Protesters Win Injunction

Judge: City Trampled Pro-Lifers Free Speech
City Loses Abortion-Sign Ruling - SCROLL DOWN
News briefs from Southern California
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) The city must allow anti-abortion signs erected by protesters on the sidewalk outside a family planning clinic, a federal judge ruled. Confiscating signs from sidewalk demonstrators tramples on free speech, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin said in a ruling this week. City code enforcement officials had confiscated the signs twice, saying they violated the city's sign ordinance. Timlin granted a preliminary injunction preventing the city from enforcing the ordinance. "There is little doubt that (the protesters') activities placing large stationary signs on public sidewalks to express their opposition to abortion are protected under the First Amendment," the judge wrote. Anti-abortion demonstrators, most of them from Calvary Chapel in Romoland, have assembled outside the Family Planning Associates clinic in downtown Riverside each Tuesday and Friday since last summer. The city's lawyers have said confiscation of the signs had nothing to do with the groups' message. "At this point, we haven't made a decision" how to respond to the ruling, said city spokeswoman Sharon Cooley.

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Posted by Editor at April 5, 2004 05:14 AM