On Thursday the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a 35-foot protest-free “buffer” zone outside abortion clinics in Massachusetts. The justices ruled that the zone violates the First Amendment rights of protesters.
Read the opinion below:
SCOTUS Strikes Down Abortion Clinic ‘Buffer’ Zone
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June 26, 2014 10:42 a.m.
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Of course, of course.
Let the intimidation of women seeking medical services begin.
Very narrow ruling. Supreme Court says that buffer zones are constitutional, but Massachusetts’ went too far, by limiting access to public sidewalks
“The upshot of today’s ruling is that an abortion clinic buffer zone is presumptively unconstitutional. Instead, a state has to more narrowly target clinic obstructions. For example, the police can tell protesters to move aside to let a woman through to the clinic. But it cannot prohibit protesters from being on the sidewalks in the first instance. If in practice protesters still are obstructing the entrance, then it can consider a broader restriction.”
Serious question. Does this just apply to abortion clinics?
Or could, say, a group of protesters camp out in front of a Wal-Mart or a Family Research Council office, screaming at the people that enter for engaging in greed or for bearing false witness?
In other words, does the First Amendment protect my right to loiter in front of any business or office that I personally disagree with and harass the people that work or shop there?
[Edit: Perhaps the distinction is that the ‘protest’ has to take place on a public sidewalk or in the public space in front of the business? Like a group of people could gather outside of a Gap, on the public sidewalk, and scream at shoppers for supporting child slavery, but they couldn’t do the same thing with regards to a Gap that was contained within a larger shopping mall unless they were camped out on the public sidewalk on the outskirts of the mall’s parking lot…]
[Second edit: There is still apparently a buffer zone in front of the Supreme Court building, preventing protests on the public plaza.]
Does this mean the elimination of “Free Speech” protest zones now as well? Wouldn’t it also invalidate any “protest permit required” laws?