Opinion ID: 746881
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: First Amendment Challenge to FACE

Text: 42 The United States next maintains that the district court erred in concluding that FACE is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Although the district court correctly noted that several of Plaintiffs' First Amendment challenges were not directly foreclosed by American Life League, it nevertheless held that FACE violates the First Amendment in several respects. We disagree. 43 The district court first concluded that FACE was unconstitutional because its prohibition on intimidation that creates a 'reasonable apprehension of bodily harm to him- or herself or another'  impermissibly hinges on the subjective reaction that speech elicits from its listener. See Hoffman, 923 F.Supp. at 822 (quoting 18 U.S.C.A. § 248(e)(3) (West Supp.1997)). The district court also determined that FACE was unconstitutionally overbroad because by prohibiting speech that creates a reasonable apprehension of bodily harm ... it reaches beyond the restriction of fighting words[and] imminent threats of lawless action that is permitted by the First Amendment. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Finally, the district court held that FACE was overbroad because it reaches speech [that] threatens bodily harm to another. Id. This reasoning, however, is misdirected. 44 The plain language of FACE prohibits only conduct that by force or physical obstruction injures, interferes with, or intimidates the provider or recipient of reproductive health care or speech that amounts to a threat of force that obstructs, injures, intimidates, or interferes with the provider or recipient of reproductive health care. The regulation of neither the former conduct, nor the latter speech, is violative of the First Amendment. See Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476, 484, 113 S.Ct. 2194, 2199, 124 L.Ed.2d 436 (1993) ([A] physical assault is not ... expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.); R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minn., 505 U.S. 377, 388, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 2546, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992) (noting that threats of violence are outside the First Amendment); New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747, 769-73, 102 S.Ct. 3348, 3361-63, 73 L.Ed.2d 1113 (1982) (holding that a statute must burden a substantial amount of protected speech to be unconstitutionally overbroad); Cameron v. Johnson, 390 U.S. 611, 616-17, 88 S.Ct. 1335, 1338-39, 20 L.Ed.2d 182 (1968) (upholding statute criminalizing conduct that obstructs or unreasonably interferes with ingress or egress to and from public buildings against First Amendment vagueness and overbreadth challenges); American Life League, 47 F.3d at 648-53 (concluding that FACE is viewpoint neutral and is neither vague nor overbroad); see also Terry v. Reno, 101 F.3d 1412, 1418-22 (D.C.Cir.1996) (rejecting First Amendment challenge to FACE), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2431, 138 L.Ed.2d 193 (1997); United States v. Soderna, 82 F.3d 1370, 1374-77 (7th Cir.) (same), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 507, 136 L.Ed.2d 398 (1996); United States v. Dinwiddie, 76 F.3d 913, 921-24 (8th Cir.) (same), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 613, 136 L.Ed.2d 538 (1996); Cheffer v. Reno, 55 F.3d 1517, 1521-22 (11th Cir.1995) (same).