Mark Houck, Persecuted by Biden's Lawless DOJ for Standing Outside an Apparently-Holy Abortion Clinic, Sues the Biden Administration

We need to really start pressing our worthless "representatives" to allow people to sue in neutral jurisdictions in politically-charged cases. Or else we're just going to keep being victimized by blue city juries, forever.

Pro-life activist Mark Houck and his wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, are suing the federal Department of Justice over the DOJ's treatment of their family, accusing the DOJ of a "faulty" investigation that led to an excessively forceful arrest and a "malicious and retaliatory prosecution" that has severely impacted their entire family.

Houck is a Catholic father of seven who was arrested and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Abortion Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act by President Joe Biden's administration. A jury found him not guilty of the federal charges in January, and he announced in August that he is running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District.

The DOJ's FACE Act charges stemmed from a 2021 incident outside a Philadelphia-based Planned Parenthood where Houck pushed an abortion clinic volunteer who was repeatedly harassing his son, Mark Jr. Local authorities ultimately dismissed the matter--until the Biden DOJ re-upped it in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Mark and Ryan-Marie Houck believe they were targeted by the Biden DOJ in an effort to intimidate, silence, and scare the family for their pro-life work--praying outside abortion clinics for the women headed inside to abort their unborn babies.

"This lawsuit will send a strong message to the DOJ that the United States of America does not belong to [Attorney General] Merrick Garland or the FBI; it belongs to all Americans, despite our many disagreements on different issues," said Shawn Carney, president of the pro-life organization 40 Days for Life, which is representing Houck. "We all believe that we should have the right to free speech and be protected from unlawful infringement by our own government."

He added: "Mark and his wife have valid and critical claims against the government that raided their house and pointed guns at them and their screaming children. Mark, his wife, and their seven children have been devastated by this horrific event, which should never have happened if not for the bigotry of our compromised DOJ."

Houck and his wife filed their lawsuits against the DOJ on Monday but did not formally announce the news until Wednesday morning. Their complaints detail the trauma that the entire family suffered when they discovered armed FBI agents banging on their door early in the morning on Sept. 23, 2022.

Mark Houck's suit describes this arrest as an "unnecessary and unlawful show of force," accusing the agents of intentionally seeking to assault him and deprive him of his Fourth Amendment rights "by using excessive force to arrest him on non-violent charges when he had not threatened law enforcement, did not own a gun, and had offered to turn himself into authorities if indicted."

Ryan-Marie Houck's complaint describes how profoundly her husband's arrest has impacted their children, Mark Jr., Ava Marie, Kathryn, Therese, Joshua, Augustine, and Imelda.

"Her children have also suffered immense emotional trauma and physical manifestations of stress that Mrs. Houck has carried alone while her husband was away during his imprisonment and prosecution," the complaint says.

Video of the Houcks telling their story at the link.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:15 PM

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