Pro-Abortion NAACP Forgets Free Speech Is a Civil Right And Loses Lawsuit

Pro-Abortion NAACP Forgets Free Speech Is a Civil Right And Loses Lawsuit

Ryan Bomberger |
May 28, 2015

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There's nothing quite like learning about the fate of your hard-fought advocacy work through a tweet. I was spending time with my wife and children, doing our devotions, enjoying a nice big breakfast, and not worrying about the world around us for those precious morning hours last week. As the kids scurried out the door for their homeschoolers' dance class, I started flipping through all of the notifications on my phone.

"@LifeHasPurpose @RyanBomberger Congrats on big 4th Circuit ?#FreeSpeechwin vs. ?@NAACP censorship attempt!" Greg Scott of Alliance Defending Freedomtweeted. Talk about being caught off guard. I rushed to my laptop and started sifting through my emails to find our ADF-affiliated attorney's email.

And there it was. Our incredible attorney, Chuck Allen, had written earlier that morning to congratulate us on our huge victory over the NAACP. The 4th Circuit smacked down the lower court judge's outrageous decision, which had allowed the NAACP to hide behind trademark law to silence speech it really didn't like.

It comes to this. The NAACP sued my small nonprofit organization, The Radiance Foundation, over the word "abortion." Calling them the National Association for the Abortion of Colored People triggered a reaction that even Rush Limbaugh has been unable to do for the last two decades. He's parodied their name since Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination, back in 1991. He refers to them as the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People. Don't worry, Rush. Our court victory pretty much sets the precedent; they can't bully others with bogus trademark infringement charges because they don't like what their critics (accurately) say about them.

When free speech wins, America wins. When the NAACP spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on a frivolous censorship lawsuit, their legacy loses.

So, to celebrate this First Amendment victory, I thought I'd explore some suitableparodied names for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (By the way, we're all colored people. Isn't it time to update the acronym, anyway? Then again, it allows them to cling to the past and pretend the same racial situation exists in the present.) So, here are the top 5 monikers for that ever-famous acronym, NAACP, that better describe the far-left, once great, civil rights group.

5. National Association for the Advancement of Certain People
This parody belongs to none other than famed, pro-life, civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer. She apparently was sick and tired of being sick and tired of the NAACP's elitist focus. NAACP co-founder and ardent Planned Parenthoodspokesperson, W.E.B. Du Bois, compared the "mass of ignorant negroes" to the quality of produce. Du Bois penned a despicable, dehumanizing article in Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Review (pp. 166-167), opining that: "They [negroes] must learn that among human races and groups, as among vegetables, quality and not mere quantity really counts." His column, Black Folk and Birth Control, advocated classism and racism while championing Sanger’s efforts to target poorer blacks with birth control, promising to reduce poverty (and never delivering). Hamer was not a fan of the NAACP’s elitism or population control.

4. National Association for the Agitation of Certain People
If a black person dies at the hands of a white person, it can only be racism, right? The NAACP often leads the chorus of victimhood evangelists pulling the race card before the evidence is even presented. Liberals pretend it's still the 1960s and that America hasn't made incredible racial progress. But as we've seen in Orlando,Ferguson, and most recently in Baltimore, the NAACP acts like the biggest threat to black lives is police brutality--not the black-on-black crime that is spiraling out of control in urban areas across the United States. When Michael Brown was shot, before knowing the actual circumstances, the NAACP tweeted: “#MikeBrown When someone outside of our race commits murder we want upheaval but we need same for all murder.” Two things. We don't need upheaval; we need peace. Secondly, the NAACP never reacts like this when a white person is killed by a black person.

3. National Association for the Animosity of Conservative People
The NAACP has no love for conservative black folk. Just ask Dr. Ben Carson, Allen West, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Janice Rogers Brown, Condoleezza Rice and many others. They’ve all been shamefully demonized by the nation’s largest, and most intolerant, “civil rights” group. In 2014 when Tim Scott (R-SC) was elected as the first black Senator in the South since Reconstruction, the NAACP ignored the historic event. They also showed no love to Rep. Mia Love, the first black Republican woman elected to Congress...ever. The NAACP loves liberalism. Ironically, they have nothing but disdain for the Party of Lincoln.

2. Not Actually Advancing Colored People
The NAACP is on the wrong side of so many issues affecting the black community. They fight against Voter ID laws even though in states where those laws have been implemented, minority voting has increased. They fight school choice and vouchers that would benefit low-income minority students. They fight for “gay marriage” but say nothing of the need for intact (heterosexual) marriages, which are the strength of any community. They completely ignore the epidemic offatherlessness even though over 72% of black children are born into homes without fathers.

1. National Association for the Abortion of Colored People
When I wrote an article with this parodied name in its title, detailing the radical pro-abortion policy and actions of the NAACP, I had no idea the reaction it would cause. The NAACP apparently forgot that free speech is a civil right and tried to bully us into silence. The Radiance Foundation versus NAACP is a history maker and another retelling of the classic David versus Goliath story. Obviously, the NAACP also forgot how that story ended.

