Pro-life activist Mark Houck and his wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, are suing the federal Department of Justice over the DOJ’s treatment of their family, accusing the DOJ of a “faulty” investigation that led to an excessively forceful arrest and a “malicious and retaliatory prosecution” that has severely impacted their entire family.

Houck is a Catholic father of seven who was arrested and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Abortion Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act by President Joe Biden’s administration. A jury found him not guilty of the federal charges in January, and he announced in August that he is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District.

The DOJ’s FACE Act charges stemmed from a 2021 incident outside a Philadelphia-based Planned Parenthood where Houck pushed an abortion clinic volunteer who was repeatedly harassing his son, Mark Jr. Local authorities ultimately dismissed the matter—until the Biden DOJ re-upped it in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.