First Amendment
Right to Life group wins favorable settlement in California censorship case
Right to Life of Central California won a permanent injunction against a law preventing them from peaceably approaching others.
The group Right to Life of Central California won a settlement of its lawsuit against California to stop a far-reaching censorship measure disguised as an anti-harassment law. Not only are relevant parts of the law enjoined, but the State owes Right to Life its attorneys’ fees.
Right to Life, its struggle, and its victory
According to WorldNetDaily and Alliance Defending Freedom, the case began on October 8, 2021. On that date, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) signed Senate Bill 742, a bill to forbid people to solicit or approach within thirty feet of other persons on a “public way,” or within 100 feet of a site where healthcare providers were dispensing vaccinations of any kind.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte operates a clinic that dispenses a Human Papilloma Virus vaccine – next to Right to Life of Central California’s headquarters in Fresno, California. Yet the bill actually refers to COVID vaccines, not HPV vaccines, in its legislative findings. Nevertheless the language of the bill applies to any vaccine.
Whether Right to Life was objecting to an HPV vaccine is not clear. Other public-advocacy groups have cautioned against this vaccine, which is supposed to protect against cervical cancer. More likely the target was any speech intended to discourage another from having an abortion.
Yesterday Judge Ana de Alba of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California signed a stipulated dismissal and permanent injunction order.
The order provides that:
- California officials may not enforce the provisions on “harassing” (coming within 30 feet of another) as applied to any speaker,
- The court dismisses the lawsuit with prejudice – but will retain jurisdiction to enforce the injunction, and:
- California must pay Right to Life of Central California $192,706 in attorneys’ fees.
What provisions remain
Persons wishing to hand out leaflets, etc. still may not:
- Interfere with another person’s freedom of movement,
- Threaten another person, or
- Obstruct their passage into or out of a “vaccination site.”
Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
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