
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994                   TAG: 9402010010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ANTI-ABORTION MOB?

THE U.S. SUPREME Court ruled last week that abortion clinics can invoke federal racketeering law to sue anti-abortion protest groups.

OK, time to change the law.

The 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, was originally directed against conspiratorial activities of crime families. But the law was so loosely worded that it has come to be used against everything from Chicago commodity brokers to Los Angeles slumlords.

Now the high court has unanimously opined that the statute contains no language prohibiting its use against groups motivated not by economic greed, but by political or moral belief.

Enough already. There's no question that violent protest and physical intimidation of doctors and of women exercising their legal rights at abortion clinics should be vigorously prosecuted. But going after anti-abortion protesters as racketeers, with the extraordinary punishments this law allows, stretches the definition of racketeering beyond meaning and fairness, and ultimately poses a threat to free speech.

Congress needs to revisit RICO.

by CNB