Posted on 01/14/2009 12:46:22 AM PST by Fred
ANN ARBOR, MI — The U. S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it has denied a request to review a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld the constitutional rights of pro-life activists to display graphic photos of aborted babies on the public streets in California. The Supreme Court’s decision cements a victory for the Thomas More Law Center and the pro-life cause.
In July 2008, court observers were stunned when a unanimous 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision and held that pro-life activists had a constitutional right to display large graphic photos of aborted babies on the public streets adjacent to the Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The case involved a 75-minute police detention of two members of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. (CBR), a California-based pro-life organization. The CBR members had been driving a box-body style truck that displayed large photos of first-term aborted babies on its sides.
School officials and the LA County Sheriff’s Department claimed that the photos were “disruptive” in violation of a California penal statute. The Ninth Circuit ruled that deputy sheriffs violated the pro-lifers’ First Amendment right to Free Speech and their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable police seizures when they halted the peaceful demonstration.
In the opinion, which was written by Judge Harry Pregerson, who is considered by many to be one of the most liberal judges in the Ninth Circuit, and supported by Judges William A. Fletcher and Marsha S. Berzon, the Court ruled that “the government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear, or even anger.”
Click here to read the entire opinion.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, brought the case on behalf of CBR. The mobile billboard truck is part of CBR’s effort to expose as many people as possible to the horrors and realities of abortion.
Robert Muise, trial counsel for the Law Center who handled the case, commented on the decision, “This is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and the pro-life movement. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the Ninth Circuit’s ruling undisturbed, ensuring that there is no double standard for pro-life speech and affirming the fundamental principle of the First Amendment that government officials cannot prohibit silent, peaceful, non-obstructive, political speech on the public streets simply because certain listeners or viewers find the speech offensive.”
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services.
The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the Ninth Circuit’s ruling undisturbed, ensuring that there is no double standard for pro-life speech and affirming the fundamental principle of the First Amendment that government officials cannot prohibit silent, peaceful, non-obstructive, political speech on the public streets simply because certain listeners or viewers find the speech offensive.....
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Let us hope the new regime in Washington gets this message and that the SCOTUS continues to be consistent in its recognition of the Constitution’s enumerated powers and rights, especially the FIRST amendment.
Sorry, I don’t think displaying oversized images of bloody aborted babies next to a middle school is appropriate. It turns people off to the pro-life message and its messengers, rather than turning them off to abortion.
I don't think public school is appropriate, for the very same reasons (and for many other reasons)!
Don’t get me wrong. I am pro-life and anti-government schooling. But I think the bloody fetuses tack misses the mark.
I kind of agree. I think it’s better ammo to simply show pictures of normal baby development at the first trimester stage. This would let people know it’s not simply a blob of tissue, but an actual baby in there.
Unnecessary graphic depiction of violence may convince some though, and if they think they’re doing any good, let’em continue.
How did/does pictures of the Holocaust affect you?
Thomas More: The murderer of William Tyndale.
Not the name that I’d associate with the Pro-life movement.
One of the 20% of 9th Circus decisions that did not need to be overturned. Thank God that even the 9th Circus can get it right once in a while.
Kinda hard to do considering Tom More was DEAD by 1535, one year before Tyndale.
“and for heretics, as they be, the clergy doth denounce them; and, as they be well worthy, the temporality doth burn them; and after the fire of Smithfield hell doth receive them, where the wretches burn forever.”
Thomas More, about William Tyndale.
Tyndale languished in prison for 16 months before being executed.
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