 Operation Rescue’s Truth Truck at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha |
Pro-life activists have the right to reveal the horrors of the abortion industry, according to an appeals court ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to stand.
The high court announced it will not review a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that affirmed the constitutional rights of pro-life activists to display in public photographs of the work of abortionists, notes the non-profit Thomas More Law Center, which handled the case.
“This is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and the pro-life movement,” said trial counsel Robert Muise. “The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the 9th Circuit’s ruling undisturbed, ensuring that there is no double standard for pro-life speech and affirming the fundamental principle of the First Amendment that government officials cannot prohibit silent, peaceful, non-obstructive, political speech on the public streets simply because certain listeners or viewers find the speech offensive.”
The law center said the Supreme Court’s decision cemented the victory for pro-life activists.
In July, the 9th Circuit reversed a lower court decision and found that pro-life activists had a constitutional right to display large graphic photos of aborted babies on public streets adjacent to Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Law enforcement officers summoned by school officials detained for 75 minutes two members of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Inc., a California-based pro-life organization. The CBR members had been driving a box-body style truck that displayed large photos of first-term aborted babies on its sides.
The school officials as well as sheriff’s department officials in Los Angeles alleged the photos were “disruptive,” but the appeals court found deputy sheriffs violated the pro-lifer’s First Amendment rights to free speech and the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable police seizures.
 Another Operation Rescue Truck |
The 9th Circuit opinion, left as the prevailing opinion by the Supreme Court action, was written by Judge Harry Pregerson, considered one of the most liberal judges in the 9th Circuit. The decision was supported by Judges William A. Fletcher and Marsha S. Berzon.
The judges found “the government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear, or even anger.”
Mobile billboard trucks are used by several pro-life activist groups to publicize the harsh realities of the abortion industry.
WND has reported on a number of incidents involving similar trucks run by Operation Rescue.
when In Georgia, authorities impounded a “Truth Truck” while it was being driven around the state to raise awareness about a Human Life Amendment that was pending in the state legislature.
