Top Court Sides with Free Speech in Abortion-Protest Case


By Pete Winn,
Associate editor,
Focus on the Family, CitizenLink

SUMMARY: Justices say racketeering laws do not apply.

The Supreme Court said today that peaceful pro-life protest is not racketeering -- and federal laws designed to crack down on organized crime may not be used to silence those who demonstrate at abortion clinics.

Ruling in the case of Scheidler v. NOW for a third time, justices ruled 8-0 that Congress never intended for the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act to be used against pro-lifers who stand in front of abortion clinics. Justice Samuel Alito did not take part in the case.

RICO triples the amount of damages and allows for heavier fines and penalties against racketeers and drug kingpins. It's designed to break up crime organizations.

Writing for the Court, Justice Stephen Breyer said Congress did not intend to create "a freestanding physical-violence offense" when it created RICO or the underlying law it is tied to, the federal anti-extortion law known as the Hobbs Act.

Breyer also said Congress chose to address violence outside abortion clinics in 1994 by passing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Joe Scheidler, the namesake of Scheidler v. NOW, who has defended himself from the pro-abortion group for two decades, is relieved.

"It's over," he told CitizenLink. "Now we get our house back, and the injunction will be removed."

The national director of the Pro-Life Action League of Chicago, Scheidler said he is pleased with what he hopes is the final ruling of the court on the issue.

"We've been there three times already, which is a record," he said. "This one was unanimous, and it sounds very final -- like they don't want to mess around any more. I think they were insulted by the appellate court holding up their decision and saying (the Supreme Court was) wrong. We were there for the hearings, and the justices sounded pretty miffed at the idea that they didn't know their business."

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the original suit was filed in 1986, when the National Organization for Women joined forces with abortion-clinic owners to file suit against Scheidler -- later adding several members of Operation Rescue. More than 75 groups, including the AFL-CIO, filed friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of Scheidler's case -- and free speech.

"The abortionists and feminists wanted a nationwide injunction against those abortion protesters to prevent them from protesting at any abortion clinic in the nation," Hausknecht said. "They lost."

To get there, the Supreme Court had to reverse the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals three times.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, called the decision "a major victory for the pro-life community."

As attorney for Operation Rescue members in the case, Sekulow said it "removes a cloud that has been hanging over pro-life demonstrators for years."

Mat Staver, president of the Liberty Counsel, said the case is unlikely to come back to the high court.

"The way this decision was written -- it was unanimous -- it's clear the Supreme Court does not ever want to see this case again," he said. "In fact, they probably thought in 2003, when they made the previous ruling, that they would never see it again."

Staver said abortion clinics and providers wrongly used RICO for almost two decades.

"RICO can no longer hang like a sword of Damocles over the heads of pro-lifers," he said. "This is another event that will fuel the engine of the pro-life movement to stand up for life. It's this kind of threat which has in the past resulted in the silencing of the pro-life Americans."

Scheidler, notably, is not one who was ever silenced, despite horrible fines and legal costs. He has continued to pray and do sidewalk counseling at clinics while the case dragged on -- and said he hopes today's decision will bring more people out to the abortion clinics.

"What I really want to see come to an end," he said, "is this fear that they may be saddled with triple damages or spend time in jail if they simply go to an abortion clinic to pray and exercise their First Amendment right."

He said sidewalk counseling continues to be very effective.

"We've stopped thousands and thousands of abortions over the years," he said. "Every time we're there, we talk to some woman about using her common sense instead of acting in fear and distress -- and we give her help. That's what this is all about -- it's not about violence or anything else. It's about saving lives."