Free Republic

The city council of Jackson, Mississippi voted 3-1 to enact 15-foot “buffer zones” around all medical facilities, including abortion facilities, where police will also be required to enforce restrictions on noise, such as “shouting.” Although the buffer zones are supposedly intended to apply to any health facility in the area, there is broad consensus that the law is actually aimed at pro-lifers protesting outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s only abortion facility. Supporters of the law claim it gives women “personal space,” but opponents point out that such buffer zones are an unconstitutional violation of free speech on...

ENGLEWOOD — A federal lawsuit challenging protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics and other health-care facilities in Englewood has been withdrawn. The plaintiffs, two anti-abortion advocates known for counseling women outside an Engle Street clinic, voluntarily dismissed the suit last month, according to City Attorney William Bailey. The reason for the dismissal was not clear. The attorney who filed the suit, Edward Gilhooly of the Legal Center for Defense of Life in Morristown, died in August. His co-counsel, Francis Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice in Kentucky, did not return calls for comment. Rosemary Garrett, one of...

Friday, 23 November 2012 17:00 Homeland Security Uses Local Police to Set Up Surveillance Buffer Zones Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. In order to sweeten the pot of federalization, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is giving gifts of expensive gadgets to local police forces. Cops in North Jersey, for example, were showered with gifts from their would-be overseers. As reported by The Record: Oradell, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park police have car-mounted night-vision technology and video and recording equipment that can watch over the Oradell Reservoir and dam — and the hikers and anglers entering it. West Milford...