Last week, former CNN news anchor Don Lemon was arrested under the FACE Act after entering a Minnesota church and reporting on protesters who disrupted a service there. The FACE Act, which was enacted in 1994, bans forcefully disrupting people’s ability to enter abortion clinics and to carry out religious services.

A new blog post from Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, argues that the FACE Act itself is unconstitutional:

“The Fourteenth Amendment reasoning goes that the amendment ensures that no state can deny due process, certain privileges or immunities, or equal protection, and it gives Congress the power to enforce that guarantee through ‘appropriate legislation.’ Free religious exercise is a constitutional right, and when the Act was passed, the Supreme Court had said abortion was, too. So the law seemed to be justified.

Pro-lifers have long argued that the law is unconstitutional as applied to abortion protests. Now that the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade and held that there is no constitutional right to abortion, that argument enjoys new force.”

To speak with Cavedon about the arrest of Don Lemon and the FACE Act, contact Christopher Tarvardian.