Before the U.S. Supreme Court stands the “Contemplation of Justice” statue, in which a blindfolded Lady Justice symbolizes the impartiality of the law. The law should not “see” or care about who a person is when administering justice; everyone should be equal in the eyes of the law. Unfortunately, such principled impartiality does not always carry over to the agents of justice, who are subject to the corruption of ambition and avarice. As a recent report from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) details at length, the Biden administration systematically miscarried justice to advance the cause of abortion.

As other writers have ably summarized, the report by the Trump DOJ showed how the Biden DOJ created a “two-tiered system of justice.” It collaborated extensively with abortion groups, relied on their recommendations, fed them inside knowledge, and helped them obtain funding. By contrast, the Biden DOJ interacted frostily with pro-life groups, took little action to protect pro-life pregnancy resource centers from attacks, persecuted pro-life activists to the hilt, and even withheld evidence during prosecutions.

The Biden DOJ prosecuted pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which provides penalties for anyone physically obstructing the entrance of abortion facilities, pro-life pregnancy centers, or even a church. However, the Biden DOJ’s one-sided enforcement of this law was so egregious that some members of Congress are calling for its appeal, said Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) on “Washington Watch.”

“The Biden administration not only abused that law, but abused our pro-life community, if you will, with the persecutions and prosecutions that they moved forward with,” she declared. “They’ve used the law to be weaponized against what they perceive as their political enemies. And the pro-life movement has always been perceived to be an enemy of the Biden administration and pretty much the Democrats as a whole.”

To accelerate their one-sided prosecutions, the Biden administration actively collaborated with groups like the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which supplied dossiers on pro-life activists — in a form including date of birth, physical addresses, contact information, social media, and details on their children — many of whom were then charged with alleged FACE Act violations. Yet when testifying before Congress, the NAF’s chief legal officer said she did not communicate with the DOJ on FACE Act prosecutions.

The lawyer paused to choose her words carefully, so perhaps she did not technically lie. But, given the way it handed up these activists to the DOJ on a platter, if the NAF had no influence over FACE Act prosecutions, then Herodias and her daughter had no influence over the execution of John the Baptist.

As shocking as these new revelations may be, they are not surprising. They fit a pattern of behavior previously exposed in the Biden administration, especially inside the DOJ, of both weaponized law enforcement and illegitimate collusion with outside groups.

The Biden White House and DOJ colluded with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) in a campaign to investigate concerned parents as domestic terrorists. Administration officials gave input on the drafting of a letter the NSBA then sent to the administration asking for an investigation. Thus, they attempted to manufacture their own justification for a politicized investigation.

The Biden DOJ also spent resources spying on traditional Catholics, as if their religious beliefs made them domestic extremists. And they tried to ruin the life of Eithan Haim, a whistleblower who exposed a Texas hospital for secretly providing illegal transgender hormone treatments to minors. Beyond the DOJ, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pressured the World Professional Association of Transgender Health to modify their so-called “Standards of Care” for political reasons.

Thus, alas, in the case of the abortion lobby, neither the collusion nor the politicized prosecutions are surprising.

What made the DOJ’s weaponization that much more blatant was its conspicuous lack of enthusiasm for prosecuting any attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches, which are also protected under the FACE Act.

FRC has catalogued more than 1,000 incidents of hostility towards churches from 2022-2024, including even shootings, arson, and vandalism. Yet the DOJ brought more FACE Act prosecutions against pro-lifers peacefully protesting abortion businesses than against those responsible for attacking churches. The DOJ also asked for and received far harsher sentences for the pro-lifers, too.

Nearly three millennia ago, wise King Solomon warned that “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 17:15). But, due to the corrupting effects of power and money, the kings of Israel that succeeded him rarely heeded these words. Centuries later, the prophet Isaiah proclaimed “Woe to those … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” (Isaiah 5:22-23).

Has anything changed since then? Human nature has certainly not.

Yet citizens of a free society with the power to influence our governmental institutions can rightly express our horror at the revelations of this government weaponization and ask: what will keep it from happening again?

Repealing the FACE Act is one option, but that’s a tall order in a political environment where even the smallest infringements on abortion receive the same treatment as nuclear war.

Another option is for those injured by this weaponization to sue. Pro-life activist Mark Houck recently won a seven-figure settlement from the Department of Justice after they refused to allow him to self-surrender and chose instead to raid his home at dawn, frightening his children. Houck was later acquitted at trial of the charges brought against him. The downside to this solution is “the entire United States is having to pay for the problems that the Department of Justice created,” said Hageman. The Biden administration put its thumb on the scale of justice, and the U.S. taxpayer has to pick up the tab.

Hageman has proposed a third option, which is “to see these folks held accountable individually,” she explained. The Justice Department took a small step towards accountability when it fired at least four prosecutors responsible for the weaponized FACE Act cases, but more is needed. “That’s why I have introduced the First Amendment Accountability Act,” which “would hold federal employees liable in damages for injunctive relief and for attorney’s fees if they violate any one of our five pillars of the First Amendment, including freedom of religion.”

In an imperfect world, none of these solutions will usher in utopia, but all may make marginal contributions to securing the rights of Americans and preventing the DOJ from overstepping its bounds once again.

Once justice is first weaponized, administrations of both parties will feel the temptation to turn the levers of power against their opponents, as the second Trump administration has tried to prosecute the president’s enemies. (For instance, federal prosecutors arrived unannounced on Tuesday at the construction site for the Federal Reserve’s headquarters, as the latest move in Trump’s campaign against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.)

Thus, partisans on both sides have an incentive — or should feel an incentive — to preserve a system of impartial justice. Long before Solomon, Moses exhorted Israel’s judges, “Judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1:16-17). The principles that made for impartial justice then still make for impartial justice today.