Contact: Mark Harrington, Executive Director of CBR Midwest, 614-419-9000, mark@cbrinfo.org

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 22 /Standard Newswire/ -- After almost five years of litigation, The Center for Bio Ethical Reform (CBR), a non profit education foundation, has been victorious in a lawsuit against two Ohio law enforcement agencies and the FBI. 

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, unanimously ruled that a three-hour police detention of law-abiding, pro-life demonstrators presented valid constitutional claims under the First and Fourth Amendments.  The Court reversed a lower court's decision in favor of the law enforcement officers.

The case arose out of an incident that occurred on June 10, 2002, while the demonstrators, including CBR Midwest Executive Director Mark Harrington from Columbus, were driving box-body style trucks displaying images of first-term aborted babies in the Dayton, Ohio area.  Thirteen officers, including officers from the City of Springboro Township and the FBI, were involved.

The panel ruled that law enforcement violated the demonstrators' Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable police searches and seizures.  The ruling also showed that the police violated the demonstrators' First Amendment rights by targeting them for disfavored treatment because they were "anti-abortion.”

Mark Harrington, CBR Midwest's Executive Director said, "After five years, justice has finally prevailed. We were discriminated against and harassed because of our pro life views. Thank God we still live in a nation ruled by laws and not been men where politically incorrect speech is still protected."