SCOTUS Rules for Abortion Protesters

In a setback for abortion clinics, the Supreme Court ruled today that federal extortion and racketeering laws (RICO) cannot be used to ban demonstrations.

The legal battle began in 1986, when the National Organization for Women filed a class-action suit challenging tactics used by the Pro-Life Action Network to block women from entering abortion clinics.

NOW's legal strategy was novel at the time, relying on civil provisions of the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was used predominantly in criminal cases against organized crime. The lawsuit also relied on the Hobbs Act, a 55-year-old law banning extortion.

A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction against the anti-abortion protesters after a Chicago jury found in 1998 that demonstrators had engaged in a pattern of racketeering by interfering with clinic operations, menacing doctors, assaulting patients and damaging clinic property.

In the end, the SCOTUS determined that there was no extortion because the protesters had not illegally "obtained property" from the women entering abortion clinics.

From the beginning, I thought that using RICO was an outlandish stretch by the abortion clinics. There's more discussion at Stop The ACLU. Go visit.