Posted on 05/22/2024 12:26:39 PM PDT by Red Badger
Since the 1960s, the Knights of Columbus have held a Memorial Day event at the Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg, VA.
For the last two years, however, The National Park Service (NPS) has refused permission for the event due to a new policy prohibiting “religious services” and calling the ceremony to honor this nation’s fallen heroes a “demonstration.”
The park service has instead said the event must take place in a nearby “free speech zone.”
The Knights and their attorneys say the decision by park officials violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
On May 13, 2024, First Liberty Institute and the law team at McGuireWoods sent a letter to the Chief Park Ranger asking to reconsider the decision, arguing that a 2022 policy on special events is being misapplied.
You can read the letter here.
“Our hope is that the National Park Service will immediately correct this error and grant the permit,” said John Moran, Partner at McGuireWoods. “This policy and the decision to block the Knights of Columbus from continuing their long-standing religious tradition is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Roger Byron, Senior Counsel at First Liberty, added, “Due to the religious nature of the Knights’ annual service to honor and pray for the nation’s fallen soldiers, they have been assigned a second class status and relegated to the proverbial back of the bus. That is precisely the kind of unlawful discrimination and censorship the First Amendment was enacted to prevent. Surely this decision was an oversight.”
The letter to the Park’s chief ranger states, “There is no reason under NPS regulations or Policy Memorandum 22-01 to deny the Knights a permit to hold the service within the cemetery. Indeed, even since the adoption of Policy Memorandum 22-01, the Park Service has authorized Memorial Day masses in other National Cemeteries.” As the letter further explains, “it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to discriminate against and censor the Knights’ activities solely because of their religious character.” Further, the “prohibition of the Knights’ Memorial Day service due to its religious nature is not merely unlawful content-based discrimination on speech—it is textbook viewpoint discrimination, which is per se unconstitutional.”
Now, First Liberty Institute and the law team at McGuireWoods have filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the NPS in Petersburg, Virginia, to allow the event to move forward.
You can read the motion here.
“The policy and the decision blocking the Knights of Columbus from continuing their long-standing religious tradition is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” said John Moran, Partner at McGuireWoods. “We urge the court to grant our restraining order and allow the Knights to hold their service this Memorial Day.”
Roger Byron, Senior Counsel at First Liberty, added, “The National Park Service is way out of line. This is the kind of unlawful discrimination and censorship RFRA and the First Amendment were enacted to prevent. Hopefully the court will grant the Knights the relief they need to keep this honorable tradition alive.”
The motion for a temporary restraining order states: “The case for preliminary relief is simple: The Knights are likely to succeed on their claims that Defendants’ application of their policies to bar the Knights from conducting a ‘religious service’ in the National Cemetery—as they had previously done for generations—violates their right to religious free exercise under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Court should therefore grant the motion and enter an immediate temporary restraining order or issue a preliminary injunction allowing the Knights to continue their decades-long tradition of hosting a Memorial Day mass inside the Poplar Grove National Cemetery.”
Isn’t any cemetary a de-facto religious area?
“What happens after we die”, is kind of one of those BIG questions. and inheirently “religous” by nature.
putting a body in the ground, as opposed to burning and scattering.. Is a religious ritual.
The park service has instead said the event must take place in a nearby “free speech zone.”
Sue their ass. The entire nation is a free speech zone. And also name and dox the person who made this decision. The National Park Service didn’t do this.... an individual did.
Show up anyway. Walk in as individuals then act like a flash mob. Pull together and start praying. Make the government use force and arrest people. Have plenty of video being taken and live streamed.
The government hates that. They call it ‘bad optics’. They count on fear based compliance. They really do not have a good backup plan for determined, peaceful, refusal to obey.
Only thing missing is the person that denied the permit.
Publish his or her name.
Absurd. But they will back off when it becomes how stupid the NPS decision is. Some 4th level bureaucrat was feeling empowered.
I believe the soldiers headstones has either a cross or a Star of David etched on the top. Must they now all be filled in?
“Make the government use force and arrest people.”
As long as they don’t have the FBI’s “deadly force” authorization.
Now you’re thinking like a warrior.
With their thinking, anyone falling dead of a heart attack within their area presumably would have to be drug over to the 'free speech' zone to obtain last rites from a priest, right?
Interesting- Bohemian Grove pitted against Poplar Grove. The tree wins.
Show up wearing black hoodies, and tell them it is ANTIFA..Tell them you’re just going deface gravestones and spray paint on them.. They’ll be fine with that..
Then get to the site and then whip out Bibles, crucifix and yarmulkes, shofar, etc....
The government will just collect video, wait for people to go back to their daily business, and then start rounding them up as needed to make their point. January 6th ring a bell?
The citizens are not the friend of its government.
Now if they had planned to burn and stomp on American and Israeli flags and set up tents to stay to protest genocide, then welcome all. Taxpayer funded food (no gmo or non vegan) on the way. /S
Doubtful. Just make sure you are absolutely peaceful and prayerful.
Name some damned names so we can go for the throat!
This entire country is a “free speech zone.” Get out of here with your B.S., you tyrannical losers.
They want to say Mass. I guess you could do that in a flash mob but it would be a bit tricky.
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