Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993 TAG: 9306150048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The court said Monday it has voted to review a ruling that spared Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups from being sued by abortion clinic operators under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
A decision is expected in 1994.
Arguments will be heard in the case this fall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated to the court by President Clinton on Friday, will take part if the Senate confirms her by that time.
As its 1992-93 term wound down to its final few weeks, the court also:
Revived a challenge to a Jacksonville, Fla., affirmative action program accused of violating the rights of companies owned by white men.
The 7-2 ruling left federal courts open to some who wish to challenge government programs, a result urged by various civil rights groups even though they supported the challenged Jacksonville program.
Spared trustees of health benefit and pension plans serving millions of American workers from having to transfer some money to new funds whenever employers withdraw and set up new funds.
The order in the abortion blockades case came as welcome news to the abortion-rights movement, which five months ago suffered a major setback when the high court ruled that federal judges cannot stop abortion clinic blockades.
But it was not well received at Operation Rescue. "If Operation Rescue loses this case, then freedom of speech is dead," said the Rev. Randall Terry, the group's founder. "Any politically unpopular protest group could be accused of racketeering and conspiracy for their activities."
The justices in January ruled that federal judges may not stop abortion clinic blockades by invoking an 1871 civil rights law, popularly called the Ku Klux Klan Act. The act bans conspiracies aimed at violating constitutional rights.
The latest appeal, filed by the National Organization for Women and abortion clinic owners, said anti-abortion groups comprise "a nationwide criminal conspiracy of extremists" bent on "unlawful and violent methods" to drive abortion clinics out of business.
Asked by the justices for its views, the Clinton administration said a federal appeals court was wrong in ruling that the federal law could not be used to sue Operation Rescue.
The RICO law, enacted in 1970, originally was aimed at organized crime but increasingly is used in lawsuits involving just about any business dispute.
The law bans "any person employed or associated with any enterprise in . . . interstate or foreign commerce . . . to participate in a pattern of racketeering activity."
Under RICO, a pattern of racketeering amounts to two or more "predicate acts" from a long list of underlying crimes.
by CNB