One of the United States’ most repressive anti-demonstrating laws has now been declared unconstitutional by two U.S. judges.
In Milwaukee, U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa ruled that the 1994 Freedom to Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) was unconstitutional.
The judge declared that the part of the law which bans “nonviolent, physical obstruction of reproductive health services clinics is unconstitutional,” noting that it specifically operates against the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Joe Scheidler, director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, said that this ruling will be “a real green light for pro-life activism.
“This first strike against FACE should encourage other courts to find it unconstitutional, and we predict that ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court will reject the law in its entirety,” continued Scheidler.
In Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Richard Gadbois Jr. claimed that a law which prohibits demonstrators from protesting within eight feet of a Santa Barbara abortuary was also unconstitutional.
The FACE Act, which was supported vigorously by pro-abortion advocates and politicians, imposes harsh prison and economic terms on pro-life demonstrators who block entrances to abortuaries.
In February, Judge Randa dismissed charges against six pro-life defendants who had attached themselves to cars in front of an abortuary entrance.
“What’s significant is that somebody would contradict a federal judge,” said Monica Miller, director of Milwaukee Citizens for Life, noting that seven federal judges have already upheld challenges to the law. Now there is hope among U.S. pro-lifers that Randa’s ruling can lead to a challenge at the Supreme Court level. The feeling is that there is a chance that the top court could overturn the law.
However, pro-abortion groups are confident that these rulings will be appealed and overturned. Roger Evans, director of litigation for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America called Randa’s ruling “a strange blip on the screen.”
