Posted by Thomas More Society (August 26, 2010 at 10:39 am)
Check out this interview with TMS President and Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha that appeared on Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link program discussing the case of notorious abortionist Alberto Hodari in Michigan. Listen to the full interview here.
TMS is currently seeking disclosure of public records to find out why Hodari was not charged when human remains and confidential patient records were found in his dumpster. Read more on the case here.
Posted by Thomas More Society (August 24, 2010 at 9:21 pm)
For Immediate Release
Lansing, Michigan—Yesterday, Thomas More Society attorneys filed a lawsuit to compel disclosure of public records that indicate why a doctor in Michigan was not punished for tossing aborted fetuses and patient records in the trash. Robert Fleming, local counsel for the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D. and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (CPLS) in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Dr. Miller, president and director of CPLS, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to learn the results of an investigation of Dr. Alberto Hodari and his abortion clinic, the Women Care Clinic in Lathrup Village, Mich. The investigation was brought on after CPLS found patient medical and financial records as well as the remains of aborted fetuses in trash containers outside the Women Care Clinic in 2008. Dr. Miller and CPLS then filed the complaint as well as evidence of their discovery with the Bureau of Health Professionals and the local police department. Dr. Miller’s and CPLS’ FOIA request was denied earlier this year when they were told only that there was insufficient evidence to “substantiate” their charges, without any explanation as to why or how their evidence was deemed deficient. [Continue reading ...]
Posted by Thomas More Society (August 3, 2010 at 4:36 pm)
For Immediate Release
Chicago—This afternoon, in a wake of national interest in the case, the Thomas More Society secured a dismissal of all charges against the first arrestee under the city’s “bubble zone” ordinance, which prevents certain types of picketing activity outside local abortion clinics. Joseph Holland, a Northwestern University graduate student, was arrested outside Planned Parenthood’s Near North Side facility on July 3 after the facility’s staff called the police and claimed he violated the ordinance by praying on the public sidewalk.
“We are pleased that the City of Chicago has dismissed these false and baseless charges against Joe Holland,” said Peter Breen, Thomas More Society executive director and legal counsel. “The First Amendment protects prayer on a public sidewalk in Chicago the same as in any other city in the country. We hope that the city will cease the suppression of pro-life speech under the ‘bubble zone’ ordinance and dismiss the lone remaining case, brought against David Avignone, who was arrested a few days after Joe.” [Continue reading ...]
Posted by Thomas More Society (August 2, 2010 at 3:35 pm)
A new website from the Thomas More Society, Students for Life of America and Students for Life of Illinois, ArrestedForPraying.com is raising support and awareness of the arrest of Joe Holland for praying outside a Planned Parenthood facility. Joe’s arrest is the first under the Chicago “Bubble Zone” law that restricts sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics in the city.
Visit ArrestedForPraying.com today and sign their petition urging Chicago mayor Richard Daley to drop all charges against Joe. Read the full story of Joe’s arrest here and read about the huge national media response to the story here.
Posted by Thomas More Society (July 27, 2010 at 4:06 pm)
This morning, Thomas More Society attorney Peter Breen entered a “not guilty” plea to the charge of disorderly conduct on behalf of Joseph Holland, the first person arrested under the new Chicago “Bubble Zone” ordinance, which prevents certain types of picketing activity outside local abortion clinics. Holland, a Northwesten University graduate student, was praying the rosary on a public sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood Near North abortion facility on July 3 when staff called the police, claiming that he had violated the new ordinance.
The “Bubble Zone” ordinance prohibits approaching within eight feet of a person, without consent, “for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling.” According to witnesses and available video, Holland was engaged solely in prayer activity and not in leafletting, picketing or “sidewalk counseling.” Video of Holland’s alleged disorderly conduct can be viewed here:
Posted by Thomas More Society (July 17, 2010 at 7:46 am)
Trespass Cases Against the “ND88″
“ND88″ Attorneys Allege “Viewpoint Discrimination” in Criminal Prosecutions
South Bend, Ind.—This week, another pretrial hearing was held in St. Joseph County Criminal Court involving the criminal trespass charges that the University of Notre Dame and the county prosecutor continue to press against the “ND88.” In a key ruling, Chief Judge Michael Scopelitis confirmed that Thomas More Society attorneys may take a deposition of a Notre Dame official, the former Director of Residential Life at the University.
The ND88, a group of pro-life demonstrators including Alan Keyes, Norma McCorvey and Fr. Norman Weslin, were arrested on Notre Dame’s campus in May 2009, while praying the rosary, singing religious hymns and bearing peaceful, prayerful witness to the sanctity of life as part of a demonstration against Notre Dame’s honoring of President Barack Obama during its Commencement exercises. [Continue reading ...]
Posted by Thomas More Society (July 8, 2010 at 9:08 pm)
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Stephanie Lewis, TC Public Relations
312-422-1333, Stephanie@tcpr.net
CHICAGO—Today, attorneys from the Thomas More Society, on the eve of seeking emergency injunctive relief in federal court, secured an agreement from the city of West Chicago to allow a pro-life protest to proceed as scheduled tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. in West Chicago, Illinois.
