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A divided #SCOTUS on Monday turned away a pair of #FreeSpeech challenges by #abortion opponents to city laws in #NewJersey & #Illinois that restrict #protests directly outside #clinics & #hospitals where abortions are performed.

The court declined to reconsider a 25-yr-old precedent that has allowed local govts to create protest-free buffer zones around #healthcare facilities—a ruling that has long been criticized by some #conservative justices.

#law #ReproductiveRights #WomensHealth #privacy

Justices #ClarenceThomas & Samuel #Alito dissented [of course], w/Thomas writing that the court’s decision not to review the case from Illinois was “an abdication of our judicial duty” that allows constitutional rights to “hang in the balance.”

#SCOTUS’ decision not to wade into the #abortion-related matter is a setback for abortion opponents. But it follows the #Trump admin’s announcement that it will scale back #Biden-era efforts to prosecute demonstrators who interfere w/ #PatientAccess to #ReproductiveHealth clinics. The #DOJ instructed its #CivilRights division last month to drop 3 pending actions brought under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (#Face) Act, involving blockades in #Ohio, #Tennessee & #Pennsylvania.

The challengers, including the Coalition for Life, told the court that its sidewalk counselors, who *educate*, pray & distribute literature outside #abortion clinics, had nowhere to stand because of the ordinance, making their *counseling* [#harassment] activities effectively impossible.

They asked the justices to overturn a 2000 #SCOTUS decision, which said govts could enact some restrictions in part because the court said the #law did not prohibit a particular point of view or subject matter.

That decision in Hill v. Colorado upheld a state #law that established 100’ buffer zones outside all #health-care facilities—not just #abortion clinics—& prohibited approaching a person within an 8’ bubble to protest, counsel or hand out materials.

More recently, #SCOTUS unanimously struck down protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in #Massachusetts as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

But that 2014 decision, written by Chief Justice #JohnRoberts Jr., was a narrow one, noting that other state & local govts had found ways to accommodate the rights of those opposed to #abortion & the #women entering clinics.

Mary Ziegler, an abortion #law expert & prof at the UC Davis School of Law, cautioned against reading too much into the majority’s decision not to review the #NewJersey & #Illinois cases.

Demonstrations & blockades at clinics have…peaked, Ziegler said, when #abortion opponents do not have other paths to exercise #power. That’s not the case now…w/ #Republicans controlling all 3 branches of govt & in general embracing an #antiabortion platform.
“It’s interesting & important that the court isn’t just going to take a wrecking ball to every abortion-related precedent….But there’s plenty of reason to think the court could still find bubble or buffer laws it doesn’t like.”

In asking #SCOTUS to take the case from #Illinois, the coalition’s lawyer, Paul Clement, invoked the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn #RoeVWade. In that ruling, known as #Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org, #Alito cited the court’s 2000 decision on buffer zones as an example of an #abortion-related case that had “distorted First Amendment doctrines.”

In his dissent Monday, #ClarenceThomas said lower courts continue to follow Hill despite the court’s repudiation of that ruling in #Dobbs.

“I don’t see what is left” of the 2000 decision, he wrote, adding that the court “declines an invitation to set the record straight on Hill’s defunct status.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said buffer zones are necessary to ensure safe #access to #health-care centers.

“No #patient should have to encounter #threats, #intimidation, & #attacks while seeking #healthcare — & no #medical provider or health center staff should be threatened because of their work to deliver #abortion care to patients in need….Buffer zones & bubble zones help to create a safer environment for patients, providers, & staff.”