THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010387
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN BISKUPIC, THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that judges may prevent demonstrators from closely approaching abortion clinics on public sidewalks and streets without violating their rights to freedom of speech.
The court allowed judges to prevent protesters from coming within 36 feet of a clinic in an effort to defuse the clamorous demonstrations that have become routine at clinics.
But in a 6-3 decision, the court said that a Florida judge's order preventing protesters from approaching patients within 300 feet of a clinic went too far. The justices said that it hampered the First Amendment rights of demonstrators more than necessary to prevent intimidation and to ensure clinic access.
The justices, however, also upheld an order that restrained protesters from chanting, shouting, using bullhorns and making other loud noises within earshot of the patients at the clinic during morning surgical and recovery hours.
``The First Amendment does not demand that patients at a medical facility undertake Herculean efforts to escape the cacophony of political protests,'' Rehnquist wrote.
Overall, the court gave judges strong authority to check protests. Dissenting justices said the court ``has left a powerful loaded weapon lying about today'' that could be used to squelch the speech of objectors of all sentiments.
Anti-abortion activists vehemently attacked the decision. ``You can't give people your message when you have to stay 36 feet away,'' said Mathew Staver, a lawyer who has represented the protesters. He said they seek only to counsel women not to end their pregnancies.
Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which had helped defend the Melbourne, Fla., clinic, said the decision was ``a good omen for the 40 other local and state injunctions in place'' at the nation's abortion clinics. Having Chief Justice (William H.) Rehnquist hand down the decision makes it stronger.''
Rehnquist, who has written that there is no right to abortion in the Constitution, nonetheless said Thursday that the government has an interest in making sure pregnant women can get to a clinic for medical and counseling services.
Rehnquist was joined in full in Madsen vs. Women's Health Center by Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Sandra Day O'Connor, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Stevens joined part of the ruling but would have invoked a standard more deferential to the local judge, for example, to uphold the 300-foot buffer zone at the clinic.
Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, joined by Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
KEYWORDS: ABORTIONS U.S. U.S. SUPREME COURT RULINGS
DECISIONS PROTESTERS by CNB