Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220325
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The decision not only adds to the financial troubles of Operation Rescue, but gives abortion-rights lawyers a new legal weapon against vehement protesters.
After a series of anti-abortion demonstrations blocked clinics in New York, federal courts there declared that Operation Rescue had violated an 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, by conspiring to deprive women of their right to get an abortion.
The law made it illegal for "two or more persons" to conspire "for the purpose of depriving any person or class of persons" from exercising their constitutional rights.
Based on this law, the federal courts imposed a permanent ban in New York against blocking the entrances to an abortion clinic or harassing its patrons and employees.
It was the second time in two weeks that the justices rejected an appeal from Operation Rescue.
Last week, the organization's lawyers in Atlanta challenged on free speech grounds a judge's strict order forbidding anti-abortion protesters from blocking sidewalks in front of clinics or bothering those trying to enter.
On a 5-4 vote last week, the high court refused to lift that order, which had not yet been violated by the group.
In the New York case, the anti-abortion protesters violated the judge's order and then appealed their contempt fines through the federal court system. The result was the same: The justices turned down the appeal, this time unanimously (Randall Terry vs. New York State NOW, 89-1408).
Last fall, the justices also let stand a ruling from Philadelphia allowing anti-abortion activists to be sued for damages under the federal racketeering law known as RICO.
The Supreme Court, as usual, did not explain its reasons for refusing to hear the Operation Rescue appeal. The justices generally caution against reading much into such a refusal.
But the recent high court actions, when combined with an array of lower court rulings, suggest that the federal judiciary is unwilling to tolerate anti-abortion protests that involve harassing women or blocking facilities.
The New York case clearly involved a clash of two constitutional rights: the right to freely protest abortion and the right of women to get an abortion as set forth in the Roe vs. Wade ruling.
But the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals, in rejecting Operation Rescue's appeal, drew a clear line between legal protest and illegal harassment.
"There is no constitutional privilege to assault or harass an individual or to invade another's personal space," wrote Judge Richard Cardamone, a Ronald Reagan appointee to the appeals court. "Blocking access to public and private buildings has never been upheld as a proper method of communication in an orderly society."
Equally significant, the appeals court ruled that the Ku Klux Klan Act protects women in their right to seek an abortion.
by CNB