Pro-life Catholic students kicked out of Smithsonian Museum

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

It was all about blue hats. A group of Catholic school students visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum after participating in the annual March for Life. They were asked to remove their hats because of a pro-life message.

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The hats had the message “Rosary Pro-life” on them. The students in the group all wore identical hats and they were used for identification purposes. The blue hats helped identify the members of the group and keep them together. Using a piece of clothing is common for school groups. Most use identical t-shirts but hats are used, too. It’s winter and the hats look to be knit hats commonly worn in cold weather.

Student Patrick Murphy and American Center for Law and Justice’s Jordan Sekulow were interviewed by Fox’s Sean Hannity. Patrick told his story. He said the students were approached by two women dressed in black. They were presumed to be security personnel.

“They (said), ‘All people wearing a pro-life hat, take it off’,” Murphy recalled, “and immediately we’re confused.”

A student in the group told the women the blue hats reading “Rosary Pro-life” were used for identification purposes to keep the group together, but that the women blew them off.

After walking out of the museum, Murphy said they were approached by a man claiming he had reports the group refused to take off their hats and they were in trouble. After a student reminded him the hats were used to identify the group, Murphy defended his Constitutional rights.

“I said, ‘This is a violation of our First Amendment right. This is a government-funded building. How are we paying for this with our taxes and I’m not allowed to wear this hat?’,” he told Fox News.

The pro-lifers were “blown away” when the man said it was a neutral zone and their rights didn’t apply.

“We had almost no words,” the student told Fox News.

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I have questions. Why didn’t the two women dressed in black identify themselves if they were employees of the museum? Where were the adult chaperones? Why didn’t a chaperone deal with these adults? What the hell is a neutral zone where constitutional rights don’t apply?

They may have been rendered almost speechless by the treatment they received from the women in black but fortunately, they were savvy enough to speak up and mention that the museum is a government entity paid for by taxpayers. They may not pay federal taxes but their parents do. The students needed to leave the building to catch their bus at that time anyway. They did so without causing a scene or using rude behavior.

It’s a strange story but we’ve heard strange stories before when it comes to religious discrimination. The woke left is not tolerant of religious freedom. A very simple phrase, “Rosary Pro-life”, was enough to trigger these women. There are no reports that the students, who look to be high school age, were misbehaving. Does the Smithsonian remember the story about the Covington Catholic School students who were harassed after attending the March of Life in 2019? Upper management probably does because the museum issued an explanation that this is not representative of museum policy.

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Jordan Sekulow said that legal action is “imminent.” The Smithsonian claimed that employees received training after the incident. Sekulow wants to know what training the employees received before this incident happened. He said they will get to the bottom of it and fight back.

This looks like an open and closed case from what I’ve seen. The museum admitted that its policy wasn’t followed. The students were wearing knit caps to identify themselves as part of a group. The text on the caps wasn’t threatening or obnoxious. No one was yelling “fire” in a movie theatre. The students did nothing wrong. They deserve a real apology, at the very least.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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