December 16, 2002
Supreme Court hears abortion protest case
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Should abortion protests fall under anti-racketeering laws or does its use chill non-violent protest?
___The Supreme Court considered the legal implications of abortion protests Dec. 4 in a case stemming from a 1998 finding by a Chicago jury.
___"Classic protest actions venerated in American history would be crimes," Roy Englert, a lawyer representing leaders of the Pro-Life Action League, told the justices.
___He and other lawyers for abortion protesters believe civil disobedience such as that used by Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights marchers would be threatened if previous rulings in the case are upheld by the high court.
___Englert's clients and Operation Rescue were found liable for acts of violence and coercion that violated federal racketeering and extortion laws. Clinics in Milwaukee and Delaware were awarded damages, and a federal judge later ordered a permanent nationwide halt to the protests. The 7th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and the injunction in 2001.
___A lawyer for supporters of abortion rights urged the Supreme Court to uphold the verdict, saying it would not stop non-violent protest but would prevent organizers of violent intimidation campaigns from escaping punishment.
___"We ask the court not to turn the clock back on 50 years of (anti-racketeering) law," Fay Clayton, an attorney for the National Organization for Women, told the court.
___Solicitor General Theodore Olson, representing the federal government, told the justices that the court should uphold the appellate court's interpretation of extortion. He said the protesters had disputed the right of the clinics to control their business, which he called "a well-recognized and longstanding right of property."
___Englert argued that his clients could not deny that they had broken anti-trespassing and other laws but said their actions did not reach the level of extortion because they had not actually taken property.
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