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‘Bias in higher education is a clear problem,’ pro-life leader says

A former Biden Department of Justice official who prosecuted pro-life dads is teaching a “civil rights boot camp” at the University of Pennsylvania.

Former Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke’s class “will offer an overview of landmark federal civil rights statutes including those enacted by Congress in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement.”

These include “the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act,” and other more recent laws, according to a University of Pennsylvania news release.

“Our federal civil rights laws have played a central role in our democracy—creating opportunities, addressing historical challenges, and helping to ensure equal justice under law for all,” Clarke (pictured) stated in the news release.

This is not her only academic gig, as she will also “conduct research and engage with the Howard Law community on racial justice and civil rights, particularly around intersections with technologies such as artificial intelligence.”

However, she has faced criticism from Republican politicians and pro-life leaders for what they argue is selective targeting under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Texas Congressman Chip Roy said there is an “apparent disparity between prosecutions targeting pro-life protestors and pro-abortion attacks on places of worship and pregnancy resource centers.” He criticized Clarke in Feb. 2024 for not releasing data on prosecutions.

Clarke, and the Biden DOJ, used the law following the 2022 Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade to prosecute pro-life dads, some of whom had already been cleared of charges.

For example, Philadelphia prosecutor Larry Krasner declined to charge Mark Houck following a confrontation with an aggressive pro-abortion activist. A judge also threw out a civil lawsuit from the aggressive escort, who reportedly told Houck’s 12-year-old that he was “a fag.”

But then Clarke and the DOJ picked up the charge and launched an early-morning armed raid on Houck and his family before ultimately failing to secure a conviction. Houck had pushed the aggressive abortion activist who was harassing the pro-lifer’s son.

Clarke did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix on the controversy, nor did Penn Law.

However, Students for Life of America criticized Clarke’s appointment in an emailed statement to The Fix.

Kristi Hamrick suggested Clarke’s class “won’t be on law, but how to weaponize it,” against conservatives.

“The Biden Administration abused the law to more harshly punish people not based on what they did but how they think,” Hamrick said. “That viewpoint discrimination was clear in who they went after — not violent criminals, but peaceful pro-life Americans.”

“Bias in higher education is a clear problem,” the vice president of media and policy for SFLA, told The Fix. She said schools must balance conservative and liberal faculty to solve this problem,

When asked if Clarke should address her controversies surrounding the FACE Act, she said she hopes Clarke will issue an apology – “But I’m not holding my breath.”

Hamrick also referred The Fix to an article about the attacks on pro-life centers and allegations the Biden DOJ showed a double standard in prosecuting pro-life protestors but not pro-abortion activists.

Clarke also prosecuted Paul Vaughn, a pro-life dad of 11, who “peacefully prayed, sung hymns, witnessed for life, and spoken to law enforcement during a March 2021 pro-life gathering at a now-defunct abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee,” according to his attorneys at the Thomas More Society.

Though convicted, he was sentenced to three years supervised release, according to the Catholic News Agency.

MORE: Amherst College course will explore ‘history of race, gender’ through comic books

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke; Senate Democrats/Wikimedia Commons

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