Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220174
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The decision not only adds to the financial troubles of Operation Rescue, but gives abortion-rights lawyers a new legal weapon against vehement protesters.
After a series of anti-abortion demonstrations blocked clinics in New York, federal courts there declared that Operation Rescue had violated an 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, by conspiring to deprive women of their right to get an abortion.
The law made it illegal for "two or more persons" to conspire "for the purpose of depriving any person or class of persons" from exercising their constitutional rights.
Based on this law, the federal courts imposed a permanent ban in New York against blocking the entrances to an abortion clinic or harassing its patrons and employees.
It was the second time in two weeks that the justices rejected an appeal from Operation Rescue.
Last week, the organization's lawyers in Atlanta challenged on free speech grounds a judge's strict order forbidding anti-abortion protesters from blocking sidewalks in front of clinics or bothering those trying to enter. On a 5-4 vote last week, the high court refused to lift that order, which had not yet been violated by the group.
In the New York case, the anti-abortion protesters violated the judge's order and then appealed their contempt fines through the federal court system. The result was the same: The justices turned down the appeal, this time unanimously (Randall Terry vs. New York State NOW, 89-1408).
Last fall, the justices also let stand a ruling from Philadelphia allowing anti-abortion activists to be sued for damages under the federal racketeering law known as RICO.
In other matters Monday, the Supreme Court:
Enhanced the federal government's power to control water used by hydroelectric dams, unanimously striking down California's regulations to protect trout in the American River and its tributaries.
Upheld a law requiring people convicted of federal crimes to pay money into a fund to help crime victims. The court rejected arguments in a case from California that the law is unconstitutional because it originated in the Senate, not the House.
by CNB