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Former CNN host Don Lemon walked free on Friday after a judge ordered his release without bond or any travel restriction following his arrest.
Federal agents arrested Lemon Thursday night in Los Angeles. You will recall that Lemon stormed an evangelical church in St. Paul, Minn., a couple of Sundays ago. U.S. District Judge Patricia Donahue imposed no domestic travel restrictions, allowing Lemon to move freely within the United States.
Federal prosecutors sought to impose domestic and international travel restrictions on Lemon, including barring travel to New York and requiring him to surrender his passport.
The Department of Justice argued the restrictions were necessary, but Lemon’s attorney pushed back, citing a previously scheduled international trip as grounds to oppose the surrender of Lemon’s passport.
It appears that the religious freedom that our Founding Fathers revered is nothing more than a stumbling block to the atheist, humanist, and cultural Marxists of America's Left.
Are we moving toward a time when these Leftists can interrupt and shut down a Christian church worship service whenever they feel the urge to do so? Without consequence?
Here's what you should know.
Be informed, not misled.
Interestingly, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attended the hearing in person. Bass had been reported earlier this week to be traveling from Washington, D.C., where she attended a conference, according to Politico.
When Lemon entered the courtroom, he briefly blew a kiss toward the side of the room where Bass was seated. Members of Lemon’s family were seated in the same section.
The judge approved international travel, allowing Lemon to proceed with his annual trip to France, court officials said during the hearing. Lemon’s defense attorney, Marilyn Bednarsk, said Lemon plans to plead not guilty and will fight the case, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Can dissenters shut down Christian churches without consequence?
The trials have not yet begun, but it appears that this judge is leaning heavily toward a "yes."
This reminds me of some of my own experiences some years ago when I was preaching in Poland, which was, at the time, under communist control.
The local pastors had prepared me for it, but it was still a bit shocking when communist agents began walking into each church where I was speaking, just as I began my message.
They walked to the front of the church, sat on the front pew, and began, very ceremoniously, recording everything I said.
No, I didn't change what I had planned to say. But I wondered if I would be detained after the service. Or if the service would be shut down.
But I never dreamed I would see the day in our own America when worship services would be shut down by activists and the Southern Baptist congregation would be labeled as "White Supremacists".
Lemon is scheduled back in court in a week or so. He says he will plead "not guilty."
At this point, the indications are that the so-called "journalist" Don Lemon and the two dozen or so activists who also entered the church during worship and shut down the service will not be found guilty of doing so.
I pray that doesn't happen.
Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says the Don Lemon criminal case is unlikely to result in a conviction.
Dershowitz said on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren” that the First Amendment offers broad protections to journalists, even in volatile protest settings, and prosecutors would need far more than footage to secure a guilty verdict.
"So this is complex, but my prediction is it will not end in a criminal conviction for Don Lemon,” Dershowitz told host Greta Van Susteren.
Dershowitz said prosecutors would face a steep burden proving criminal liability, arguing that while certain actions could strip a journalist of First Amendment protection, the available evidence does not show Lemon crossed that legal line.
“It may cross the line of journalistic ethics. But there’s an enormous difference between violating journalistic ethics, if he did,” Dershowitz added. “I’m not sure he did, but if he did in this case, and being able to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he was a co-conspirator and somebody who was complicit in the illegal violations.”
Then Dershowitz said this:
“It’s a hard case even for the protesters. Martin Luther King protested in churches. Of course, he was willing to accept the consequences. He went to the Birmingham jail and wrote one of the most beautiful letters ever written from a president,” Dershowitz said. “These guys are not Martin Luther King. And so they’re more like, in some ways, the people who are trying to prevent integration in the South in the 1960s and preventing federal agents from desegregating the South.”
But MLK didn't just bust into the services unannounced and uninvited; he spoke there. He was a guest speaker who had been properly invited by the church leaders.
I can't quite make the connection. These activists, along with Don Lemon, were clearly denying the church congregation their right to worship God.
Lemon says he acted as a journalist while covering the Jan. 18 incident in which anti-ICE rioters stormed Cities Church in St. Paul.
While he denied knowing the church was the group’s destination, his early comments suggested he knew exactly where the protesters were heading.
Takeaway
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told podcaster Benny Johnson in a media appearance that Lemon could potentially face being charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. That's a law enacted by the Left to keep pro-life Christians away from abortion shop entrances.
I believe this is an attack on religious freedom.
Billy Graham said, "In addition, thank God, He has given us freedom of religion. Whatever you may believe, no one can close your church because your religion does not coincide with his.”
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Watchful. Be Prayerful.
