The Mississippi Institute for Justice issued the following statement.
One year after the Mississippi Justice Institute filed a lawsuit against the city of Jackson, the city council has repealed their buffer zone ordinance that restricted free speech around abortion clinics.
Last October, MJI and members of Sidewalk Advocates for Life – Jackson, Mississippi launched a constitutional challenge to Jackson’s prohibition on pro-life counseling and other free speech outside the state’s only abortion facility.
"We are pleased that the city of Jackson has decided to do the right thing and end this unconstitutional restriction on free expression," said Aaron Rice, Director of the Mississippi Justice Institute. "This is a major victory for free speech for Jackson and the state of Mississippi.
The old ordinance banned individuals who are near health facilities from approaching within eight feet of any person without consent, for the purpose of engaging in various forms of speech such as counseling, education, or distributing leaflets; bans people from congregating or demonstrating within 15 feet of the abortion facility, and bans any amplified sound. Violations of the ordinance could have result in fines of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail.
"Sometimes, the law ends up being what it should be, and this is such a time," said Andy Taggart, a founding partner in Taggart, Rimes & Graham who served as pro bono co-counsel. "The city of Jackson has rescinded an ordinance that should have never been the law to begin with, and, at least for now, things are set right."
More information: https://mspolicy.
Kingfish note: So is this why I'm suddenly forced to listen to preachers using loudspeakers on the sidewalk in front of Maywood Mart?
29 comments:
Well, Well,Well! They finally got something right!
I enjoyed the lady that prayed by whistling in front of the Clarion Ledger building in the late 1980s.
Going to be fun observing who is patronizing any of the Madison dispensaries. The ATF is about to get a whole lotta photos in the mail. Fire with fire!
"So is this why I'm suddenly forced to listen to preachers using loudspeakers on the sidewalk in front of Maywood Mart?" If I have to occasionally listen to the current PR guy for Christ at the intersection of Lake Harbour and Old Canton Rd in front of Wendy's, so do you.
Not a lawyer and not sure I'm reading this right, but are protesters now allowed to go up to building, or even inside? I would think, and I am against abortion as a birth control, for both the child and mothers sake and physical well being, but when does trespass and assault come into play?
This is a stupid decision and the ordinance did not infringe on free speech. It helped keep people safe.
@Kingfish,
Only the wicked shy away from the Word of God
@10:56, have fun photographing strangers and mailing them to the government. What a creep.
@10:56 AM is a Karen, and will demand to speak to the manager.
Screaming at people and threatening people never has resulted in a sincere conversion to a religion ever.
And, those of us who are Christians don't appreciate those who disturb our daily lives with trying to show off how holy you imagine yourselves to be.
I defend your right to free speech and my right to consider you mentally unhinged and to make certain I never hire you or let my family near you.
@10:56
Photographs of someone entering a building are no more evidence of a crime than if i took pictures of you entering a school and later accused you of child sex trafficking.
You aren't even a midwit. You are simply a dimwit.
A Mississippian can’t own a gun if they use marijuana under Initiative 65 because it is illegal under federal law to possess a firearm if you are a drug user, even if it is called “medical” marijuana.
Mississippi State Board of Health
This blog is an abortion of free speech
All you needed to know to totally discount the legality of this 'ordinance' is that Chokwe signed the damned thing.
@11:33 a.m., and those of us who no longer believe in fairy tales.
12:58. Who cares? You lost.
Why all of the marijuana comments?
And by the way, "possess" and "own" are two different things.
I would be real careful recording anyone, good way to get followed home.
Ain't that America, home of the free.
Little pink houses, for you and me.
I'm reminded of "Brother Jim" back in the 80's.
No University/College in the nation was immune to his appearance at the most prominent place on a campus. He would normally beam down during the Spring ( when many little college girls were wearing shorts and flip flops). Then this idiot would scare them to death by screaming they were showing flesh and were daughters of satan.
He really screamed at any little sorority girl. (He called them brides of satan)
LOL !
Brother Jim would end his screaming & berserk rants by saying he found religion after taking many bong hits at a Van Halen concert.
This dude is now in his late 50's/early 60's and still screaming the same nonsense.
(He still looks pretty much the same these days).
Some protest application of the death penalty at Parchman and then demand the right to abortion in Jackson. There must be a point where a fetus becomes a human (Folks need to decide what point this is for themselves - Society will never decide). At that point, abortion becomes murder. The willful premediated murder of another human in Mississippi is sufficient for the death penalty. Helping another person commit premediated murder make you also subject to the death penalty or life in prison.
I stay so confused. I will say that for me, then point where a fetus becomes human is at conception. I understand that is an unpopular opinion.
God help us all.
1:57 you voted didn't you?
"So is this why I'm suddenly forced to listen to preachers using loudspeakers on the sidewalk in front of Maywood Mart? "
They got a clinic in Maywood Mart now? One stop shopping? Sheesh.
While I wonder how in hell even discussing late term abortions, up and until 8 months & 29 days i.e. murder of an innocent child, can be possible in this so-called Christian nation…
and how dumbed down these church going brainwashed by professors woke social justice seeking wanna be’s with their 30A stickers on the back on their fancy car that mommy and daddy bought for them…
thinks you can actually vote Democrat on Tuesday, and still sing Jesus loves me on Sunday…
this “repeal” has absolutely nothing to do with abortion, and everything to do with a leftist totalitarian attempt at stomping out free speech.
We as a nation had better Wake TFU and get ready for war with Facebook, Google, Twitter, et al i.e. Billionaires because they have already declared war on free thinking in our nation.
P.S. ACLU = Anti Civil Liberties Union and is now only a fund raising hack division of the Democrat Party.
P.S.S. The multi-six figure income PREACHERS running these MEGA CHURCHES too worried about losing their tax exempt status and tithes that would go away if the woke percentage of their congregation got their tender little feelings hurt…is, well, we will leave the “judgement” on this to a higher power.
@7:11
Check out the Faull Brother's documentary Belly of the Beast and you will learn that America has never been a Christian nation and the founding fathers were occultists.
Self righteous @ November 18, 2020 at 11:33 AM
Telling the KF that "Only the wicked shy away from the Word of God".
You people with your megaphones, whether at Maywood, the abortion clinic, area restaurants, street festivals, concerts..... are not sharing the Word of God. You are using your opinion to act as judge and jury of people minding their own business. You are not helping anyone. If you truly cared and see a problem that needs to be solved, you make it worse! You simply love the sound of your own amplified voices. Get a job.
Does this tell you that government cannot simply decide to 'buffer' first amendment rights? In my reading, I've not found any mention of distance, sidewalks or discomfort felt by property owners or city leaders.
I wonder if the same people who will defend these righteous crusaders and their free speech will also defend the rights of the panhandlers at the interstate?
9:20 - No, since the latter has never been tested in the courts.
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