Free speech victory
The right to enter an abortion clinic and terminate a pregnancy consistent with the statutes of one’s state must be protected — and so must be the right to express one’s strident opposition to that procedure. So the Supreme Court said in a sensible ruling invalidating a 2007 Massachusetts law creating 35-foot “buffer zones” around abortion clinics.
Four types of individuals were exempt from that law as written: those entering and leaving the facility, those who work there, law enforcement personnel and “persons using the public sidewalk or street right-of-way adjacent to such facility solely for the purpose of reaching a destination other than such facility.”
The bizarre result: Men, women and children seeking to go to neighboring dry cleaners can enter the zone and, as they do, talk about the weather. Yet men, women and children cannot legally enter the zone and exercise their First Amendment rights to political speech, which are supposed to be the single most protected form of expression under the Constitution.
Massachusetts and its allies contended that the extraordinary restrictions were the only viable way to protect those who need to access sensitive health-care services and are often hounded, and sometimes outright threatened, in the process. Not so. Harassment and intimidation are already against the law, quite correctly. In New York State, it is specifically illegal to use or threaten force to injure, intimidate or interfere with access to abortion clinics.
In New York City, an especially powerful law makes it a crime “to follow and harass another person within 15 feet of the premises of a reproductive health care facility.” Massachusetts went far beyond that. And lest this be seen through a partisan lens: The decision was unanimous, and Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion was joined by liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan (other justices wrote a concurring opinion).
Thuggery is a crime. Speech, even loud and impassioned speech, is the sometimes uncomfortable consequence of living in a free society.