Are Bush's "Free Speech" corrals legal?

[The Backlash Cometh]

In lieu of the law that was overturned in Palm Beach, Florida today which created a safe zone around abortion clinics, wouldn't Bush's Free Speech corrals also be determined to be illegal?

Judge overturns West Palm's clinic buffer law
By Thomas Collins
Tuesday, April 18, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH — A federal judge has ruled that a city law imposing a buffer zone on abortion protesters violates free-speech rights and has ordered the city not to enforce it.

The law — enacted in October after someone set fire to the Presidential Women's Center, the last clinic in Palm Beach County where abortions are done — created a 20-foot buffer around entrances and other public areas outside health-care facilities.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled that the city didn't prove the existence of problems that it said the law addressed: restricted patient access and a threat to public safety. Even if it had, the law is too strict, he ruled.

"Freedom of speech is rarely an issue when everyone agrees," Middlebrooks wrote. "Perhaps more than at any other place and any other time, in cases such as this, speech guaranteed by the First Amendment must be protected."

Middlebrooks ruled that the city probably would lose its case at trial, so the law cannot remain in effect until a trial takes place.



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/04/18/s1a_buffer_0418.html

[cspanlovr]

1. How about the Free Speech Zone

Its good enough for those who disagree with junior. Should be good enough for them.

[silverweb]

2. No.

n/t

[3waygeek]

3. Hate to burst your bubble,

but "free speech zones" started under Clinton.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Oh, no you don't. Clinton never used the free speech zones the

way Bush did. Clinton wasn't afraid to face his critics the way Bush is.

And, my point is a simple one. If the free speech zones for Bush are allowed, why can't the Protest buffers be legal for abortion clinics? There should be some consistency here.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I just did a Google search and can find no news story (just blogs and

forums) that verify what the gentleman in your link says. I will agree that there was such a thing at the 2004 Democratic Convention. I went to see Bill Clinton three times while he was President and never came across an area for his protestors. In fact, I actually stood side by side with a group of College Republicans protesting at one of his speeches.

[Solo_in_MD]

6. And are popular on some college campuses as well

[nonconformist]

7. Clinton started those to protect the safety of people

exercising their constitutional rights.

Bush uses them to shield himself from "we the people".