Does the First Amendment Cover Threats Against Abortion Doctors?
The “Nuremberg Files” web site was a bloody and unapologetic call to arms for America’s anti-abortion movement. The site listed the names, addresses and license plate numbers of doctors who provide abortions, and site administrators drew thick lines through the names of those doctors who had been killed. Extreme pro-life activists called the site a political protest, protected by the First Amendment. Pro-choice advocates called it terrorism, illegal under the U.S. Supreme Court’s description of “explicit threats of imminent lawless action.” But the courts are not doing very much to clarify the issue. Two years ago, a federal court in Portland, Ore., ruled the web site was not protected by the First Amendment, and ordered the site’s organizers to pay $109 million in damages to Planned Parenthood and the four doctors who had sued the site for inciting violence. The site was taken down. Wednesday, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned that ruling. No direct threat?
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