Opinion ID: 775766
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Buffalo Gyn Womenservices (BGW)

Text: 51 BGW is a medical facility providing reproductive health services, including abortions and a range of counseling services. The facility is one of three businesses located on the western side of Main Street between Greenfield and Fairfield Streets in Buffalo, New York. To BGW's south is a dry-cleaning business on the corner of Greenfield Street whose patrons use a sidewalk parking area when they drop off and pick up clothes. 11 The BGW facility has a twenty-foot wide driveway squeezed between its building and the dry-cleaning establishment. The driveway leads to a parking lot and BGW's rear entrance. About sixty feet separate the BGW driveway from BGW's front entrance on Main Street, and a city bus makes regular stops along this strip of sidewalk. BGW's northern neighbor is a Sunoco gas station, which occupies the corner at the intersection of Fairfield and Main Streets. A lengthy sidewalk surrounds the gas station, and the area is largely dedicated to driveways so that cars can easily enter and exit the business. 52 Aside from discussing blockades in 1992 and 1993, the District Court did not specify the extent of more recent protest activity at BGW except to describe the behavior of particular protestors who have proven disruptive. The District Court did not state whether protest activity had continued with the size or ferocity seen in the early 1990s, but the District Court's findings of fact support the conclusion that protest activity, though still highly emotional and intense, has subsided at least in size and manageability. 53 The District Court constructed a significantly expanded no-protest buffer zone at BGW. The new buffer zone runs along most of the BGW side of Main Street between Greenfield and Fairfield Streets. It begins at a point sixty feet south of the BGW driveway, in front of the dry cleaner, and ends fifty-eight feet north of BGW, in front of the Sunoco gas station. The zone thus includes the entire public sidewalk in front of BGW. The District Court further enjoined protest activities within any gas station driveways that fall outside of the buffer zone. 54 The District Court justified the expansion by a piecemeal analysis of the zones' different parts. The buffer zone in front of the dry-cleaner permits customers to safely park on the sidewalk in order to drop off laundry. The zone in front of BGW permits clear and easy access to the facility, both via its driveway and its pedestrian entrance, and also moves noisy protestors further away from the building. By alleviating congestion along the sidewalk, the zone also makes it easier for bus riders to access the bus stop in front of the clinic. The final stretch of no-protest area permits easy and safe access to the Sunoco gas station. Moreover, the entire buffer zone permits shoppers, school children, and any other pedestrians to use the sidewalk without impediment. By removing the distracting protestors, traffic accidents along Main Street are also less likely. 12 55 Despite the laudatory goals of the expanded injunction, we hold that the larger buffer zone is unconstitutional. The zone imposes a severe burden on First Amendment rights by effectively preventing protestors from picketing and communicating from a normal conversational distance along the public sidewalk on Main Street near BGW. Though some limitations are necessary in light of the abusive behavior at BGW, only the buffer zones immediately around entrances and driveways are narrowly tailored to ensure clinic access and to burden no more speech than is necessary. 56 Although previous cases have set no outer limit on the size of buffer zones, we do note that the dimensions of the buffer zone created by the District Court are larger than those upheld in the past. The Supreme Court has previously reviewed and sustained court-made buffer zones of fifteen feet at these sites, relying on its earlier approval of thirty-six-foot buffer zones at reproductive health clinics. Schenck, 519 U.S. at 380 (fifteen-foot zones); Madsen, 512 U.S. at 757 (thirty-six-foot zones). The BGW zone is nearly double the size of the Madsen zones, extending sixty feet south of BGW's driveway toward Greenfield Street and fifty-eight feet north of the BGW building toward Fairfield Street. The resulting buffer zone stretches over 200 feet, more than doubling the dimensions of the old zones. 