For immediate release
February 8, 2010

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director, (262) 796-1111, cell (414) 416-0489;
Matt Sande, Legislative Director, cell (262) 352-0890;
or Virginia Zignego, Communications Director, (262) 796-1111, cell (262) 370-3993

Department of Homeland Security prepared threat assessment on Wisconsin pro-life activity

In response to an open records request by the Alliance Defense Fund and Pro-Life Wisconsin, the Middleton Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) all refused, on February 4, to release a homeland security "threat assessment" that had been prepared against pure free speech activities.

In February 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Middleton Police Department inappropriately shared a homeland security "threat assessment", prepared by DHS and targeted at local free speech activities "by pro- and anti-abortion groups." The threat assessment concerned free speech at a University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics meeting, at which a vote was taken to approve late-term abortions at the Madison Surgery Center.

"The majority of Americans identify themselves as pro-life, and the Middleton Police Department has shown they are out of touch with this peaceful majority," said Peggy Hamill, state director. "Pro-lifers are not a minority of the population, nor are they second-class citizens. We refuse to let our First Amendment rights be silenced."

A few months later in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights concluded (view here) the investigation was an improper use of department resources inappropriately directed against activities protected by the First Amendment, in which law enforcement inappropriately engaged in "the collection, retention and dissemination of U.S. person information regarding protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security and... violated [DHS] Guidelines." The New York Times mentioned this reprimand here but the nature and location of the event was not known until now, nor was it known that a copy of the report still exists.

DHS destroyed its copies of the report, but the Middleton Police Department retained its copy. In January 2010 the Alliance Defense Fund, on behalf of Wisconsin pro-life advocates, asked (view here ) the Middleton Police Department for a copy of the report pursuant to Wisconsin's open records laws. The Middleton Police Department refused to disclose the report (view here) , and further said that the DOJ similarly refused to authorize disclosure of the report, despite the fact that DHS had already determined that the report was an improper investigation of freedom of speech activities.

"This move by DHS illustrates the Obama administration's goal of silencing pro-lifers. It is disturbing that a local police department has apparently tapped into the security apparatus of the federal government to potentially obstruct free speech," Hamill concluded. "Last year, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano unjustly included pro-lifers in a report on domestic terrorism, and here we see her words in action."

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