Justice Department fires prosecutors involved in Biden-era FACE Act cases

The Justice Department has fired at least four prosecutors who worked on Biden-era FACE Act cases, a move that cuts to the core of whether the new administration intends to preserve civil-rights enforcement continuity or redirect it. Among those dismissed was Sanjay Patel, a longtime civil rights prosecutor who had been placed on administrative leave last month.

The firings came as the department’s weaponization working group was finalizing a report on the FACE Act and the Biden Justice Department, sharpening the political stakes around a law that has long been central to clinic-access prosecutions. A Justice Department spokesperson said the fired employees were responsible for “weaponizing the FACE Act,” a charge former department lawyer Stacey Young rejected as a punishment of civil servants for doing their jobs.

Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994 after rising threats and intimidation at reproductive health clinics. The law makes nonviolent first offenses misdemeanors, while repeat violations or offenses that cause bodily injury or death can be charged as felonies. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division says the statute protects access to reproductive health care clinics and places of religious worship, and authorizes both injunctive relief and monetary penalties.

The Trump Justice Department narrowed enforcement sharply in a Jan. 24, 2025 memo, saying future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions would be allowed only in extraordinary circumstances or cases with major aggravating factors such as death, serious bodily harm or serious property damage. It also said no new abortion-related FACE Act actions could move ahead without Civil Rights Division authorization, and ordered dismissal with prejudice of several pending cases, including United States v. Connolly, United States v. Zastrow, et al., and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, et al.

That retreat has raised alarms among Democrats and abortion-rights advocates who see the FACE Act as one of the few federal tools to protect patients and clinic staff from blockades and intimidation. During the Biden administration, the Justice Department said it brought at least 25 FACE Act cases against nearly 60 defendants. A House Judiciary hearing later cited 24 prosecutions against 55 defendants from the start of the Biden-Harris administration through May 2024, with only two involving attacks on pregnancy resource centers.

Those numbers included a May 2024 lawsuit against Citizens for a Pro Life Society, Red Rose Rescue and seven individuals over a 2021 blockade at Ohio reproductive health facilities, as well as an August 2024 case in which seven defendants were convicted in Michigan for blocking access to clinics in Sterling Heights and Saginaw. In March 2025, 72 House Democrats led by Jerrold Nadler, Sean Casten and Jan Schakowsky urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to fully enforce the statute, warning that limiting enforcement would put patients and providers at risk. The latest firings now test whether the Justice Department will continue treating clinic access as a civil-rights priority or leave enforcement to the margins.