13 57 Above all, we strike down the enlargements because they are unnecessary. Our review of the evidence indicates that clinic access at BGW is preserved by application of the old fifteen-foot buffer zones. Almost all evidence pointing to the inadequacy of the 1992 Injunction involved one of two situations. First, a group of defendants who are named for the first time in this action, flouted the rules of the 1992 Injunction because the injunction did not name them. Advancing a questionable legal theory, they maintained that because it did not name them, its terms did not bind them. 14 Alternatively, protestors invoked the sidewalk-counselor exception to engage in disruptive behavior within fifteen feet of clinic entrances and driveways. Aside from these abuses, the old buffer zones were sufficient. Moreover, activity in the driveways of these clinics caused the most serious traffic hazards. The 2000 Injunction will eliminate both of these abuses even absent the buffer zone enlargements. It names the protestors regularly involved in disruptive protests in the Western District. Further protecting clinic access, it eliminates the sidewalk-counselor exception and, with it, the porousness that plagued the old buffer zones. 15 58 In addition to being unnecessary, the larger buffer zones have significantly curtailed the exercise of First Amendment rights in the public areas around BGW. The zones effectively remove the protestors from anywhere near BGW and force them either down the block or across Main Street-a road with four lanes of active traffic. The District Court found that the protestors still yell and scream and can be clearly heard outside the clinic and therefore are able to communicate their message effectively. Although relevant, that conclusion understates the injunction's effect on free speech. The new zones sharply curtail the possibility of communication between pedestrians and protestors on this large swath of public sidewalk along Main Street. 59 Such a broad prohibition on free speech at BGW's old location was previously rejected by the Supreme Court in Schenck. 16 The 1992 Injunction included floating buffer zones which required that protestors stand fifteen feet from people or cars seeking access to clinics, but which otherwise allowed protestors to stand near health clinics. See Schenck, 519 U.S. at 367. The provision, though more lenient than the outright ban on protests near BGW in the 2000 Injunction, nonetheless had the effect of preventing demonstrators from picketing on the sidewalk near the old BGW. [A]ttempts to stand 15 feet from someone entering or leaving a clinic and to communicate a message-certainly protected on the face of the injunction-will be hazardous if one wishes to remain in compliance.... Id. at 378, 117 S. Ct. 855. Given that the sidewalk in front of BGW's old location was only seventeen feet wide, the room to maneuver was limited. Id. Since protestors might react by refraining from expressive activity near BGW even when that activity poses no obstacle to clinic access, the Supreme Court struck down the floating zones. Id. at 379, 117 S. Ct. 855. 60 In the case of the enlarged buffer zones in the 2000 Injunction, we need not engage in any sophisticated analysis of how the zones might chill protest activity on the public sidewalk at BGW. The new injunction does not chill this type of interaction-it effectively bans it. Like the 1992 protestor worried about compliance, the 2000 protestor must stand far and clear of the BGW facility. What the 1992 Injunction caused indirectly, the 2000 Injunction accomplishes with direct action: the effective prohibition of close range communication in public areas near BGW. 61 Concerning the 1992 Injunction, the Schenck Court held that such a separation between protestors and individuals entering clinics cannot be sustained on the record before it. Id. at 377, 117 S. Ct. 855. Without meaning to minimize the significant difficulties created by current protest activity at BGW, the pattern of illegal behavior in 2000 is a shadow of that faced by clinics in 1990, when the original complaint was filed. At the time, clinics suffered through numerous large-scale blockades. Id. at 362, 117 S. Ct. 855. As part of their strategy to stop and disrupt clinic operations, protestors trespassed onto clinic parking lots, sometimes threw themselves on top of the hoods of [oncoming] cars, and milled around doorways and driveway entrances. Id. at 363-64, 117 S. Ct. 855. These constant protests overwhelmed the local police, who had been unable to respond effectively. Id. at 364, 117 S. Ct. 855. The 2000 Injunction targets a pattern of illegal activity that lacks this ferocity. Although protestors still crowd and shout at oncoming cars and patients, police are no longer overwhelmed by their behavior. The most egregious acts, such as the illegal practice of staging large scale blockades, are largely gone. If the 1990 record was insufficient to sustain an indirect ban on communicative activity at BGW, then the record here must be insufficient to support an even greater incursion on First Amendment activities. 