In 2017, then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed suit against Pastor Kenneth Griepp and Brooklyn's Church @ the Rock for their efforts to save babies from destruction at a local abortuary.
Attorney Martin Cannon of the Thomas More Society tells One News Now the counselors won the case on the federal district court level.
"And then the Second Circuit pretty much flipped it in really an act of lawlessness by this three-judge panel," Cannon continues. "We filed for what's called an en banc review, meaning we want the entire panel, which is about a dozen active judges, to review the ruling of the three-judge sub-panel."
The Thomas More Society then received news that the court wanted to rehear arguments on three specific questions, which Cannon says is not necessarily a bad thing.
"They could reinstate their own terrible ruling, with a few modifications," he explains. "But what we really think is the only reason this is happening at all is because the whole banc, the dozen judges we think got on these guys and said, 'You guys ran off the rail here; you better fix this, or we're going to reverse you.'"
The Second Circuit's first ruling essentially okayed violating the First Amendment rights of the sidewalk counselors. But the Thomas More Society maintains that the attorney general's accusations do not have a constitutional leg to stand on.
