Pro-lifers defeat abortion clinic 'buffer zone' law, as other municipal speech bans face lawsuits

When Clearwater, Fla. banned pro-life activism such as handing out pamphlets in a 38-foot "buffer zone" around an abortion clinic, so-called sidewalk counselors sued. 

Three months after the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the 2023 law, saying activists were likely to win the First Amendment suit, the parties agreed Thursday to a permanent injunction eliminating the zone. Florida Preborn Rescue and member plaintiffs may now seek legal fees from the Gulf Coast city, the spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology.

Sparta, Tennessee, the state's almost-capital, is now facing litigation for a broader content-based restriction on pamphleting, while the home of the most-watched college football team in the country has just been sued for content-based restrictions on who can use its public libraries.

Such laws and practices have a poor track record in court but keep popping up in various jurisdictions, in part due to Supreme Court indifference.

The high court unanimously struck down abortion clinic buffer zones in 2014's McCullen, cited recently in a street preacher's appeal of his arrest for lawfully protesting an LGBTQ march in New York City.

Though needing only four justices to grant petitions for review, SCOTUS has since declined to reconsider its 2000 "zombie precedent" Hill, most recently a year ago, which upheld Colorado's eight-foot buffer zone as a time, place and manner restriction – widely invoked by lower courts to uphold buffer zones at direct odds with McCullen.

While mainstream media hype attempts to shut down "Drag Queen Story Hour" events for children in libraries, they largely ignored the American Library Association's training on how to ban conservative Christian events as a threat to LGBTQ people.

Gender ideology activists have repeatedly tried to stop both religious and secular critics from hosting library events. The Seattle Public Library required gender-critical feminists to hold their events after business hours in 2019 and 2024, while a Rhode Island library demanded steep security fees to host a Christian event with no known threats.

No connection to 'intent, imminence, or likelihood' of violence

The 11th Circuit panel's December ruling against Clearwater's buffer zone greenlit Florida Preborn Rescue's facial challenge, meaning the law is likely unconstitutional under "a substantial number" of applications. 

It rebuked a district judge who upheld the law as "narrowly tailored," noting McCullen struck down a Massachusetts law intended to prevent once-a-week disruptions at a single Boston abortion clinic. 

Clearwater's interest in "vehicular safety" for abortion clinic patrons cannot justify its ban on "close communication" with and "leafletting" to them, the panel said.

Thursday's permanent injunction “cements the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling as a landmark precedent for pro-life sidewalk counselors nationwide," Thomas More Society senior counsel Tyler Brooks, representing the plaintiffs, said in a press release.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a legal warning letter to elected officials in Sparta about its "various handbill ordinances" that FIRE calls "vague, overbroad, and viewpoint discriminatory."

They ban distributing literature that "may reasonably tend to incite riot or other public disorder," advocates "disloyalty to or the overthrow" of" the government, "encourages or tends to encourage a breach of the public peace or good order of the community" and are “offensive to public morals or decency … blasphemous, obscene, libelous or scurrilous."

The ordinances are unconstitutionally untethered from "intent, imminence, or likelihood" of violence, FIRE said, noting it also recently warned Miami Beach police about visiting a woman's home for social media posts criticizing Mayor Steven Meiner, who had flagged them for police, warning her they could inspire violence.

The "public peace" and "good order" language "relies on vague and subjective standards that invite an impermissible heckler’s veto based on listener reactions," while the "blasphemous" ban is preempted by SCOTUS precedent against censorship of speech "irreverent toward religion or religious beliefs," the letter says.

Subjective labels such as "scurrilous" also don't give speakers "fair notice of what is prohibited and invite arbitrary enforcement," while only courts, not "a government administrator on an ad hoc basis," can legally determine what's libelous, FIRE said.

It's also challenging Sparta's permitting system for paid handbills, deemed a "core First Amendment activity" by SCOTUS, which is not only a presumptively unconstitutional prior restraint but also gives officials "unbridled discretion to license or deny speech activity." FIRE noted one denial ground is "other just grounds for revocation."

Bans on anonymous leafletting like Sparta's have "disproportionately impact[ed] criticism and dissent" and are "consistently invalidated," FIRE said, noting a 2002 SCOTUS ruling for Jehovah's Witnesses against a town's pre-registration requirements for "canvassers."

A FIRE spokesperson told Just the News that Sparta hasn't responded to the threat letter, which was sent March 3 but only publicized Wednesday. Mayor Jerry Lowery, the first recipient, didn't respond to a query.

Reservation revoked due to 'current political and social climate'

The Alliance Defending Freedom sued the Tuscaloosa, Ala. Public Library Board of Trustees for denying the Eagle Forum of Alabama, the state chapter of the conservative organization founded by the late pioneering female activist Phyllis Schlafly, the use of the library's "Rotary Room" because of the organization's religious character.

While it has hosted a wide range of events, from a magician and "Balloon Guy" to a Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter, the room's reservation policy explicitly excludes "meetings of religious or sectarian groups for the purpose of preaching or otherwise demonstrating the beliefs of their members," the suit says.

Eagle Forum successfully reserved the room for a March 19, 2025, "meet-and-greet and a screening of a political documentary film" and had no problems, but in July library employee Mary Buntin cancelled its next two scheduled events for August.

The email cited the "current political and social climate" but referred to the reservation policy's ban on religious or sectarian groups. Because Eagle Forum didn't see the email before the Aug. 2 event, which "discussed recent political events and how Christian Scripture informs the narratives around those events," it went forward without incident.

Deputy Director Amy Patton reaffirmed Aug. 5 that the library had cancelled both Aug. 2 and 16 events and banned future bookings, acknowledging "this decision is different from your most recent requests" and citing the religious or sectarian ban, the suit says. Aug. 16 was to be a reading of the Constitution.

The library's counsel responded Oct. 1 to a Sept. 16 legal threat letter by Eagle Forum by "doubling down" on its policy, according to the suit.

The policy violates "clearly established constitutional rights" under the First Amendment's free speech and free exercise clauses – legalese that means Eagle Forum can hold officials personally liable for violating their rights – reaffirmed by SCOTUS repeatedly since 2017, most recently in last year's parental rights precedent Mahmoud, the suit says.

Government officials cannot "invite private organizations to participate in a public benefit" and then "disqualify otherwise eligible organizations based on their religious character or activity," or open facilities to outside groups and then exclude groups based on religious viewpoint.

"Reasonable governmental officials in Defendants’ position would have known that their Reservation Policy violates constitutional rights by categorically excluding religious speech and assembly," the suit says. The library didn't answer a Just the News query.

While ADF describes Eagle Forum of Alabama as a "Christian" organization that follows the national organization's bylaws, the word "Christian" does not appear in the bylaws or appear to be used anywhere as an identifier on either national or state websites. 

The suit points to bylaws that say "Eagle Forum supports Holy Scriptures as providing the best code of moral conduct yet devised" and believes "we owe our existence to a Creator who has endowed each of us with unalienable rights."

Neither ADF nor the Eagle Forum's national office responded to queries about its exact identification.