(Freedom Advisor) Freedom Advisor filed a response brief asking the US Supreme Court to review Reilly v. City of Harrisburg where the buffer zone ordinance restricts pro-life speech but not other speech outside of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
Liberty Counsel pointed out in its brief that Harrisburg applied the ordinance by singling out pro-life sidewalk counselors because of their “pro-life viewpoint of their sidewalk counseling…and [the Ordinance] is applied only to restrict pro-life speech.”
Liberty Counsel is asking the High Court not only to hold the City of Harrisburg accountable for its unconstitutional ordinance, but also to overrule Hill vs. Colorado. The Third Circuit at Reilly case hope hill to categorize buffer-zone laws as content-neutral restrictions on speech that violate the First Amendment.
The subsequent decisions of the High Court in McCullen against Coakley and Reed v. Town of Gilbert contrary and found that laws restricting speech based on its function or purpose are in fact content restrictions, “regardless of the government’s benevolent motive, content-neutral rationale, or lack of ‘animus toward those idea contained’ in controlled speech.” Several Supreme Court Justices called on the Court to overrule hill.
READ: The US Supreme Court to decide whether federal law requires ER doctors to perform abortions
Liberty Counsel represents Colleen Reilly and Becky Biter, who engage in peaceful sidewalk counseling to encourage women to protect the lives of their unborn children. The City of Harrisburg implemented the ordinance beyond the 20-foot zone silencing Reilly and Biter over 70 feet of public sidewalk in front of the Harrisburg Planned Parenthood preventing them from having a quiet, peaceful conversation on the sidewalk , prayer, and distribution of life-affirming literature.
Liberty Counsel Founder and President Mat Staver said, “The City of Harrisburg’s ordinance violates the First Amendment and should be repealed. This case raises important First Amendment issues that the Supreme Court must address.”
Editor’s Note: This press release was originally posted by Liberty Counsel.
The DOJ jailed a pro-life grandmother this Christmas for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30 seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.
