Eugene gleason

The right to abortion, as declared by the Supreme Court in 1973, is based on the constitutional guarantee of privacy that the court had established in birth-control cases since 1965. Now, as the court appears prepared to overturn its 1973 ruling, some justices are seeing their own privacy challenged by angry protesters outside their homes. Justice Clarence Thomas, whose name was one of five on a leaked draft opinion to overrule Roe v. Wade, has accused abortion-rights supporters of throwing “temper tantrums” and said the court would not be “bullied.” But the conflict between a resident’s privacy and a protester’s freedom of speech has an extensive history and no simple answers. And it’s not merely left vs. right, or opponents vs. supporters of abortion rights. Challenges to past restrictions on residential protests have been filed by some of the same groups now backing the justices. In 1965 the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s ban on picketing near courthouses. In 1983, however, … [Read more...] about Mix of laws limiting where people can protest is hitting close to home for judges