Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (of all circuits) has just issued a rather significant free speech case related to the right to protest abortion. According to the L.A. Times story : The 1st Amendment rights of two anti-abortion activists were violated when they were ordered to stop circling a Rancho Palos Verdes middle school in a truck displaying graphic photos of aborted fetuses, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday. Overturning an earlier district court judgment, a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled that school officials and sheriff's deputies violated the men's free speech rights by ordering them to leave the school's neighborhood. The court in its ruling on a lawsuit brought by the activists cited the concept of a "heckler's veto," which states that free speech cannot be limited based on listeners' reactions to the content. The activists' "speech was permitted until the students and drivers around the school rea...