17 62 The viability of injunctive restrictions on speech activity often rises and falls on its overall effect on free speech activities. On this point, Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703 (2000), is instructive. The Hill Court upheld a Colorado statute imposing eight-foot no-approach zones when protestors were trying to communicate within one hundred feet of health care facilities. In part, the statute survived constitutional review because it left open ample alternative channels of communication. Id. at 726, 120 S. Ct. 2480. From a distance of eight feet, people entering clinics could read protestors' placards, id.; a speaker could communicate at a `normal conversational distance,' id. at 726-27, 120 S. Ct. 2480 (quoting Schenck, 519 U.S. at 377); and a leafletter could stand near the path of oncoming pedestrians and proffer[] his or her material, which the pedestrian can easily accept, id. at 727, 117 S. Ct. 855. No such opportunities are present at BGW under the 2000 Injunction. 63 Upon review of other cases affirming buffer zones outside of health care clinics, it is clear that the injunctions in those cases preserved greater opportunity for protestor communication than is available under the terms of the 2000 Injunction. We disagree with the plaintiffs' contention that the injunction in Madsen had a similar effect on free speech near the clinics at issue. In support of their view, the plaintiffs note that the thirty-six-foot zones upheld there required protestors to stand in front of neighboring properties or across the street. See Madsen, 512 U.S. at 770. But the clinic in Madsen sat on a narrow street of twenty-one feet. Id. at 769-70, 114 S. Ct. 2516. The zone separated protestors from cars approaching or leaving the clinic by no greater than 10 to 12 feet. Id. at 770, 114 S. Ct. 2516. The size of the protests were apparently larger than those at BGW. Id. at 758, 114 S. Ct. 2516. Moreover, the Supreme Court concluded that [t]he state court seems to have had few other options to protect access given the narrow confines around the clinic. Id. at 769, 114 S. Ct. 2516. Because BGW is positioned on a four-lane road in a commercial area, and the District Court has adequate alternatives, 18 a broad injunction is less necessary and more damaging than in Madsen. 64 The buffer zones in front of the neighboring dry-cleaning business and gas station are particularly suspect. As buffer zones extend further and further from clinic entrances, their relationship to guaranteeing clinic access becomes more attenuated and the zones require more vigorous review. In Madsen, the Supreme Court upheld thirty-six-foot buffer zones protecting clinic entrances and parking lots, but struck down similarly-sized buffer zones protecting adjacent parcels of property. Id. at 769, 771, 114 S. Ct. 2516. The Court rejected the buffer zones along the property lines of clinic neighbors absent a showing that petitioners standing on the private property have obstructed access to the clinic, blocked vehicular traffic, or otherwise unlawfully interfered with the clinic's operation.... Id. at 771, 114 S. Ct. 2516. We too reject such buffer zones in front of the neighboring businesses, particularly where as here the evidence strongly supports the conclusion that clinic access is hampered only by protestor behavior in clinic driveways and in front of clinic entrances. 65 The plaintiffs insist that the zones in front of neighboring businesses are necessary to prevent a public nuisance, if not to protect clinic access. Indeed, the District Court justified these additional no-protest areas by noting that pedestrians use the street, bus riders use the bus stop, and community members bring business to the dry-cleaner. They contend that this busy urban walkway cannot tolerate picketing. 66 We find this argument unconvincing, and believe that this use of nuisance law for such a broad prohibition of protest activities raises profound constitutional issues. The fact that Main Street is a congested pedestrian walkway makes it more, not less, apt for First Amendment protections. A public forum may be an appropriate place for expressing one's views precisely because the primary activity for which it is designed is attended with noisy crowds and vehicles, some unrest and less than perfect order. Wolin v. Port of N.Y. Auth., 392 F.2d 83, 90 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 940 (1968). Patrons of the dry-cleaning establishment may find that they have to park around the corner, or expect a short delay as they make their way to the store entrance. They may have to drive more carefully, and avoid pulling their cars up and onto the sidewalk too quickly. Such trips may be less routine because they find themselves confronted with opinions that anger them. Under our constitutional system, however, government may not sanitize our public places of such protest activity. The framers of the Constitution opted for the disharmony of controversy because they believed that in that unrest lay the best prospect of an ordered society. Wolin, 392 F.2d at 91. While narrow regulations may sometimes be necessary, they must be supported by more than a few stories of near-miss traffic accidents and frustrated customers, particularly where such regulations impair free speech as severely as the no-protest zone here. When linked together, the reasons invoked for these incremental increases in the buffer zones' dimensions form too weak a chain to support the weight of this substantial burden on First Amendment activities. 