{"id":210,"date":"2014-06-27T13:39:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/?p=210"},"modified":"2025-09-30T01:39:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T01:39:38","slug":"a-wall-st-journal-editorial-on-the-9-0-court-decision-rebuffing-abortion-mill-buffer-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"A Wall St. Journal editorial on the 9-0 Court decision rebuffing abortion mill &#8220;buffer zones&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The editorial speculates that the decision didn&#39;t go far enough, because Chief Justice Roberts wanted a unanimous decision.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/articles\/free-speech-buffer-rebuffed-1403825592?tesla=y&amp;mod=djemMER_h&amp;mg=reno64-wsj\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\">Free-Speech &#39;Buffer&#39; Rebuffed. The right Supreme Court decision for the wrong legal reason.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; padding-left: 30px;\">It isn&#39;t every day a unanimous Supreme Court endorses the free-speech rights of abortion protesters, so huzzahs for that. Thursday&#39;s opinion striking down a buffer zone against abortion protesters gets to the right First Amendment result, but it does so with logic that leaves too much speech in future jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; padding-left: 30px;\">In 2008 76-year-old Eleanor McCullen sued Massachusetts Attorney General <a data-ls-seen=\"1\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.wsj.com\/person\/C\/Martha-Coakley\/5849\">Martha Coakley<\/a> and other officials so she could offer &quot;sidewalk counselling&quot; outside abortion clinics. Under Massachusetts law, only patients and clinic employees were allowed on public sidewalks within a 35-foot radius of the door and faced hefty fines for incursions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px; padding-left: 30px;\">In <em>McCullen v. Coakley<\/em>, Chief Justice <a data-ls-seen=\"1\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.wsj.com\/person\/R\/John-Roberts\/7417\">John Roberts<\/a> writes that the law unconstitutionally restricts access to public sidewalks around abortion clinics in the name of &quot;public safety&quot; without &quot;seriously addressing the problem through alternatives.&quot; By regulating public streets, the state directly foreclosed access to places that &quot;developed as venues for the exchange of ideas.&quot; Restrictions must be based on misconduct, not directed at peaceful speakers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 15px;\">Hit the link above for the complete editorial, which addresses the &quot;contortions&quot; in the argument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The editorial speculates that the decision didn&#39;t go far enough, because Chief Justice Roberts wanted a unanimous decision. Free-Speech &#39;Buffer&#39; Rebuffed. The right Supreme Court decision for the wrong legal reason. It isn&#39;t every day a unanimous Supreme Court endorses the free-speech rights of abortion protesters, so huzzahs for that. Thursday&#39;s opinion striking down a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3,39,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion-clinic-protests","category-planned-parenthood","category-street-activism","category-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}