On October 14, 2022, the audience entered the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, USA, to participate in the reopening of the west end gallery of the museum.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
this National Air and Space Museum In Washington, D.C., agree to settle litigation A group of students, parents and guardians at a Catholic school in South Carolina were told by security guards to remove hats with anti-abortion messages when they visited the school last year, according to a court filing Monday.
The federally funded museum agreed to pay a total of $50,000 to more than a dozen plaintiffs to settle the lawsuit, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. Payment includes attorney’s fees.
The settlement also requires the museum director to take the plaintiff on a tour of the Smithsonian Institution’s largest museum and apologize to the plaintiff for the incident on Jan. 20, 2023, the filing said.
The Smithsonian Institution has agreed to inform security personnel at all its museums and the National Zoo about its policy of allowing hats and other clothing to be printed with messages, “including religious and political statements.”
The settlement was reached four months later national archives The Washington museum agreed to pay $10,000 to a small group of plaintiffs and abide by similar conditions to resolve a similar lawsuit.
The plaintiffs in the case were told by National Archives guards to either wear clothing with “anti-abortion” messages or leave the federally run institution on January 20, 2023.
On October 14, 2022, spectators visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, USA, to watch the reopening of the west end gallery of the museum.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The events at two museums along the Washington Mall took place on the same day as the anti-abortion March for Life in the nation’s capital, a march attended by plaintiffs in each case
More than a dozen plaintiffs from Our Lady of the Rosary Church and School in Greenville, South Carolina, wore blue hats emblazoned with the words “Rose Life” while visiting the Air and Space Museum.
According to their lawsuit, members of the group were asked by guards at various locations at the museum to remove their hats.
“You’re all about to make my day,” one guard allegedly told several of the plaintiffs, adding, “We’ve told you many times to take your hat off and you’re not taking it off. You need to take it off, or leave.”
The guard also allegedly said the First Amendment “doesn’t apply here.”
In fact, because of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, neither the museum nor the National Archives will ban customers because they have information on their clothing.
After the lawsuit was filed in February 2023, both museums apologized for the conduct of their conservation staff toward the plaintiffs.
A spokesman for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Christian group representing plaintiffs in both lawsuits, had no immediate comment on the latest settlement.
When asked for comment, a spokesman for the National Air and Space Museum referred reporters to court documents detailing the settlement.
The Justice Department, which is defending the museum in the lawsuit, declined to comment.
About The Author
