The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that anti-choicers who created “wanted� posters to identify doctors who perform abortions should pay $5 million in damages. It’s about time--this court battle has been a decade in the making.
The 12 activists and two anti-abortion groups were sued under a racketeering law and the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it illegal to incite violence and threaten abortion doctors.A Portland, Ore., jury had first awarded several doctors and clinics $108 million in punitive damages, but that was reduced by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Anti-choice groups appealed in an attempt to reduce the amount (over and over again).
...Maria Vullo, the lawyer for Planned Parenthood, said the Supreme Court had "finally put an end to re-litigation of these issues." She said her clients did not contest the reduction of the punitive damages to $4.73 million."This case has never been about the money. It's about protecting doctors' lives," she said.
Anti-choicers have always contended that there is nothing threatening about the Wanted posters. Paul DeParrie, former editor-in-chief of Life Advocate magazine and one of the posters' creators: "If you read them, there is no threat--either implicit or explicit."
Tell that to Dr. Bayard Britton, who was shot and killed (along with his bodyguard) outside a Florida clinic after his name appeared on a similar poster.
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I'm amazed that it takes a Supreme Court ruling to punish these people. What if the pro-choice movement created a billboard campaign in which say, the governor of S.D. was leading an all-woman chain gang? (Hey, not a bad idea!) They'd be in court in a minute crying character defamation or something.
Well its no surprise they are being punished, pro-life murderers or murder advocators are as hated as they are dangerous and stupid.
Just think of all the damage they have done to thier own cause, its darwinian, they will destroy themselves eventualy.
Really weird, this Supreme Court refusing to accept an idiot subterfuge like "Gee, those posters weren't threatening or anything!" After this, can they be relied on to overturn whatever Fitzgerald accomplishes?
I'm reminded of a chapter heading in an old debunking book, The Spoor of Spooks by Bergen Evans. The chapter was about misonceptions concerning the law, and it was "The Law Is Not Wholly an Ass".
Self-interest. These people have gone after Bush(apparently he wasn't quite anti-choice enough on one random occasion), and the four pro-choice justices. The other five might not feel quite safe, especially if they choose to chip away instead of outright overturn.