The National Archives on Friday apologized for telling visitors that they must cover up or remove their pro-life attire while being in the chamber where the original copy of the Bill Of Rights is on display.
“As the home to the original Constitution and Bill of Rights, which enshrine the rights of free speech and religion, we sincerely apologize for this occurrence,” said the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which maintains the National Archives Museum in Washington.
The apology comes after conservative law group American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), on behalf of four March for Life participants from three states, sued NARA for First Amendment violations. According to the complaint (pdf), each of them “separately and uniquely decided to visit the National Archives to view our nation’s founding documents” on the morning of Jan. 20 while wearing various clothing with pro-life messages.
After entering the museum, however, the pro-life visitors were approached by security guards who took issue with their pro-life apparel.
Wendilee Lassiter, a law student at evangelical Christian Liberty University in Virginia, was wearing a black sweatshirt that read: “I am the post-Roe Generation: Law Students for Life” when she visited the National Archives Museum with a group of fellow students. Two security guards approached her, saying that she was “disturbing the peace” because her sweatshirt “will incite others” and “cause a disturbance.”
When Lassiter asked, “I can’t come in here unless I take my sweatshirt off?” One security guard replied by stating: “No, you can’t.” She ended up removing her sweatshirt for fear that she would be thrown out of the museum if she did not comply. Her fellow students also complied with the order.
The law student also alleged that she saw that morning at least two other visitors “freely walking around” while wearing what appeared to be pro-abortion apparel, with statements to the effect of “My Body, My Choice,” and “Pro-Choice.”
Another visitor, identified in the lawsuit as L.R., is a Catholic high school student from Michigan. A security guard “specifically instructed” L.R. that she “could not be wearing anything pro-life” and that she must cover her shirt reading “Life is a HUMAN RIGHT” until she left the chamber. She was also told to take a “Pro-Love is the New Pro-Life” button off her bag.
“L.R. immediately believed her constitutional rights were being violated by the very government officials tasked with protecting them,” the complaint stated.
In response to the lawsuit, NARA emphasized that its policy “expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, etc. that display protest language, including religious and political speech.”
“We are actively investigating to determine what happened,” the federal agency said. “Early indications are that our security officers quickly corrected their actions and, from that point forward, all visitors were permitted to enter our facility without needing to remove or cover their attire. We have reminded all of our security officers at our facilities across the country of the rights of visitors in this regard.”
The National Archives wasn’t the only Washington museum trying to censor March for Life participants on Jan. 20, according to the ACLJ, which brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the Smithsonian for the same reason.
In that case, a group of Catholic students and parents from South Carolina tried to enter the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, only to be mocked by museum staff, who allegedly declared the facility to be a “neutral zone” where they could not wear pro-life hats.
According to the complaint (pdf), the students put their hats back on after passing through the entry point. This prompted museum staff to confront them and demand that they either “take them off or leave,” with one of the staff members yelling at a student, “You need to take off your hats. We are a museum that promotes equality, and your hats do not promote equality.”
The Smithsonian, likewise, apologized for the incident, admitting in a statement that “a security officer mistakenly told young visitors that their pro-life hats were not permitted in the museum.”
“Asking visitors to remove hats and clothing is not in keeping with our policy or protocols. We provided immediate retraining to prevent a re-occurrence of this kind of error,” the taxpayer-funded research institution said. “The Smithsonian welcomes all visitors without regard to their beliefs. We do not deny access to our museums based on the messages on visitors’ clothing.”
We need the names of the offenders, followed by their pink slips. If they cannot underestand what the bill of rights is all about, like freedom of speech, then they have no business being anywhere close to our sacred documents, lest they end up in Joe’s garage or something even worse, Hunters trash can.
I suppose that Binker Hill, or the Boston Tea party were also to be considered inconvenience disturbances?
Don’t forget to include their handlers who most certainly encouraged the behavior.
I would much rather see the Superior Supervisor or whomever ordered those guards to take that action against the visitors, get the pink slip.
True, you can bet they were TOLD TO do this, by some libtard upper management puke.
The National Archives on Friday apologized for telling visitors that they must cover up or remove their pro-life attire
Apologize, or were terminated ? It best be the latter !
IF OUR apologies, even GROVELLING is not good for liberals, THEN THEIR APOLOGIES TO US< should never be accepted.
It used to be that when you were asked about the two things of absolute certainty in this world, the answer was death and taxes.
Now, there is a third—thegrowth of stupidity.
Judging from the last two elections the stupid vote in large numbers.
“Immediate retraining” is SUCH BS. People don’t normally opt to confront others, These people had been trained to do this. Of course they probably agreed with the rule, but rest assured, they had been told they had the power and authority to do this. When they were called on the situation, then the administrators blamed it on the grunts. I’m shocked; shocked I tell you. The left has two rules. 1) Always push WAY past the line. 2) Then lie.
This is outrageous; good thing ACLJ prevailed. Every day I hear another story about constitutional rights being violated for conservative thought.
This has to stop. Security staff in DC obviously didn’t get the memo – or worse, know it’s wrong but don’t care.
The National Archive and the Smithsonian both must think they are in Moscow or China, somewhere that imposes mind control on its citizens. Clearly it is the head honchos in those tax payed historic venues that think they transcended what the Founding Fathers put into place, and not the security guards, who believe that the clothing worn actual distresses anyone. The arrogance of the head honchos almost matches Senator Reid’s historical, hysterical insult saying he didn’t want We the People, calling us stinky, to gain entrance to the Capitol. Defund both the Archive and the Smithsonian unless they go through vigorous training on our history, and how to treat all visitors with class and manners, in lieu of Wokism.
Yeah well how about the right for babies right to “Life” and happiness? Fire these goons fire all federal employees that aren’t prescribed in the constitution!
Does this entire situation qualify as an oxymoron?
So are these lawsuits proceeding? Or are these apologies the end of it?
I’d hope they still proceed.
It must be really, really hard to work at a satire publication such as the Babylon Bee because in the past they’d have been able to write a headline “National Archives tells Pro-life people to cover their pro-life message clothes to see Bill of Rights” and it would be funny.
Sadly, it is real life now. I doubt the sincerity of the apology. More like CYA so they don’t get sued. Guess they should have not tried that on a group of law students.
For reasons of my own I have always been a supporter of choice within reasonable limits and situations. That said, I can think of nothing more disgusting than trying to take away peoples right to express their viewpoints, leanings, or their faiths. Particularly in this situation where they are guarding access to the documents that we are all supposed to support and believe in as part of the founding of our country. Sadly, more and more I am coming to accept that there are many people, especially in DC, who really don’t like our country and continue to move toward a more authoritarian belief system that leaves no room for dissent. I will never lend my support to such people and beliefs and will actively resist and speak out against them. A very sorry display in a country like ours. Apologies just don’t come anywhere near being enough. Those responsible should be identified and terminated immediately, period.
Their “I’m sorry” is nothing but a “I don’t care but need to cover my “S”.
The irony is amazing!!!
“because her sweatshirt “will incite others”…Then throw the “OTHERS” out, if they are that prone to VIOLENCE, you simpleton, leftist idiot!
That would require too much Common sense, and THOUGHT..
Two things leftists lack.