On Tuesday, a federal appeals court determined that the government of Washington, D.C. displayed bias by issuing much harsher punishments against pro-life protesters than it did against Black Lives Matter rioters.

As Just The News reports, the court wrote in its decision that “in the summer of 2020, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the District to proclaim ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Over several weeks, the protesters covered streets, sidewalks, and storefronts with paint and chalk.”

“The markings were ubiquitous and in open violation of the District’s defacement ordinance,” the court continued, “yet none of the protesters was arrested.”

But in August of the same year, two pro-life protesters who simply wrote “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” in chalk “on a public sidewalk” were arrested and charged under the city’s “defacement” ordinances.

The lawsuit was filed on the activists’ behalf by the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America.