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The mixed verdict could be viewed as a victory for either side, although petitioners prevailed on most parts of their claim. In 1992 the operators of the Aware Woman Center for Choice, a facility that conducted abortion counseling and performed abortions at their clinic in Melbourne, Florida, were subjected to daily picketing and confrontation of their patients by Operation Rescue, a group opposed…
The Court has traditionally closely examined any government action which impairs or abridges any fundamental constitutional right. Exactly how closely the Court must examine the action or rule in question, however, depends on the specific facts at hand. According to precedent, the action is weighed according to one of two standards. "Strict scrutiny" entails the closest, most skeptical view of the…
The majority upheld parts of the injunction and struck down others. The record of fact found by the lower court was accepted by the majority, which noted the petitioners "studiously refrained" from challenging it and to the Florida Supreme Court stated that the question at hand was one of law only. In making its decision, the Court first examined the injunction in order to determine what level of …
Scalia dissented from all parts of the majority opinion upholding the injunction. He also disagreed regarding the level of scrutiny to be applied to all such restrictions. All should be subjected to strict scrutiny because of the risk of suppression of unpopular points of view. His rejection of the injunction rested largely on his rejection of the trial court's finding of facts. This rejection was…
No contemporary issue is more contentious than abortion. In recent years there have been acts of vandalism, arson, invasions, and shootings (some fatal) by radical antiabortion activists. The Court apparently made its decision with this in mind. Some decried the decision; in a Connecticut Law Tribune article, Bruce Fein called it a "blunderbuss attack on free speech." In the Maryland Journal of Co…
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