Tag Archives: ZZ: McCullen v Coakley

Life Legal Defense Foundation is urging the United States Supreme Court to review a First Circuit decision which severely limits free speech of pro-life advocates. In McCullen v. Coakley . . .

Findlaw: The First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a third challenge to the Massachusetts abortion clinic buffer zone law this week, calling the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims a “salmagundi of arguments, old and new.” The statute at the center of the dispute is Mass. Gen. Law ch. 266, § 120E 1/2, which states that “no person shall knowingly enter or remain on a public way or sidewalk adjacent to a reproductive health care facility” (RHCF) within a designated and clearly marked buffer zone.

First Amendment – Balancing Public Safety and Freedom of Speech Outside Reproductive Healthcare Facilities – McCullen v. Coakley 571 F.3D 167
Robert P. Orthman, 6 J. Health & Biomedical L. 159 (2010)

“In McCullen v. Coakley . . . the First Circuit correctly determined that the Massachusetts buffer zone law struck an appropriate balance between protecting an individual’s right to reproductive services and upholding the right of individuals to demonstrate outside those clinics.”

Baptist Press: “Sidewalk counselors will have to remain at least 35 feet from abortion clinics in Massachusetts after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a challenge to the state’s restriction on such pro-life activity . . . ‘The government cannot single them [prolife-life advocates] out for punishment simply because they want to share their message with people entering the clinic,’ said Michael DePrimo, a lawyer affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, when the First Circuit Court heard the appeal.”

OneNewsNow: “The Massachusetts Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a ‘bubble zone’ law that requires pro-life counselors to stay 35 feet away from abortion clinics . . . [Tim Chandler], an attorney with Alliance Defense Fund, laments that that the state’s highest court now has turned away McCullen v. Coakley . . . ‘As far as a ban on speech around abortion clinics, this is the most sweeping law that has ever been approved by a court and [it] effectively eliminates the ability of people to communicate with these mothers.’” | Ed Whelan at Bench Memos: Cert Denied in McCullen v. Coakley

SCOTUS Blog has published its latest list of petitions to watch. The list includes this:

Title: McCullen v. Coakley
Docket: 09-592
Issues: Whether the establishment by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of unique speech-free zones around abortion clinics is consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Filings available at the link.

ACLJ: We’ve filed an important amicus brief asking the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case of McCullen v. Coakley, a First Amendment challenge to the Massachusetts anti-speech buffer zone statute that hamstrings pro-life sidewalk counselors outside abortion businesses.

LifeNews.com: “In McCullen v. Coakley, the [The Life Legal Defense Foundation] is challenging the constitutionality of a 2007 law making it a crime to “enter or remain” on public sidewalks within 35 feet of abortion facilities . . . Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court in January 2008 saying the law essentially eliminates free speech rights within the zone by restricting pro-life advocates from sharing their message with people entering.”