Bush Administration Urges Supreme Court to Reject Appeal By Anti-Abortion Extremists
The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court to deny a pending appeal by anti-abortion extremists who use "UN-WANTED" wild-west style posters and a Web site to terrorize abortion providers, the Washington Post reported. Solicitor General Ted Olson filed a brief Friday that said a lower court had correctly decided that the posters were not free speech protected by the first amendment but were "true threats" to the doctors' safety.
Olson’s brief quoted extensively from the recent Supreme Court case Virginia v. Black in which the high court ruled that cross burning was not protected free speech.
The pending appeal involves a suit filed in 1999 by Planned Parenthood of Oregon and four Oregon doctors listed on the wanted posters against 13 anti-abortion extremists and the anti-abortion groups American Coalition of Life Activists and Advocates for Life Ministries. In the case known as American Coalition of Life Activists vs. Planned Parenthood, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the extremists were liable for threats under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). The defendants have asked the Supreme Court to review the case.
The anti-abortion group also helped to construct a Web site called the "Nuremberg Files" that lists abortion providers' personal information. On the Web site, the names of doctors who were murdered had lines through them crossing them off, and the names of those who had been wounded were marked in gray type.
The Supreme Court will likely decide this month whether to hear the case before adjournment for the summer recess, according to Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report.
Media Resources: Washington Post 6/3/03; Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report 6/3/03; Feminist Daily News 4/8/03
5/22/2013 Immigration Reform Bill Advances In Senate - Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill in a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5. . . .
5/22/2013 Afghan Women Arrested for 'Moral Crimes' Increases 50% - A new report by the Human Rights Watch shows that in the past 18 months the number of women in Afghanistan incarcerated for 'moral crimes' has increased from 400 to 600, a 50% growth.
Many of the women imprisoned for moral crimes were arrested running away from forced or abusive marriages and families, even though there is no law against leaving. . . .
5/22/2013 Army Commander Suspended for Adultery Amid Wave of Sexual Assaults - On Tuesday, Brigadier General Bryan T Roberts was suspended from his position as commander of the Fort Jackson, South Carolina training camp which trains approximately 60% of incoming female recruits pending an investigation into allegations of adultery.
Roberts was suspended following allegations of "adultery and a physical altercation." Colonel Christian Kubik, an Army spokesperson for the Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters "We don't have any evidence of any sexual assault. . . .
