Well, well, well. The Supreme Court of the United States was busy handing down judgments today. There were numerous cases decided on, and several new ones accepted. If there was a theme, it seemed to be "personal responsibility."
In one case they ruled on a law forbidding ad's for Casinos. This was ostensibly to protect compulsive gamblers from themselves, the court unanimously struck it down.
They extended liability in the prosecution of sexual harassment and said Libya can be sued for its part in the wicked killing of civilians over Lockerbie Scotland. And then there was the ruling on Randall Terry and his "Operation Rescue" group.
Operation Rescue and many individuals decided to blockade some clinics in New York to prevent women from getting medical attention that they feel conflicts with their religious beliefs. They had (and still have) a right to protest and engage in lawful attempts to change the laws, but they don't have the right to blockade clinics. The lower courts imposed fines for their criminal activity, and today the Supreme Court upheld that.
Will this be the straw that breaks the back of the fanatic anti-abortion right-wingers? I wish it was. This is very important, but it's not the final word. This will shutdown big, organized groups who operate more or less above board and try to stir-up public fervor. This will dry-up the funding that they have been receiving (tax-free) from churches and other misguided individuals because people funding the illegal actions can be held accountable for the fines incurred by the anti-abortionist. So, if your church funds a terrorist campaign, your church is accountable for the results. I think there's some old book somewhere that calls that "reap what ye sow."
But, will this stop the kooks? No. Just as the Klan and the American Nazi parties have officially been broken up and driven underground, we are now seeing the anti-abortion terrorists take their campaign to a new, more sinister level. The groups who claim to object to abortion because it is murder, and murder is wrong, now are encouraging murder directly. Murder of doctors, nurses, volunteers and indeed policemen. The rat bastard who blew up a clinic in Birmingham Alabama before fleeing to the hills killed a cop.
Fortunately, most of the people who were duped by the propaganda and blatant lies of the big anti-abortion groups are sincere and good people. They are not murders and understand that you cannot kill innocent people on one hand because you don't agree with them. (Well, I hope they are that reasonable.) But some surely aren't. There are several dead doctors to prove it and there was a website dedicated to killing more. That site lost big-time in court also. But the struggle for women to retain control over their own bodies goes on.
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