Posted on 06/26/2018 8:25:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a California law that compels pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion services is unconstitutional.
In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas and released Tuesday, the high court ruled in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra that the Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency (FACT) Act "unduly burdens protected speech."
"The unlicensed notice imposes a government-scripted, speaker-based disclosure requirement that is wholly disconnected from California's informational interest," wrote Justice Thomas.
"California has offered no justification that the notice plausibly furthers. It targets speakers, not speech, and imposes an unduly burdensome disclosure requirement that will chill their protected speech."
Thomas also wrote that the law not only forced pro-life centers to promote abortion, but to do so while diminishing their own message on pregnancy care.
"As California conceded at oral argument, a billboard for an unlicensed facility that says 'Choose Life' would have to surround that two-word statement with a 29-word statement from the government, in as many as 13 different languages," continued Thomas.
"In this way, the unlicensed notice drowns out the facility's own message. More likely, the 'detail required' by the unlicensed notice 'effectively rules out' the possibility of having such a billboard in the first place."
Thomas was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent and was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan.
In 2015, California passed Assembly Bill 775 or the FACT Act. The law mandated that all licensed pregnancy health centers, among other things, include a sign that refers patients to abortion clinics.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
This is why that (irrespective of spirited and healthy internecine rancor during the primaries) we vote as a Conservative bloc in the presidential.
5-4 again,. These liberal activists have got to be replaced
3 of the four dissenters probably don’t have long...not all is as bad as the close votes make it seem.
No, no, no! The biggest prize of them all is still out there - government unions not being able to force public employees to pay dues. That’ll be a huge chunk of money out of the DNC coffers.
Why aren’t we out there suing these places that do abortions and make them advertise alternatives to abortions. Why is it we’re always on the defensive? This is great but while we gloat the left is thinking up new ways to attack.
I haven’t seen that prayer since I was in the 8th grade at Epiphany school in NYC when Kennedy was POTUS. Thanks for posting and awaking a memory.
SCOTUS was my primary purpose for voting for Trump.
Waiting for the UNION ruling...THAT one will be big, also.
Bump!
9th Circus shouldve having to reimburse legal costs of every one of their edicts that is overturned.
Now if we can just get one or two more justices it would be really super!
Great day at the Supremes!
“Great day at the Supremes!”
Not sure if it is over yet. Still dealing with the labor issue. If Trump wins this, it can kill the unions, which actually helps Trump.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85, Breyer is 79 and Kennedy is 81.
I think the older judges on the right should retire as well, so we can get younger conservatives in there who will be there for decades.
Breyer, Ginsburg, and ...?
Amen!
A double smackdown of the Ninth Circuit by the Supreme Court: this case and the Travel Ban.
Because conservatives generally mind their own business while the leftists are always on the offense, always meddling, never satisfied, looking to make that Heaven on Earth, driven by their never-ending Feelz. Conservatives need to go on the offense more often and punch the leftists' noses every so often and make it bleed.
I agree. 5-4 on free speech? Not good. This should have been obvious to all of them.
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