Court upholds Ohio raid ruling for US marshals

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court today upheld dismissal of a lawsuit against U.S. marshals in the raid of a strident anti-abortion author’s southwest Ohio home, but sharply questioned the property seizure.

The three-judge 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower-court ruling that the marshals were legally protected from being sued while carrying out the court order for seizure of property against Michael Bray.

Court documents show that the order came after a Planned Parenthood organization in Oregon won an $850,000 award from Bray in a lawsuit against activists they sued for intimidation by threat of force against abortion providers.

The panel called the 2007 Wilmington, Ohio, raid “a home attack” on Bray’s ability to express ideas.

“If the facts alleged in the complaint are true, this case involves an incident that is more like raids by Red Guards during China’s Cultural Revolution than like what we should expect in the United States of America,” wrote Judge John M. Rogers in the opinion.

Bray, who earlier served four years in prison in connection with attacks on abortion clinics in the Washington D.C. area, is the author of “A Time to Kill,” defending violence to protect the unborn.