Posted on 02/23/2005 10:29:48 AM PST by Coleus
A federal judge yesterday struck down a Woodbridge ordinance requiring protesters to obtain a permit from the police chief seven days before holding a demonstration with 20 or more people.
In a 26-page written opinion, U.S. District Judge William Bassler found the Woodbridge ordinance unconstitutional "because it delegates broad licensing discretion to the chief of police," contrary to prior decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This court has little trouble concluding that the Woodbridge ordinance threatens to chill free speech by imposing monetary penalties on groups that fail to comply with an unconstitutional pre-registration requirement," the judge said. "Clearly some groups may choose to forego engaging in free speech activities rather than risk violating the ordinance or subjecting themselves to the discretion of the chief of police."
Bassler said, "the chief of police's discretion is not constrained by any objective criteria and is therefore constitutionally defective."
The opinion clears the way for a Woodbridge couple, William and Katherine Dowling, to continue their weekly protests, unfettered by permits, outside of a women's clinic, American Women's Services, on Main Street. The clinic performs abortions.
The Dowlings, of Colonia, filed suit against the township last month, charging the ordinance violated their First Amendment rights to free speech.
The couple's main complaint with the ordinance was that it requires the organizer to obtain a permit seven days prior to the event from the police chief for any gathering of 20 or more people "for the purpose of demonstrating, picketing, speechmaking, marching and holding vigils."
Violators can be fined $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second offense and $1,000 for any additional offenses.
The Dowlings argued that they don't always know how many people are going to join them in advance.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
El bumperino.
ProLife Ping!
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Did you happen to see "House" last night? Amazingly, for Hollywood, positive , and tender portrayal of the pro-life ideal..public opinion is changing..
No, I didn't see it. Could you elaborate?
I've also noted that Without a Trace devoted a whole show to making pro-lifers look like terrorist sympathizers (an informant described a group of clinic bombers as "heroes to the whole movement") and pro-choicers look likebrave, kind souls, but I've also noticed that Horatio Crane is a pro-lifer, and his whole team is anti-porn.
Interesting dynamics.
That's Horatio Caine, and if you're unfamiliar with him he's on CSI Miami.
It's a medical drama..but with an edge to the leadign character...in this episode, there's a baseball player, with a life threatening disease..he needs a kidney transplant. His wife wants to donate one of hers. She is a match..they find out she's preganat, so she can't donate. She wants to have an abortion. The husband doesn't want her to..he says the child is the most important thing he's ever done..Initialy, one doctor is in favor of the abortion, another doctor questions that chocie, says that life exists in the fetus..the other doctor says " isn't that a religious point of view?"..the reply is "of course it is"..In the end the doctor who first was in favor of the abortion comes around, tells the mom to have the kid..happily for all, the real diagnosis come to light, the patient recovers, and all, includign the baby will live happily ever after..
all in all a very sympathetic depiction of both the sanctity of life, and the moral courage of those who defend it..I'll try to see it it's going to be re-run and ping you..
Google House TV..lots of more elaborate recaps than mine..I checked..but no rebraodcast scheduled in the near future..
I've been watching the way abortion is portrayed on TV (at elast, the TV I watch) and it's interesting how even libtastic shows will make it look like a complete tragedy with no upside and even play up the aspects of abortion that Kate Michelman doesn't want anyone discussing.
Take ER, for instance. One patient was portrayed as faking abdominal pain so she could get an ultrasound...and then she left to get a sex selection abortion, and the staff was horrified. In another case, Abby lockhart, one of the main characters, convinced a woman with several small children to consider having an abortion, and she did...but then she told her husband it had been a miscarriage and she agreed to try to have another child. In another case they played up the "life of the mother" angle in a story about a woman with a fast-growing cancer, but when the surgeon opened her up and discovered that she could not survive but the baby could be carried to term, they couldn't get the decision reversed and the child was needlessly killed. The show is very propagandistic when it deals with major issues, so their treatment of abortion seems to be saying, "Maybe we should rethink this stuff, huh?"
And as I mentioned, CSI Miami keeps doing pro-life storylines, including one where Horatio Caine couldn't get enough proof to prosecute a guy who murdered his girlfriend when she wouldn't abort. So he gets the guy in the interrogation room and hands him a picture of what his child might have looked like, and tells the guy, "Every year, on her birthday, you will look up, and I...will...be there."
ER is the West Wing set in a hospital..the 60's libs fantasy of what life on earth shoudl be like..
Perfect description. The one that really got me was when this one raving nut with a gun was trying to hunt down Dr. Green's family, and Chen and Carter were ticked off at the guy who shot him. Why? Because the citizen who stopped the shooting rampage owned a handgun in violation of chicago law. I just about died laughing.
BTTT!
Thanks for the ping. Read later bump.
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