So, there you have it--parodies that speak the truth. And thanks to three judges of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, that expression is undeniably protected speech.

http://townhall.com/columnists/ryanb...4972/page/full

NAACP SUES THE RADIANCE FOUNDATION FOR EXERCISING RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH


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The Radiance Foundation is extremely grateful for Alliance Defending Freedomproviding our defense against this violation of our First Amendment rights.

UPDATES:

• 05/19/15 – WE WIN!!!! 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules, unanimously, in our favor! This is a huge win for the First Amendment. The NAACP tried to crush our right to free speech but truth and justice prevailed. Read the Ruling here.
• March 25, 2015: (Listen to the audio of the 4th Circuit hearing above.) During the day of oral arguments, the NAACP contended that our news article, which parodied the NAACP’s name, is not news, social or political commentary. Senior Judge Andre M. Davis, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, and Judge Pamela Harris asked questions to clarify issues, made statements, and ultimately will decide whether our news commentary (which is merely one of over a hundred news articles) is protected by the First Amendment.
• March 2015: In a surreal case of one of the nation’s oldest civil rights groups trying to suppress free speech, The Radiance Foundation v NAACP will be heard thisweek at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, March 24-26. Oral arguments are set for Wednesday, the 25th, at 9:30am in the Red Courtroom (Room 412). Address: Lewis F. Powell Jr Courthouse & Annex 1100 East Main Street, Suite 501 Richmond, VA 23219.
• February 2015: The Radiance Foundation v NAACP will now be heard March 24th-26th, 2015 by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA. This is the last step before the Supreme Court. Oral arguments will be heard on March 25th.
• October 2014: The ACLU of Virginia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation file an amicus brief on behalf of The Radiance Foundation’s First Amendment rights to criticize an organization through parody. The EFF is the “the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world.” The brief was produced by the First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic out of UCLA School of Law, led by renown First Amendment advocate Professor Eugene Volokh. Read here. PDF of amicus brief here.
• Life Legal Defense Foundation, on behalf of Rev. Walter Hoye, Day Gardner and Dr. Alveda King of the National Black Prolife Coalition, filed a brilliant and biting amicus brief on our behalf. Read LLDF article here. Read the amicus brief here.
• Radiance ADF lawyers file solid (and seemingly inarguable) opening appellate brief to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in The Radiance Foundation v NAACP. Read here. Download PDF of brief here.
• April 2013: The NAACP files a countersuit, playing semantics with “right to choose” and denying much documented evidence of their abortion advocacy and official abortion policy: “On the issue of abortion, NAACP has not supported abortion but rather supports a woman’s right to choose. NAACP’s decision not to support abortion has been influenced at least in part by the strong religious values and beliefs held by many of those in its leadership, including leading members of the clergy from across the United States.” The NAACP was emphatic (and dishonest) about not taking a position on abortion and further claimed in the countersuit:“Counterdefendants’ unauthorized use of the NAACP Marks, together with the name The National Association for the Abortion of Colored People, is likely to tarnish and disparage NAACP and thereby damage its reputation among members of the general public of the United States, particularly African Americans and other people of color, by falsely indicating or suggesting that NAACP is ‘pro-abortion’ when in fact it is not.” By the way, during this whole case one of their clergy in leadership, NAACP Board Member William Barber III received Planned Parenthood’s “Care. No Matter What.” award for his abortion advocacy on behalf of the NAACP.

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Abortion doesn’t advance colored people. And since we’re allcolored people, killing our Posterity doesn’t advance anycommunity. Abortion is a violent injustice that, like slavery, requires that we accept the lie that some human beings aren’t as equal as others. The NAACP (which inaccurately goes by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) believes and promotes the lie. Since February 2013, the nation’s oldest civil rights group has hundreds of thousands of dollars suingThe Radiance Foundation and me, personally, for what it charges as “trademark infringement, confusion and dilution.” This so-called infringement included The Radiance Foundation’s news articles that detailed the NAACP pro-abortion actions, suggesting a name more befitting of the abortion-pushing organization: The National Association for the Abortion of Colored People. Apparently, truth and parodying an organization’s name are not protected under the First Amendment.
We filed a declaratory action because the NAACP threatened to sue us (read their Cease and Desist letter), including monetary “damages”, for this bogus “trademark infringement”. Our suit simply asked the judge to dismiss this legal threat on the basis that it was our First Amendment right to criticize the NAACP’s abortion advocacy through parody/satire in news commentary. That request was denied.

