This article originally appeared in the Thomas More Society 2024 Impact Report. To explore the full Impact Report, click here.

It was a crisp, early morning in October 2022, when pounding at the door shook the Vaughn household. Paul Vaughn, a Christian father of 11, was preparing to take his children to school as his wife, Bethany, held their 18-month-old. Some of the children were already getting into the car. The family wasn’t expecting a visitor. With heavy slams against the front door, a voice bellowed: “Open up, FBI!”

Through the window, Paul glimpsed flashing lights from two unmarked SUVs as the banging and shouting persisted. He cautiously opened the door and came face-to-face with three FBI agents—and a pistol barrel and two large guns. Paul would later discover that three of his children, ages 12, 14, and 18, were being detained in the side yard by a fourth agent. He tried to stay calm and requested identification.

His request for identification was met with a sneer as one of the agents puffed out his chest and poked at a Velcro patch labeled ‘FBI’. “This is the only identification you get.” Paul was unarmed, his family standing behind him. Bethany began recording the raid and arrest, begging the agents to answer why they were taking her husband away as Paul decided to surrender himself. Later, the family learned that the agents hadn’t notified any Tennessee law enforcement about their morning raid.

The agents hauled Paul away in handcuffs, ignoring Bethany’s pleas for more information as the agents put him in the back of the SUV. He was deposited in a holding cell beneath the federal courthouse in downtown Nashville, where he was held until his arraignment in the afternoon.

In federal custody, he learned he was being charged by the Biden Department of Justice with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and engaging in a ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’—charges that threatened Paul with over a decade in federal prison. After his release, at home, his 12-year-old was curled up in a ball, sobbing, and his older children attempted to support their young siblings as Bethany tried to figure out what was going on. Why had the full weight of the federal government come down on this peaceful pro-life dad?

SINGING HYMNS

Eighteen months earlier, in March 2021, a handful of pro-life advocates, including Paul, gathered in prayerful witness on behalf of the preborn outside of Carafem abortion facility in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Together, they sang hymns, gathered in prayer, and witnessed for life in the hallway of the publicly-accessible office complex that housed the abortion facility.

Eight advocates were arrested on trespass charges that day for nonviolently refusing to leave the premises when requested to do so by the police—convinced that innocent preborn children were scheduled to die that very day at the abortion facility. Paul was not arrested. He took special care to comply with any laws, both federal and local. He’d promised Bethany, who was expecting their eleventh child, that he would stay out of trouble. Paul even acted as a liaison between the pro-life advocates and local law enforcement, ensuring that they understood the purpose of the pro-life gathering and to ensure things did not escalate.

Between that peaceful gathering at the Mount Juliet abortion facility and the dawn raid on the Vaughn home, a tectonic shift occurred: the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022. With that, the Biden Department of Justice kicked into high gear, launching its “Reproductive Health Task Force” and embarking on a lawfare campaign against pro-life advocates in order to show favor to their allies in the abortion industry and lobby.

TRIAL AND TRIBULATION

The DOJ’s method of choice, in its official response to the overturn of Roe, quickly became the weaponization of the FACE Act, charges that the DOJ deployed in combination with ‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ charges. This combination of felony charges marked a second attempt by the Biden DOJ to target peaceful pro-life advocates with this severe and novel practice of ‘upcharging,’ designed to increase the potential penalty to over a decade in prison. In the first instance, the DOJ had charged pro-life advocate Lauren Handy and a group of others for a sit-in that they had organized at a notorious late-term abortion facility in Washington, D.C.

‘Conspiracy Against Rights’ is more commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, or a federal law passed during the Reconstruction era to protect the voting rights of African Americans and curb KKK violence. Turning the law on its head, Biden DOJ prosecutors had pioneered a novel legal theory that repurposed a federal law originally enacted to punish lynchings in the American South—using it to target peaceful pro-life fathers, mothers, and grandparents.

Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Steve Crampton, a veteran pro-life litigator, came to their aid—bringing decades of experience from defending FACE Act cases ever since the law had been enacted during the Clinton Administration.

Paul and several of his co-defendants went to trial in late January 2024. In a six-day trial, the government attempted to paint Paul as willfully deceiving the police during the gathering, despite witness testimony from the police negotiator, who testified that Paul had been helpful, collaborative, and peaceful during his interactions. Using paper-thin evidence, the Biden prosecutors also tried to smear Paul as intending to interfere with the operation of the facility, and portrayed him as a member of a criminal conspiracy, despite zero evidence presented at trial showing he had prior knowledge of the event’s plans.

While video evidence showed that the pro-life advocates in the hallway of the public office building had peacefully gathered in prayer, they pointed to Paul’s participation in a prayer circle as evidence he was “blocking” access to the facility, twisting reality. “This was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens—filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship—oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies,” Crampton said.

A LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM

On January 30, 2024, the jury returned its verdict: Guilty. Immediately following the guilty verdict, the pro-life advocates, along with family and friends, gathered in front of the Nashville federal courthouse in an emotionally-charged display of united prayer, singing hymns and praising God together, once again.

Meanwhile, the Vaughn family anxiously awaited the sentencing that would take place that summer. He faced up to 11 years in federal prison, shackled with combined charges of violating the FACE Act and KKK Act charges. On July 2, 2024, Paul went into the Nashville courthouse again to face the federal judge and hear his sentence handed down. Thanks to the robust defense, the judge refused the government’s requests for jail time. Paul was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release—no fine and no jail time.

“We rejoice in God’s plans,” Paul reacted. “Because this is at the heart a spiritual battle, we are thankful to have a strong advocate in the Thomas More Society.” Yet, he remained a convicted felon, subject to restrictions and regular check-ins. TMS attorneys immediately began preparing an appeal, determined to prove Paul’s innocence and overturn his unjust conviction.

In December 2024, Paul was granted permission to travel to Washington, D.C. to testify alongside Crampton, before a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee for the “Revisiting the Implications of the FACE Act: Part II” hearing, where he shared his moving testimony before lawmakers.

The previous month, another tectonic shift occurred: the re-election of President Donald Trump, marking an end to the Biden-era’s weaponization of the FACE Act. In anticipation of the presidential inauguration, TMS attorneys began preparing a formal pardon request package on behalf of Paul and 20 other peaceful pro-life advocates who were targeted, prosecuted, and in many cases, jailed, through Biden DOJ prosecutions under the FACE Act.

Prior to his inauguration, TMS attorneys submitted to the incoming Trump Administration a comprehensive pardon request package, outlining the legal basis for why the pardons were necessary and providing individualized petitions on behalf of 21 pro-life advocates, demonstrating their upstanding character and need for pardon. On January 23, 2025, on the eve of the March for Life, President Trump granted full and unconditional pardons to Paul and 22 other peaceful pro-life advocates unjustly persecuted by the Biden DOJ—signaling a massive victory for these peaceful pro-lifers and the pro-life movement writ large.

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