67 The District Court should have responded to the problems of protestors blockading the sidewalk, so that pedestrians cannot pass, by enjoining such behavior directly. In fact, the injunction already contains such a provision that forbids blocking, impeding or obstructing ingress to or egress from covered facilities by, for example, lining up shoulder-to-shoulder along the sidewalk outside of those clinics. On remand, the District Court should extend such protection to pedestrians who seek to use the public sidewalks in front of covered facilities, so that protestors are enjoined from blocking, impeding or obstructing pedestrians who seek to walk along the public sidewalks in front of covered facilities. 19 68 We do think that three slight alterations to the zone imposed by the new injunction should be maintained to further strengthen the zone's effectiveness, especially as the alterations have a minimal effect on First Amendment freedoms at BGW. First, in regard to the buffer zone around the pedestrian entrance to BGW, the 1992 Injunction created a roughly semicircular arc with a fifteen-foot radius measured from the doorway. Because the zone extended out only fifteen feet from the doorway, the zones did not cover the entire nineteen-foot wide sidewalk in front of the clinic. Though only a four-foot wide stretch at its thinnest point remained along the edge of Main Street, protest activity there caused great disruption. The new zone is also measured from points fifteen feet to the north and south of the doorway, but it encompasses the entire width of sidewalk in front of the BGW doorway. In other words, the new zone is rectangular in shape, rather than semicircular, a slight difference that will greatly strengthen the effectiveness of the zone. 69 The second alteration concerns the city bus stop, including a bench, that sits on the border of the driveway buffer zone. The record demonstrates that protest activity in this area created difficulties for patients and commuters attempting to use this public transit stop. A slight modification of the zone, so that it bars protest activity within three feet of the bus stop sign and bench, 20 increases that effectiveness of the clinic zones without imposing any real, additional burden on First Amendment activity. 70 Finally, a narrow no-protest corridor (measured three feet from the BGW building facade) connecting the driveway and front-entrance buffer zones will alleviate crowding problems that interfere with pedestrians or bus riders seeking to walk along the sidewalk in front of BGW. Cf. United States v. Scott, 187 F.3d 282, 291 (2d Cir. 1999) (Leval, J., dissenting). Such a narrow passageway has none of the constitutional dangers inherent in the total ban on protestor activity in front of BGW. None of these three modifications entail a significant or extraordinary expansion of the baseline buffer zones approved in Schenck. Instead, they constitute minor alterations as necessitated by the unique physical conditions of the BGW site. Accordingly, the modifications do not offend the First Amendment. 71 This record leaves little doubt that clinic access will be preserved by the old fifteen-foot buffer zone, modified only to include the strip of sidewalk at the edge of the clinic entrance, the Main Street bus stop near the BGW driveway, and the corridor along BGW's facade. While remaining mindful that the role of an appellate court is not to quibble over whether slightly smaller zones would suffice, see Schenck, 519 U.S. at 381, we note that every incremental expansion in the size of buffer zones brings smaller benefits to patients and clinics, with greater injury to free speech. At some point, the balance shifts decisively. The buffer zones at BGW passed that point when the goal shifted from only prohibiting behavior that blocks clinic access to eliminating a range of behavior that creates disorder. As one might expect, when the injunction began serving these broader goals, free speech suffered. 21 72 Accordingly, the provisions of the injunction against Melfi that expand the size of the BGW buffer zones, except for the slight modifications described above, are vacated.