The irony in this is rich. Rush Limbaugh has parodied the NAACP’s name since Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation, claiming that the organization is only concerned about the advancement of a certain kind of folk–liberal colored people. He continues to use the parody any time he speaks of the leftist organization. However, the NAACP isn’t suing a wealthy white broadcaster (who has an audience of millions every single day) for causing “confusion” of their brand. They’ve chosen, instead, to sue a black man, with far less means for daring to call them out. Is this yet another example of black-on-black crime?

In federal court, the once great civil rights group convinced Judge Raymond Jackson to disregard our civil rights as well as all of the documentation proving how radically pro-abortion the NAACP has become. The judge ruled against The Radiance Foundation, declaring that the parody we employed isn’t, technically, a parody because he didn’t find it to be “funny”. So, he banned us from even mentioning the parodied name or ever parodying the NAACP’s name in the future.Contradicting all presented evidence, Judge Raymond Jackson declared “the NAACP has no formal position or policy regarding abortion” despite the fact that the NAACP itself declared, in its ownpress release, that it “took an historic pro-choice position” back on February 24, 2004. (Download and read the outrageous Opinion and Order and the Permanent Injunction Ruling.)

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NAACP 2004 Resolution supporting abortion.

There is no question about the NAACP’s position on abortion. They passed a resolution at their annual convention in 2004 erroneously entitled: “The March For Life”. Never let it be confused that the organization, which historically fought for the most disenfranchised among us, actually supports the March for Life that brings hundreds of thousands of prolife advocates to the nation’s capital each year to be educated and motivated to fight the social injustice of abortion. The NAACP resolution proudly supported the National Organization for Women (NOW), Planned Parenthood and NARAL radical abortion march on DC. (It was originally named the “March Against Fear” but renamed to the “March for Women’s Lives”.) This unapologetically pro-abortion event was originally pushed by NOW because Congress had passed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. So the NAACP’s public foray into advocating for abortion was to demand what most Americans consider the most heinous and most violent form of abortion–partially birthing a child, then (for no medical reason) severing the child’s head from its body or crushing the skull and sucking the child’s brains out and dismembering the rest of the child, piece by piece.

http://www.theradiancefoundation.org...RESOLUTION.jpgNAACP “family planning” Resolution #47, 1967

The judge wrongly claimed on page 41 of the Order: “The NAACP has intentionally refrained from taking a stance on abortion, and certainly has not been alleged to advocate for the abortion of people of color.” Never mind the NAACP not only promoted the pro-abortion “March for Women’s Lives”, it led from the stage. Former NAACP President Julian Bond was a featured speaker at event as well as the keynote speaker at a fund-raising dinner for NARAL, the same year, where he praised the fact that “black women exercise this precious [abortion] at rates far exceeding their percentage of the population.” Never mind Planned Parenthood is a corporate sponsor of the NAACP’s annual conventions. Never mind the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona for its Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act, which banned sex-selection and race-based abortions. Never mind the recent president of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, was the keynote speaker at aPlanned Parenthood of Southeast Georgia fundraiser where one could purchase a $1000-a-Margaret-Sanger-Founders-Circle package to help raise money for the political arm of the abortion chain.

Sixty percent of viable black pregnancies are aborted in New York City, the home of NARAL and Planned Parenthood. As highlighted in our TooManyAborted.com initiative, more black babies are aborted in New York City than are born alive: 1,223 black babies are aborted for every 1,000 born alive. Yet the NAACP has officially endorsed Governor Cuomo’s radical pro-Gosnell “Women’s Equality Act” that would eliminate all restrictions on abortion in a state that already aborts over 100,000 per year through the 249 abortion facilities in the state.

Over the years, The Radiance Foundation has published numerous articles on various news sites (all of which Judge Jackson ordered destroyed on our sites) about the NAACP’s pro-abortion actions. We’ve pointed out that Planned Parenthood co-sponsors the NAACP’s annual conventions and how the NAACP has shown its support of the nation’s largest abortion chain by frequently defending it. So, we satirically referred to the organization with a name more befitting of their pro-abortion advocacy–a name which we can’t even mention. We are prohibited by Judge Raymond Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, VA to speak or write, not only of the parody that we’ve used to describe the actions of the NAACP, but to ever parody the NAACP in the future.

The irony never ends: the nation’s second oldest civil rights group suing a black man for exercising his second most basic civil right—the freedom of speech. This lawsuit is nothing more than a multi-million dollar organization’s attempt to bully someone who’s simply telling the truth. Our inner-cities are crumbling, two-parent married families barely exist, 72.3 percent of black children are born into homes without fathers, and the NAACP wants to silence us for pointing out its documented support of the killing of over 16 million black lives since Roe.

I believe this trial in life will have a happy ending. We’ve now officially appealed this case to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals and are being defended by Alliance Defending Freedom. Our hope is that truth and justice prevail and that our guaranteed, precious right to free speech is protected. Even more importantly, we hope that so-called “leaders” in the civil rights movement have their consciences awakened to realize no right is more valuable and in need of defense than the foundational Right to Life.

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