House Republicans Hold Hearing on FACE Act Enforcement After Trump DOJ Report

House Republicans held a hearing titled 'From Tool to Weapon: The FACE Act and the Dangers of Federalizing Criminal Law' on April 28, 2026, to review the Biden administration's application of the three-decade-old law. The Trump Department of Justice released an 882-page report detailing the Biden administration's use of the FACE Act to imprison nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life protesters, according to The Federalist.

The report found that the Biden administration used 'biased enforcement' of the FACE Act in violation of Americans' rights.

President Donald Trump signed a February 2025 executive order committed to 'Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias'. DOJ investigators initiated a probe after the February 2025 executive order. Communications revealed that the Biden administration colluded with abortion activists who supplied the DOJ with real-time reports of pro-life protest activity, The Federalist reported.

At least four Biden-era prosecutors were fired for their roles in FACE Act enforcement shortly before the report's release. Previously reported data suggested the Biden administration disproportionately focused its FACE Act prosecutions on pro-lifers who prayed, sang, and evangelized at abortion facilities.

The Trump administration’s latest report also determined the Biden DOJ requested and ultimately secured sentences that were longer for pro-lifers — an average of 26.8 months and 14 months respectively — than for other defendants, who averaged 12.3 months and 3 months respectively.

Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, testified at the hearing. Ferrara has litigated FACE Act defense cases for over 25 years. 'The FACE Act has been used to impose ridiculous injunctions, totally unheard of in any other context.

Speech-free buffer zones, bubble zones, and even floating bubble zones around clinics have created for pro-life advocates and them only what Justice Scalia described … ‘an entirely separate abridged edition of the First Amendment,’' Ferrara continued.

Eva Edl, a 90-year-old survivor of a Yugoslavian communist concentration camp, also testified. The Biden-Harris DOJ prosecuted Edl under the FACE Act in her late 80s for a pro-life protest. 'After all, we have enough laws that if somebody does something wrong, we have the means to punish them.

I plead with our government to stop the killing and go back to the foundational principle that our forefathers built this country on: that all human life has equal value before God,' Edl said.

Thirteen House Judiciary Committee Republicans voted in June 2025 to advance a bill to repeal the FACE Act. As House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan noted, just last week the Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted for shuttling secret fraudulent payments to racist groups, The Federalist reported.