Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York

Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, 519 U.S. 357 (1997), was a case heard before the United States Supreme Court related to legal protection of access to abortion. It ruled in an 8-1 decision that "floating buffer zones" preventing protesters approaching people entering or leaving abortion clinics were unconstitutional, though "fixed buffer zones" around the clinics themselves remained constitutional. The Court's upholding the fixed buffer was the most important aspect of the ruling, because it was a common feature of injunctions nationwide.^[1]

Paul Schenck challenged a Federal District Court injunction that restricted "sidewalk counselors" from approaching abortion clinic patients and others with Bibles, tracts and pro-life messages. Because these protesters often violently harassed and intimidated patients and staff or prevented them from entering the clinic, the Court upheld the fixed buffer zone around the clinics, although it struck down the floating buffer zone around individuals because its indefinite and movable nature made it difficult to administer and risked overly restricting free speech.^[1]

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 519
• List of United States Supreme Court cases
• Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume

References

Further reading

• Hostetler, Darrin Alan (1997). "Face-to-Face with the First Amendment: Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network and the Right to 'Approach and Offer' in Abortion Clinic Protests". Stanford Law Review. Stanford Law Review, Vol. 50, No. 1. 50 (1): 179–223. doi:10.2307/1229361. JSTOR 1229361. 

External links

• PBS NewsHour: "Drawing the Line"
• Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York on Cornell Law
• Paul Schenck and Dwight Saunders, Petitioners v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York et al. on the Boston College Free Speech Library