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Update on Cert. Petition in Massachusetts Free Speech Case

By Stuart Buck, Esq.

In an earlier post, I discussed a cert petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in a First Amendment case -- McCullen v. Coakley, No. 09-592. A few developments in that case:First, a group of distinguished law professors, including Lillian BeVier (UVA), Rick Garnett (ND), Michael Stokes Paulsen (St. Thomas), Lee Strang (Toledo), Kevin Walsh (Richmond), and Eugene Volokh (UCLA) (disclosure: three personal friends in the above list) filed an amicus brief in support of the free speech claim in the case. The brief argued that: The First Circuit?s decision below stretched Hill to uphold a Massachusetts law that creates a public-forum no-speech zone with a 35-foot radius that (i) applies only at free-standing clinics that perform abortions, (ii) does not apply to employees and agents of these clinics, and (iii) prohibits speech directed toward willing and unwilling listeners alike in a wide swath of the public forum, rather than remaining limited to a prohibition of close, unwanted physical approaches...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Buck Stops Here on February 23, 2010 (boomark / email).