High Court to Hear Abortion Free Speech Case
The Supreme Court will decide if Operation Rescue is the equivalent of the Gambino crime family. This story by the Associated Press is fair, but it does leave unchallenged the statement that the pro-lifers trespassed and destroyed property. If they did that, they should be prosecuted, but to treat them like the Mafia is obviously wrong. The civil rights protestors in the 1950s and ’60s could have been prosecuted under RICO, as could many of the anti-war protestors. I think our friends on the Left should think through the implications of treating civil disobedience as organized crime.
By the way, one of the authors of the RICO statute, a law professor at Notre Dame, says the law is being abused by prosecutors. “Such a weapon of terror against First Amendment freedoms was not what I designed,” he says. “Had I been told to do so, I would have refused.”