Opinion ID: 775766
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Planned Parenthood Rochester (PPR)

Text: 73 For substantially similar reasons, we also vacate the provisions of the injunction against Melfi that expand the buffer zones at PPR. We uphold only those parts of the zone tailored to protect access to clinic entrances and driveways. 74 Like BGW, PPR is a medical facility providing reproductive health services, including abortions and a variety of counseling services. It is located along University Avenue between North and Scio Streets in Rochester, New York. Patients and clinic staff approaching PPR from University Avenue can enter in one of two ways. By car, they can turn into PPR's driveway and park in its parking lot. By foot, they can turn onto PPR's pedestrian walkway and proceed to the main entrance which is set back from the street. 75 Prior to the 2000 Injunction, protestors would gather on the sidewalk running along the parking lot. In the course of this activity, they often walked in front of cars entering and exiting through the driveway. Such gatherings also placed them in front of the pedestrian walkway. Although the District Court did not specify the typical size and frequency of protests, the record indicates that protests were apparently limited in size but held regularly. Each Tuesday night, fewer than ten demonstrators would gather for approximately four hours. Similar demonstrations were held on Saturday mornings with fewer than a dozen protestors participating. The largest monthly protest involved as many as 150 protestors praying the rosary and marching for about one hour in a rosary rally. 76 In order to clear PPR's entryways of protestors, the District Court extended the buffer zone to include much of the sidewalk bordering the facility. The no-protest zone begins at a point twenty-five feet to the north (i.e., toward North Street) of the PPR driveway. It then runs south along the sidewalk running past a stretch of grass, the twenty-foot wide driveway, another stretch of grass, the pedestrian walkway, 22 and a third fifteen-foot stretch of grass, and ends at a point fifteen feet south (i.e., toward Scio Street) of the PPR building. The last fifteen-foot stretch runs adjacent to the PPR wall, which appears to be about two stories high. In other words, over one hundred feet of sidewalk all along the PPR facility is a no-protest zone, except for an area that, when viewed from the PPR parking lot, is behind a two-story solid brick wall. As a result, demonstrators now protest across the street. 77 Our analysis of the PPR enlargements substantially tracks our treatment of the BGW zones. The evidence allegedly supporting enlargement largely consisted of behavior that would be prohibited by application of the old fifteen-foot zones. This included evidence that protestors obstructed pedestrians as they attempted to pass by or enter PPR. It also includes evidence that protestors interfered with traffic along University Avenue. Most of those traffic problems, however, apparently occurred as a result of protest activity within the PPR driveway area. Moreover, the new injunction, even if limited to fifteen feet, would be strengthened by the same features present at BGW: the elimination of the sidewalk-counselor exception and application of the injunction to the named defendants in this action. At least on this record, the injunction against Melfi at PPR is vacated to the extent it enlarges the old fifteen-foot zones. 78