Supreme Court Backs Abortion Protesters

Yahoo news ^ | 2/28/06 | TONI LOCY, AP

[conservatrice]

The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to abortion clinics in a two-decade-old legal fight over anti-abortion protests, ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations.

The 8-0 decision ends a case that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had kept alive despite a 2003 ruling by the high court that lifted a nationwide injunction on anti-abortion groups led by Joseph Scheidler and others.

Anti-abortion groups brought the appeal after the appellate court sought to determine whether the injunction could be supported by charges that protesters had made threats of violence.

In Tuesday's ruling, Justice Stephen Breyer said Congress did not intend to create "a freestanding physical violence offense" in the federal extortion law known as the Hobbs Act.

Instead, Breyer wrote, Congress chose to address violence outside abortion clinics in 1994 by passing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which set parameters for such protests.

Social activists and the AFL-CIO had sided with abortion demonstrators in arguing that lawsuits and injunctions based on the federal extortion law could be used to thwart their efforts to change public policy or agitate for better wages and working conditions.

The legal battle began in 1986, when the National Organization for Women filed a class-action suit challenging tactics used by the Pro-Life Action Network to block women from entering abortion clinics.

NOW's legal strategy was novel at the time, relying on civil provisions of the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was used predominantly in criminal cases against organized crime. The lawsuit also relied on the Hobbs Act, a 55-year-old law banning extortion.

A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction against the anti-abortion protesters after a Chicago jury found in 1998 that demonstrators had engaged in a pattern of racketeering by interfering with clinic operations, menacing doctors, assaulting patients and damaging clinic property.

But the Supreme Court voided the injunction in 2003, ruling that the extortion law could not be used against the protesters because they had not illegally "obtained property" from women seeking to enter clinics to receive abortions.

Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the decision.

The cases are Scheidler v. NOW, 04-1244, and Operation Rescue v. NOW, 04-1352.

___

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov

Read the opinion.

[evad]

Only 2% of abortions are for "health of the mother"

Actually, I'm amazed that it's that high.

[Dajjal]

Wonderful news! Many prayers of thanksgiving!

[festus]

Is it me or does that logo behind her look like a certain "orafice" ?

[infowarrior]

That's similar to what I heard on ABC Radio this morning. They basically said Alito abstained.

Which, having *not* been on the Court at the time oral arguments were heard, was the proper and ethical thing to do. Had he been ethically able to vote, I have little doubt he would have sided with the majority, thus making it unanimous...

the infowarrior

[Rembrandt]

Time they changed their name from NOW to THEN. (thanks to Kate O'Beirne)

[Cicero]

Now maybe Scheidler and the other victims of this long-running persecution by the forces of death can get on with their lives.

It's good to see that not even the liberals on the court were willing to put up with this sham any longer.

Of course, the Supreme Court already voted once to this effect, and the lower courts ignored the decision. Let's hope it was clearly enough stated this time to put an end to this ungodly persecution of innocent people.

[infowarrior]

BINGO, regardless of your abortion rights views, using RICO against protestors was a draconian measure.

It is interesting to note, that when the RICO law was first being debated, a young female lawyer went to Senator Edward Kennedy himself, to gain assurances that said act would not, *could* not be used in such a fashion. That lawyer was Patricia Ireland, who went on to become the head of NOW, and went about utilizing the RICO act in the very fashion she complained about to Kennedy...

the infowarrior

[mike182d]

It's a bit of an exaggeration to claim "mother" status to someone who kills their young.

I sure hope you're happy. You just offened mother hamsters everywhere.

[mkjessup]

So it is to the benefit of all conservatives to expose the corruption (tax fraud, in my opinion) as well as the criminal activity (helping child molesters and sexual predators). The MSM will consider Planned Parenthood a sacred cow, so conservatives I hope will act. Sorry for the long winded opinion...

No apology necessary, as long as that wind isn't in Fat Teddy's backyard where it might be banned along with those unsightly windmills. ;)

[mkjessup]

I had an abortion many years ago.
Since then, I've become a staunch conservative, have found my faith in God, and don't need a picture to know that it was wrong. And there are millions of women like me, more than would come out and admit it like I did. My own daughter will know it is wrong, regardless of what a self-centered celebrity-driven culture may tell her.

Women who've had abortions are victims of a malicious lie, perpetrated by feminist and pornographic interests. I suggest that the rhetoric against us be toned down. Many of us are now on the side of life, and only God will decide our fate.

Your testimony is powerful and you are to be commended. I do believe however, that the only way that the culture of death, specifically the mass murder we see being committed via abortions in this Country will be curtailed will be through the modern day equivalent of a huge scarlet "A" on those women who, after being faced with the reality of their unborn child, choose to kill that child regardless.

God alone determines the fate of us all, individually and collectively. To your credit and by your own admission, you have come to know the Truth, and that Truth set you free indeed. I know full well that you do not need a picture to remind you of the past.

Unfortunately there are scores more of your gender who will not only flee from the Truth, they will curse that Truth and call their actions enlightened.

God Bless You.

[crushelits]

The 8-0 decision.

Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the decision.

[cpforlife.org]

Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[TAdams8591]

"The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to abortion clinics in a two-decade-old legal fight over anti-abortion protests, ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations."

There will be others, but finally, this vicious ploy by pro-choice groups against pro-lifers is DEAD.

[XR7]

BTTT

[Robert A Cook PE]

I sure hope you're happy. You just offened mother hamsters everywhere.

...

Well, hamsters. And other animals.

[Raycpa]

One very important thing to remember. This was not an anti-abortion decision. It was a pro free-speech decision.

Abortion cannot survive in an atmosphere of free speech.

[Luke21]

The Asspress reporter is a good Soviet apparatchik. Calls the NOW approach using racketeeering statutes, "novel."

The Roberts Court is going to be something else, especially if we can hold the senate and get one more justice.

[linda_22003]

Or accidentally pouring glue into the locks.