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May 9, 2007
A sort-of victory

This is wonderful news:

Chicago, IL – The National Organization of Women (NOW) was handed a final defeat yesterday as U.S. District Judge David Coar once and for all ruled that federal anti-racketeering laws cannot be applied to pro-life protesters, putting an end to 21 years of litigation that resulted in an unprecedented three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It doesn't get much press, because the case is so fundamentally stupid it should have ended decades ago and reporting honestly on it would pubicly shame NOW and other pro-choice groups. As Jill Stanek notes, "This has always been a free speech case." It's as simple as that.

Yet the charade went on. Early in the trial, they actually had a mafioso-style tree diagram with a picture of Joe Schiedler at the top and branches going down to hundreds of other pro-life activists. Schiedler, you see, was the don, controlling his foot soldiers and sending them out to strong-arm women entering clinics.

I call this a sort-of victory because it is a monumental injustice that good people trying to save the unborn have been subjected to 21 years of legal harrassment by deep-pocketed groups trying to lawyer them out of existence. Briefly put, this ruling says you can't treat sidewalk counselors like the mob. That's nice, but 21 years and three trips to the highest court in the land is overkill. Meantime, Joe Schiedler lost his house over this.

Congratulations to Joe, to the folks at Operation Rescue and to all other pro-life activists who now have a strong legal precedent to smack over the heads of abortion proponents who try to intimidate them.

For those wanting more details, here's a timeline of the case, found at Jill Stanek's page.

Posted by Papa-Lu at May 9, 2007 10:04 PM
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