Joe addresses the Thomas More Society gala, Oct. 20 [Photo by Dan Gura]
Joseph M. Scheidler received the William Lloyd Garrison Award at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center in Highland Park, Illinois, Saturday, October 20.
The Thomas More Society was founded in 1997 specifically to defend Joe in the infamous NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit brought by the National Organization for Women. With a victory twice in the United States Supreme Court, overturning the 1998 Judgment against Scheidler and the pro-life defendants, the Thomas More Society became the go-to law firm for pro-life activists facing legal challenges.
Scheidler’s award is named in honor of the nineteenth century abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, who was outspoken in his opposition to slavery. Garrison advocated the immediate abolition of the institution of slavery. In the first issue of his anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, he stated: “I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.”
Garrison was considered the most radical of abolitionists, but he also adherred adamantly to nonviolence and passive resistance, and philosophy that also permeates the pro-life activist movement. Scheidler is honored to be cast in the same mode as William Lloyd Garrison.
