Federal judge: Oakland City’s abortion mill bubble ordinance constitutional
I’ve written several times about Pastor Walter Hoye, who violated Oakland City, CA’s, ordinance creating an 8-foot bubble around mothers entering abortion mills (at present only 1, Family Planning Specialists Medical Group) that pro-lifers couldn’t pop when distributing literature.
For his crime Hoye chose in March to spend 19 days in jail over a judge’s offer of community service. Hoye went on to challenge the bubble ordinance in federal court. On August 4 came work Hoye lost his first round. According to the Contra Costa Times:
A federal judge on Tuesday upheld an Oakland city law that bars people from approaching within 8 feet of women entering abortion clinics, dismissing a constitutional challenge brought last year by anti-abortion activist Walter Hoye….
Hoye, who says he politely asks women to speak with him about alternatives, claimed the law violates his free-speech rights and the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
In his 25-page opinion, District Court Judge Charles Breyer cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that upheld a CO statute he said was “nearly identical” to Oakland’s ordinance. In that case, the high court acknowledged that protecting health and safety “may justify a special focus on unimpeded access to health care facilities and the avoidance of potential trauma to patients associated with confrontational protests.”
Breyer also found that the Oakland law is aimed at protesters’ conduct, not objectionable speech….
Hoye’s attorney vowed to appeal. “It is now illegal to stand still on the sidewalk and extend your arm to hand out a piece of literature,” attorney Michael Millen said. “I don’t think the 9th Circuit is going to buy it.”
In the meantime, Hoye, 52, is fighting a prosecutor’s request for a lifetime ban to keep the church elder more than 100 yards from the Family Planning Specialists Medical Group clinic….
Hoye is now appealing and has returned outside the clinic pending his appeal and a decision by [Alameda Co. Superior Court Judge Stuart] Hing on a permanent injunction. No dates are set for those decisions.
[Photo attribution: Contra Costa Times]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
God Bless Walter Hoye!
If they receive tax funds, aren’t they a part of public property? :|
Good question, Vannah. I don’t know the answer though, but props to Walter Hoye, a real man. Thank you Walter, and I appreciate all your work.
Yeah. Walter Hoye is in the company of heroes such as Alice Paul, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas Gandhi in my opinion. :)
I will be praying for Rev. Hoye, here is a true civil rights hero, protesting for the most basic right, the right to life. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father Daddy King, who told his grandaughter Dr/ Alveda King, “that is not a blob of tissue that’s a baby, we don;t abort babies” must be rolling in their graves for such a travesty of justice to be taking place in this nation. May God help this nation.
If they receive tax funds, aren’t they a part of public property? :|
Posted by: Vannah at August 6, 2009 11:17 AM
no. Lots of private organizations recieve public funs. But the sidewalk is certainly a public forum.
http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/1387462
déja vu all over again?
Mmm…okay. I was never sure how public property was actually defined, so I assumed it had to do with what the people pay for. In any case, Walter Hoye wasn’t actually doing anything violent or wrong. Ridiculous.
God bless Walter Hoye!!!! He is one my heroes; not to mention a courageous advocate for mothers and their pre-born children!!!
What’s your complaint? The judge determined that a law to protect a traditionally targeted group from being harassed in a public space remains constitutional. Did you think that you had a right to be heard in addition to a right to free speech? Thank God we have the right to ignore the irritating, and when the irritating get uppity, laws are put into place to maintain common public decency (like not invading other individual’s personal space, not getting close enough to be considered intimidating, and so on).
(like not invading other individual’s personal space, not getting close enough to be considered intimidating, and so on).
Unless, of course, you’re not born yet and still living in the womb. Then it’s ok for someone to get close enough to dismember you alive. That “traditionally targeted group” has no voice except the guy on the sidewalk handing out a pamphlet.
Betcha you wouldn’t object if that pamphlet said, “Let us help you pay for your abortion!” It’s not Hoye’s behavior that bothers you, it’s his message.
You said it, Fed Up!
Fed UP
Excellent!
yor bro ken
well said, Fed Up!
“…and when the irritating get uppity…”
“Uppity”, huh? I’m sorry, should we not speak in public? Next time we say something else you don’t like, will you be making us sit at the back of the bus?
Gord,
Can you provide some evidence proving that Hoye actually harrassed anyone? Getting close enough to someone to offer them a pamphlet and ask them a question does not constitute as harrasment.
Would you be equally smug if someone was barred from offering a pamphlet to those entering, say, a puppy mill (or substitute your pick at whatever thing you oppose and wish to protest)? Would free speech suddenly mean something to you if it was speech that you agree with?