Appeals court rules letter to abortion clinic not necessarily protected speech
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] on Tuesday overturned [opinion, PDF] a summary decision that an anti-abortion activist's letter was protected speech under the First Amendment [LII backgrounder]. Angel Dillard had written a letter to a doctor, who had publicly announced plans to open an abortion clinic, claiming that someone may place a bomb under the doctor's car. The original complaint [complaint, PDF] asserted that the letter violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) [text]. The US District Court for the District of Kansas [official website] held [opinion, PDF] that "the government...failed to demonstrate the existence of a true threat" and the letter was therefor protected speech as a matter of law. The Court of Appeals, however, held that the question of whether Dillard's letter constituted a "true threat or mere political speech" is not clear and must be put to a jury on remand.
Abortion [JURIST news archive] related issues have been a heated topic of discussion for the past several years in the US. In July Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law [JURIST report] the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy. Last month the US Supreme Court granted a motion to stay [JURIST report], allowing over half of Texas' 18 abortion clinics to stay open by temporarily blocking a law that would place stringent requirements on clinics requiring the majority of them to close. Also last month a Kansas judge for the Shawnee County District Court blocked a law [JURIST report] that would have effectively banned most second-trimester abortions performed in the state. In May the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down [JURIST report] portions of two Idaho abortion laws.
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