Court to hear abortion protest appeal

MSNBC NewsAlert/AP ^ | 4/22/02 | staff

[jwalsh07]

He's long gone, a coward in a jackals hide.

[T Ruth]

"Pro-Choice" is not honest. "Pro-abortion" would be. Pro-abortionists cannot abide the truth. Pro-abortionists are not in the majority. Many states would promptly outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court would allow them to. Pro-abortionists are afraid of democracy and freedom of speech.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Impeach Scalia

member disrupter since April 22nd, 2002

[dpa5923]

Damn, you beat me to it.

[supercalifragilistic]

LOL Ya know, that is what I hate about liberals. They never seem to discuss issues from real conviction. Trying to talk with them is like trying to reason with my wobbly little chilluns.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Impeach Scalia......No current Freeper by that name.

Lasted all of three post, not even an hour.

[weegee]

The radio news headline (ABC) that I heard yesterday about this topic basically said that since it was an (interstate) group organized to put abortion clinics out of business that they were guilty of racketeering.

So the protesters against tobacco are guilty of racketeering? PETA's campaign against fur sales? Ad nauseum...

[Campion]

So the protesters against tobacco are guilty of racketeering? PETA's campaign against fur sales? Ad nauseum...

If you consistently apply the findings of the lower courts, yes. Absolutely. Basically any organized boycott attempt would also be "racketeering".

There's also an element of "guilt by proxy". The argument, which has been destroyed by a different appeals court in a different case (I believe it's called "Planned Parenthood vs. American Life Advocates"), is that pro-life protests "contribute to a climate of violence" and are therefore can be suppressed as "racketeering". It doesn't matter (so the claim goes) that the people they're targeting as "racketeers" made no threats and committed no violent acts themselves. It's sufficient that people who agree with them made threats and committed violent acts.

Think about that for awhile. If a violent gun-rights group started bombing gun-control groups' offices, would it make sense to declare that NRA, GOA, and JPFO were "racketeers" because people who shared some of their political views committed violent acts, even though NRA, GOA, and JPFO could not be linked to any of those acts?

Talk about a ready-made legal justification for a partisan witch-hunt!