SCOTUS considers lawsuit to defund family planning programs amid protests
Pro- and anti-abortion demonstrators lined up outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., as judges heard a case to defund Planned Parenthood.
- An anti-abortion activist is facing misdemeanor charges for conducting a public street sermon in a Georgia suburb.
- If a complaint is received regarding noise levels, the city’s noise permit will be invalidated.
- Legal experts say the clause is a “heckler’s veto” and a violation of free speech rights.
Jason Cantrell spends five days a week outside an Atlanta-area abortion clinic, trying to reach women considering abortion through evangelism.
He said there were mixed reactions to his presence. While some do not support his efforts, others have accepted his offer to offer prayers or provide a “blessing bag” containing gifts, pregnancy resources and contact information for planning a baby shower.
He has been doing all this work since 2016 and has obtained the necessary permits for sound amplification. However, he was brought to court on November 12th on misdemeanor charges after a mass street preaching incident in the Atlanta suburb of Forest Park, Georgia.
Cantrell was wanted in July under a clause in his city’s noise permit that said it was “‘voided’ in the event of complaints about noise levels,” according to the American Law and Justice Center, a conservative group focused on religious freedom issues that represents Cantrell.
The group has also been involved in other cases related to amplified speech, including one on behalf of an anti-abortion activist arrested outside a clinic in Ohio and a street preacher arrested in Chicago.
USA TODAY has reached out to the city of Forest Park for comment.
Experts say there is no safeguard in permit terms
Officers said they received three requests to lower the volume, revoked Cantrell’s permit on July 31, and issued a citation for noise amplification, according to the American Center for Law and Justice.
“In other words, the city has created a system where anyone who doesn’t like the message can silence the speaker by simply complaining,” the group said. “That’s not how the First Amendment works.”
Cantrell said the provision “defeates the entire purpose of obtaining the permit.”
Experts agree, telling USA TODAY that the law is on Cantrell’s side as the case progresses.
Claire Nolins, a University of Georgia law professor and director of the First Amendment Clinic, said the enabling clause is arguably a heckler’s veto.
This term refers to an event in which a speaker is silenced by the negative reaction of others to the content of their speech. The law has been applied in landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, including 1949’s Terminiello v. Chicago, in which a Catholic priest’s “breach of peace” conviction was overturned.
Emory University law professor Alexander Volokh similarly called the city’s provision a “violation of free speech rights.”
“There are no safeguards against private individuals using their power to exclude people in discriminatory ways,” he said.
He said the city could have more narrowly tailored provisions that would prevent protected speech from being shut down.
Cantrell’s case is not the first time First Amendment issues have come up in Forest Park, a city of less than 20,000 people.
Nolins said her organization has filed a challenge with the city for violating the state’s open meetings law during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nolins said the city initially addressed concerns about the lack of “effective remote public access” to meetings, but said there has since been a “backslide.”
Even though Cantrell is currently at the center of cases and lawsuits, he continues to show up at abortion clinics with the necessary permits. He said officers were “inconsistent” in enforcing the terms of the charges.
Cantrell said he hopes the city will drop the charges and remove the provision from noise permits, ultimately protecting his and other anti-abortion activists’ ability to “use free speech to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and be a voice for the voiceless.”
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. Please contact bjfrank@usatoday.com..
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
