Press Statement on Incident at the National Archives Museum and Related Lawsuit
Media Alert · Friday, February 10, 2023

Washington, DC

Earlier this week, a lawsuit was filed against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) stating that on the morning of January 20, 2023, the day of the March for Life, several visitors to our museum in Washington, D.C., were told by NARA security officers “to remove or cover their attire because of their pro-life messages.” 

As the home to the original Constitution and Bill of Rights, which enshrine the rights of free speech and religion, we sincerely apologize for this occurrence. 

NARA policy expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, etc. that display protest language, including religious and political speech.  We are actively investigating to determine what happened. Early indications are that our security officers quickly corrected their actions and, from that point forward, all visitors were permitted to enter our facility without needing to remove or cover their attire. We have reminded all of our security officers at our facilities across the country of the rights of visitors in this regard.  

Because a lawsuit has been filed, we cannot comment further.