Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> The Buck Stops Here

Legal Commentary

: The Buck Stops Here

Cert petition in Massachusetts free speech case

By Stuart Buck, Esq.

My good friend and classmate Mark Rienzi, now of Catholic Univ. Law School, has just filed a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in a First Amendment case -- McCullen v. Coakley, No. 09-592. The Supreme Court should grant cert, given the important issues at stake. The case involves a Massachusetts law penalizing people who engage in speech near abortion clinics -- including peaceful speech, or even holding a sign silently. (Keep in mind: Your position on abortion shouldn't affect how you think of the free speech issue here, any more than the Klan's or Greenpeace's right to free speech depends on whether their message is agreeable to everyone.) Now many people may think immediately that such a challenge is hopeless. After all, didn't the Supreme Court uphold speech restrictions outside abortion clinics in the case of Hill v...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Buck Stops Here on November 22, 2009 (boomark / email).