OPINION:
Don Lemon says the First Amendment protects his recent actions at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Justice Department disagrees, insisting that the former cable news anchor wasn’t acting as a journalist when he colluded with anti-ICE activists to interrupt a Sunday worship service.
According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Lemon did more than just broadcast footage of rabble-rousers marching through the pews, shouting vile slogans such as “This ain’t God’s house, this is the house of the devil.” One got in the face of a child and yelled, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They are going to burn in hell.”
As Mr. Lemon conceded on camera, the goal of this trespass was to “traumatize,” and that mission was accomplished.
Prosecutors say Mr. Lemon participated in planning sessions for what the insurgents called Operation Pullup. If true, this would make him a co-conspirator and active participant. The scheme sent infiltrators to pose as worshippers to deploy in advantageous positions before reinforcements arrived, maximizing chaos.
“As the operation continued, defendant Lemon acknowledged the nature of it by expressing surprise that the police hadn’t yet arrived at the Church and admitted knowing that ‘the whole point of [the operation] is to disrupt,’” the indictment states.
Mr. Lemon may soon find that the constitutional right to free speech isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card that authorizes one individual to trample the rights of others. Liberals tend to forget that religious freedom appears ahead of press freedom in the First Amendment.
Radical liberals see no problem with antagonizing church attendees because Planned Parenthood facilities are the only sanctuaries they recognize. Under this premise, Democrats and a handful of Republican sellouts created the FACE Act to prevent interference with the sacrifices conducted at these secular temples.
Merely praying for lost souls too near one of these shrines became a federal crime. Making the best out of a bad law, a few sensible lawmakers inserted a companion provision prohibiting obnoxious behavior inside a church. Mr. Lemon and his comrades face charges under this section, along with a count of conspiracy against rights.
This is reasonable. Congregants having nothing to do with immigration enforcement had their Sunday ruined, and one was injured while fleeing the tumult. Compare that with the way President Biden’s administration used “conspiracy against rights.”
Douglass Mackey faced this felony count for posting a meme mocking Hillary Clinton on X. The difference between a legitimate prosecution and a political one is that the politicized prosecution lacks a victim, and none was found.
The Justice Department confiscated Mr. Mackey’s passport and forced him to post a $50,000 bond. He is not a former television anchor with millions of dollars in the bank, able to write big checks without a second thought.
By contrast, Mr. Lemon was sprung without bail and allowed to go on a five-star holiday in France. Mr. Lemon isn’t a victim of a politicized prosecution; he is the beneficiary of a politicized judiciary that sympathizes with perpetrators.
Justice officials asked two Minnesota federal magistrates to approve arrest warrants for the instigators. The government believed swift execution was necessary to avoid repeat attacks. When the soft-on-crime jurists refused, the feds convened a grand jury. After reviewing the evidence, the jurors agreed that a crime had been committed.
Unlike New York City and Washington, the citizenry in Minnesota’s federal district is politically balanced. Defendants will have a chance to convince their peers that they are innocent. In a refreshing change from recent, high-profile trials, a fair outcome is likely.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.