West Chicago officials had notified the Thomas More Society early Thursday that the Pro-Life Action League’s “Face the Truth” Tour protest, which involves people holding abortion signage at busy intersections in various municipalities, would not be permitted to take place Friday morning in that city, due to a new ordinance covering demonstrations and protests. Adopted just this past Tuesday by the city of West Chicago, the ordinance requires would-be demonstrators to apply for a permit at least 90 days prior to a demonstration. The ordinance also allows denial of a permit based on the city administrator’s determination whether he believes a demonstration will negatively affect public “comfort, morals, and welfare.” [Continue reading ...]
Posted by Thomas More Society (June 23, 2010 at 11:25 pm)
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has cited the amicus (”friend of the court”) brief authored by Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Linton in its lengthy opinion on the appeal of capital defendant Adrian Estrada, who had been found guilty for murdering both 17-year old Stephanie Sanchez and her thirteen-week old unborn child. Linton filed the amicus brief on behalf of the Texas Alliance for Life and is cited on page 54-55 in footnote 40.
While Estrada’s lawyers won a reversal and remand for a new punishment hearing, his constitutional challenge to the Texas statute that makes it a capital offense to intentionally or knowingly murder an unborn child—a statute that was also drafted by special counsel Paul Linton—was roundly rejected. [Continue reading ...]
Posted by Thomas More Society (June 18, 2010 at 3:06 pm)
Paul Benjamin Linton, special counsel to the Thomas More Society, has just had an article published in the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal enitled Long Road to Justice: The IL Supreme Court, the IL Attorney General, and the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995. In it, he explores the Illinois General Assembly’s 35 year struggle to enact an enforceable statute requiring the consent of or notice to the parents of a pregnant minor before she undergoes an abortion.
These efforts to secure an enforceable, effective parental notice law in Illinois have been repeatedly thwarted, despite polls that consistently show dominant majorities of citizens favoring parental notice (including even many abortion supporters) and the existence of parental involvement laws in all Midwestern states surrounding Illinois. In many cases, the statutes themselves were struck down as violative of the governing federal constitutional standards. In another instance, the Illinois Supreme Court failed—or refused—to adopt procedural rules for confidential, expedited “bypass” hearings and appeals, measures deemed necessary for parental involvement laws to satisfy federal constitutional requirements.
Linton explains through the most comprehensive history to date of the 1995 Parental Notice of Abortion Act how both the Illinois Supreme Court and the Illinois Attorneys General—past and present—have failed the people of the state by not taking the steps needed to implement and enforce an otherwise constitutional law, and one with overwhelming public support.
Most recently (see our post on columnist Dennis Byrne’s OpEd), while Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s attorneys defeated the ACLU’s latest attack on the parental notice law, in which the ACLU had charged that the law violated Illinois’ state constitution, her trial attorneys agreed with the ACLU that the law’s enforcement could be “stayed,” i.e., suspended, for as long as it took for the ACLU to appeal the ruling to higher courts. In effect, she won the lawsuit but then threw in the towel! Cook County Chancery Judge Daniel Riley, although dismissing the ACLU’s lawsuit as meritless, entered an “Agreed Order” suspending the law’s enforcement yet again. Thomas More Society, representing downstate county prosecutors, tried repeatedly to intervene in the case to mount a robust defense of the parental notice law and to oppose this latest “stay” of enforcement. But its efforts were rebuffed by Judge Riley when the Attorney General and ACLU objected. The Society has appealed those rulings and will seek to vacate the “stay” when the case reaches the Illinois Appellate Court.
Read the complete article below (Click “Fullscreen” for the best reading experience):
Posted by Thomas More Society (May 17, 2010 at 3:40 pm)
Christ the King parish in Omaha, Nebraska is hosting an educational fundraising dinner for the Thomas More Society featuring TMS President and Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha. Click the picture above for a printable PDF to use to publicize the event.
Tickets are $40 each ($30 tax-deductible). Social hour will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner starting at 6:30 p.m. Use the “Donate” button below to purchase tickets or make checks payable to The Thomas More Society and mail to 29 S. LaSalle, Ste, 440 Chicago, IL 60603 Attn: Accounting. If using the “Donate” button, please enter the number of tickets in the information field. Thank you, and we hope to see you there.
Check out this interview with TMS President and Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha that appeared on Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link program discussing the case of notorious abortionist Alberto Hodari in Michigan. Listen to the full interview here.
For Immediate Release
Chicago—This afternoon, in a wake of national interest in the case, the Thomas More Society secured a dismissal of all charges against the first arrestee under the city’s “bubble zone” ordinance, which prevents certain types of picketing activity outside local abortion clinics. Joseph Holland, a Northwestern University graduate student, was arrested outside Planned Parenthood’s Near North Side facility on July 3 after the facility’s staff called the police and claimed he violated the ordinance by praying on the public sidewalk.
A new website from the Thomas More Society, 
For Immediate Release
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has cited the amicus (”friend of the court”) brief authored by Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Linton in its lengthy opinion on the appeal of capital defendant Adrian Estrada, who had been found guilty for murdering both 17-year old Stephanie Sanchez and her thirteen-week old unborn child. Linton filed the amicus brief on behalf of the Texas Alliance for Life and is cited on page 54-55 in footnote 40.
Paul Benjamin Linton, special counsel to the Thomas More Society, has just had an article published in the 