WASHINGTON (ABP) — In its final act of business for its 2004-05 term, the Supreme Court agreed June 28 to hear a pair of cases involving the rights of abortion-clinic protestors while turning away appeals in four cases in which lower courts had struck down Ten Commandments displays.
The justices agreed, without comment, to hear two cases involving whether a federal racketeering law should ban certain abortion-clinic protests.
At issue in the cases is whether the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, originally aimed at the tactics of mobsters, can be applied to ban protests at abortion clinics that are likely to turn violent.
The high court already ruled in 2003 that the law, known as RICO, cannot be used to ban protests that simply interrupt business at abortion clinics. However, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that other parts of the law may allow abortion providers to sue protestors.
The dispute had its beginnings in the 1980s, when a series of coordinated protests by anti-abortion-rights groups such as Operation Rescue caused havoc at abortion clinics nationwide.
The justices will hear oral arguments in the cases — Scheider vs. National Organization for Women (No. 04-1244) and Operation Rescue vs. National Organization for Women (No. 04-1352) — after they begin their 2005-2006 term in October.
The court also declined to hear appeals in four cases in which lower courts had struck down Ten Commandments displays in government settings — three in public schools and the fourth in an Ohio judge's courtroom. The cases are Johnson vs. Baker (No. 13-1661); Adams County/Ohio Valley School Board vs. Baker (No. 04-65); Harlan County, Ky. vs. ACLU of Kentucky (No. 03-1698); and DeWeese vs. ACLU (No. 04-841).