Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, 540-538-4741

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- When Rev. Patrick Mahoney tried to use his cell phone at the Gorsuch hearings yesterday, he was told that taking pictures was prohibited.

Yet the Senate Committee on the Judiciary website states, "No flash photography is permitted in the hearing room, however non-flash photography is permitted."
www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/faq#Photography 

Rev. Mahoney plans to take pictures in defiance of this double standard at the Gorsuch hearing today, Wednesday, March 22.  He will hold a news conference at 3:00 p.m. on the corner of 1st and C Street NE where public tickets are being distributed, and then proceed to the Hart Senate Office Building, room 216.
 
Rev. Mahoney has a 40-year history of fighting for free speech and the First Amendment, including events such as winning a historic lawsuit to protest at Presidential Inaugurations, a victorious federal lawsuit against the Secret Service to demonstrate on the public sidewalk, securing the right to demonstrate and hold prayer vigils at both Republican and Democrat Presidential Conventions, fighting for the freedom to display crosses on the grounds of the United States Capitol, and challenging the Supreme Court to allow the showing of a film on the public sidewalk in front of the Court.

Rev. Mahoney, the Director of the Christian Defense Coalition and pastor of Church on the Hill, both based in Washington, D.C., states:

"One would expect that at a public hearing to confirm a Justice to the United States Supreme Court, free speech and the First Amendment would be honored and protected.  Sadly, that is not the case at the Judge Gorsuch hearings.  Despite stated Senate Judiciary Committee rules allowing the taking of photographs, staffers and law enforcement officials have banned visitors and guests from taking pictures.
 
"What makes this practice even more troubling is the fact that the Judiciary Committee is allowing 'credentialed' members of the press and media to take photographs, while banning that same right to ordinary Americans and citizen journalists. I plan on taking pictures tomorrow and sending them out through my social media networks."

For more information and interviews call
Rev. Patrick Mahoney at 540.538.4741