Opinion ID: 1756498
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ripeness of the First Amendment Claims

Text: Planned Parenthood's first claims are First Amendment claims and are ripe for review. The parties stipulated that Planned Parenthood is involved with women and sometimes minors seeking information about their reproductive options and rights. Planned Parenthood intends to engage in the arguably proscribed activity of providing information and counseling to minors who may seek an abortion. The facts necessary to adjudicate the First Amendment claims are sufficiently developed as these claims present the largely legal question of whether provision of information and counseling about abortion to minors is prohibited by the statute and, therefore, requires less factual development. Here, the analysis of whether section 188.250 violates Planned Parenthood's First Amendment rights would essentially be unaffected by further factual development. The law also affects Planned Parenthood in a way that gives rise to an immediate, concrete dispute. Planned Parenthood provides information and counseling to minors about abortion. There is an immediate, concrete dispute as to whether Planned Parenthood may be held liable by parties to the present suit or others [4]  under section 188.250 for providing information and counseling about abortion to minors because the statute forces Planned Parenthood to restrict the information it gives to minors or risk significant liability. See Abbott Laboratories, 387 U.S. at 152, 87 S.Ct. 1507 (dispute immediate and appropriate for judicial review because petitioners had to choose between complying with the labeling requirements, a substantial investment, or follow their present course of action and risk prosecution). Further, the ripeness threshold is lowered considerably in the context of pre-enforcement challenges under the First Amendment. The courts have repeatedly shown solicitude for First Amendment claims because of concern that, even in the absence of a fully concrete dispute, unconstitutional statutes or ordinances tend to chill protected expression among those who forbear speaking because of the law's very existence. This concern is particularly acute with regard to facial challenges to a statute or ordinance. Peachlum v. City of York, 333 F.3d 429, 434-35 (3d Cir.2003). See also, e.g., Martin Tractor Co. v. Federal Election Comm'n, 627 F.2d 375, 380 (D.C.Cir.1980) (Within the first amendment arena the jurisprudential criteria for constitutional adjudication are sometimes relaxed when a facial attack is launched. . . . [I]n such cases, the ripeness doctrine has been more loosely applied.); Wright, Miller & Cooper, 13A Federal Practice & Procedure: Jurisdiction 2d, Sec. 3532.3 (First amendment rights of free expression and association are particularly apt to be found ripe for immediate protection because of the fear of irretrievable loss. In a wide variety of settings, courts have found First Amendment claims ripe, often commenting directly on the special need to protect against any inhibiting chill.). The controversy is ripe as to Planned Parenthood's First Amendment claims.