A well-known Catholic priest and pro-life advocate, who placed locks on the entrance gate of a Long Island Planned Parenthood abortion facility in July 2022, faces six months in federal prison after he was found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Thomas More Society attorneys represented Father Fidelis Moscinski in the January 23, 2023, bench trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and plan to file an appeal with the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on his behalf. Moscinski is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24, 2023.

After a local fire department removed the locks, Moscinski briefly lay in the driveway before local police arrested him for obstructing traffic. The Biden Administration Justice Department charged Moscinski with a misdemeanor violation of the FACE Act as part of its current months-long campaign of vigorously targeting pro-life advocates, while, until last week, no prosecutions had been initiated against those involved in more than 150 incidents of damage and destruction to pro-life pregnancy centers and churches since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022 overruling Roe v. Wade. Finally, a federal grand jury convened by the DOJ indicted two individuals for vandalizing three pregnancy resource centers in Florida.

In seeking dismissal of the case, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Christopher Ferrara argued that there was no jurisdictional basis for the FACE Act to be applied because Moscinski’s actions only obstructed traffic for 10 minutes. “Planned Parenthood’s own witness admitted that no appointments were cancelled that day, and there was no significant effect on its business,” Ferrara noted. “Father Moscinski’s purely local, non-violent conduct at most constituted disorderly conduct under the New York Penal Law and had no impact on interstate commerce, which is the supposed basis for Congress’ authority to enact the FACE Act.”

Although the FACE Act has been upheld against Commerce Clause challenges, Ferrara said that well-reasoned dissenting opinions in those cases and the Supreme Court’s post-FACE Act decisions in the Lopez and Morrison cases signal an imminent major shift in the law’s foundation. “Congress has no authority to turn local alleged petty offenses into federal crimes based on vague references to an imaginary effect on interstate commerce from a momentary obstruction of access to an abortion mill,” he added. “We intend to take up this question on appeal to the Second Circuit and then ultimately to the Supreme Court.”

In addition, Ferrara asserted that the FACE Act is a content-based and presumably unconstitutional law because it targets only alleged conduct at local abortion facilities where pro-life advocates gather on sidewalks and public rights of way. “The FACE Act is the only statute I know of that Congress enacted to punish a particular protest movement. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter runs rampant, burning cities, killing and injuring police, and causes billions of dollars in property damage, while pro-life pregnancy centers are being firebombed and Supreme Court justices suffer death threats.”