attorney, that helps explain how Keith Ellison got the job without a) knowing the law, or b) being able to read it.
On the podcast of disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon — who was part of the Sunday disturbance inside Cities Church in St. Paul — Ellison dismissed the federal investigation, along with calls for charges under the FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act), saying:
“The FACE Act, by the way, is designed to protect the rights of people seeking their reproductive rights to be protected … so that people for a religious reason cannot just use religion to break into women’s reproductive health centers, right? So, how they are stretching either of these laws to apply to people who protested in a church over the behavior — or the perceived behavior — of a religious leader is beyond me.”
It is beyond you, Mr. Ellison — so let me help you out. Class is in session.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, pro-life activists blockaded abortion facilities in organized waves across the country. Thousands of pro-life pastors and activists were arrested in cities like Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New York City, Los Angeles, Wichita, Washington, D.C., and Baton Rouge for sitting in front of facilities to block entrances. That campaign — led largely by Operation Rescue — prompted the late Senator Ted Kennedy to introduce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1993, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in May 1994.
But, to secure the necessary Republican support to pass the bill, the late Senator Orrin Hatch offered an amendment adding parallel protections for places of worship. In the 1990s, no one thought much about that addition, because protecting religious freedom was like mom, baseball, and apple pie — it enjoyed bipartisan support. Case in point, the same year the FACE Act became law, Bill Clinton also signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Hostility toward religion may have been simmering in institutions, but it hadn’t yet erupted into the open intimidation and disruption we see today.
Fast forward two decades to the Biden administration, which used the FACE Act aggressively against pro-lifers — many of whom weren’t blocking entrances at all; most were simply praying outside.
Enough is enough. It’s time to apply the law as written. The Trump administration should use the prescient provisions of the FACE Act that protect places of worship to charge those who interfered with parishioners at Cities Church as they exercised their First Amendment right to religious freedom.
And if Mr. Ellison still can’t follow the plain text, perhaps he should be served with a summons — for aggravated ignorance.
Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand. He also served two terms as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and served as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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