Opinion ID: 517635
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Balancing Threatened Harm to Plaintiff and Defendants.

Text: 32 This case presents a conflict between the First Amendment rights of the protesters to advocate a right-to-life position and the privacy interests of women who seek to have abortions performed at the clinic, while being insulated from the protesters advocacy. In examining the record, the district court correctly concluded that granting the injunction would be substantially more likely to infringe on first amendment rights than denying the injunction would be to result in a denial of privacy rights. 33 The Supreme Court, in its First Amendment jurisprudence, has noted that [t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury. Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 2689, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). The Court, however, has upheld some local ordinances that restrain freedom of speech in balance against privacy interests. It has done so reluctantly and with great care, however, observing that: 34 Much that we encounter offends our esthetic, if not our political and moral, sensibilities. Nevertheless, the Constitution does not permit government to decide which types of otherwise protected speech are sufficiently offensive to require protection for the unwilling listener or viewer ... the burden normally falls upon the viewer to avoid further bombardment of [his] sensibilities simply by averting [his] eyes. 35 Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 210-11, 95 S.Ct. 2268, 2273, 45 L.Ed.2d 125 (1975) (citations omitted) (emphasis added). 36 Most recently, and in the context of abortion protest, the Supreme Court upheld a local ordinance which banned picketing in front of residences. See Frisby v. Schultz and Braun, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2495, 101 L.Ed.2d 420 (1988).. Yet again, the Supreme Court carefully circumscribed its decision to abridge freedom of speech: 37 The antipicketing ordinance operates at the core of the First Amendment by prohibiting appellees from engaging in picketing on an issue of public concern. Because of the importance of uninhibited, robust, and wide-open  debate on public issues ... we have traditionally subjected restrictions on public issue picketing to careful scrutiny. 38 Id. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 2499 (emphasis added). In Frisby, the Court carved out for the unwilling listener the exception of residential privacy. [T]he home is different ... individuals are not required to welcome unwanted speech into their own homes and ... government may protect this freedom. Id. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 2502. Yet, though this exception was created, the Court was careful to point out that public streets were the archtype of a traditional public forum, id., and that to enforce there a content-based exclusion the Government had to show that its regulation [was] necessary to serve a compelling state interest and that it [was] narrowly drawn to achieve that end. Id. (quoting Perry Education Assn. v. Perry Local Educators' Assn., 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 954, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983)). 39 The Supreme Court's First Amendment jurisprudence tilts the scale assessing threatened harm decisively in favor of the protestors. Loss of First Amendment freedoms is considered an irreparable injury. Moreover, even when there has been a government ordinance--as there is not here--in regulating freedom of speech in a public forum, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to construe such regulations in such a way as to drain the life-blood of a democracy--uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate on controversial public issues. By asking our Court to gag these protesters, MWMC seeks to push the regulation of speech further than any court has ever gone. 8 40 The clinic wishes potential clients to be shielded from hearing advocacy with which it disagrees so that they will obtain abortions. But obtaining abortions is not in issue; the availability of abortion services at MWMC continues. The clinic's real complaint is that the choice has been made more difficult because of adverse information communicated to potential patients. Yet making choices more difficult is not the same as eliminating the right to choose. In fact, in a polity where the people are sovereign, informed choice enhances responsible decision-making. 9 Neither we nor the clinic can cut off the peaceful communication of information, distasteful to some though it be. Neither in the precedent of the Supreme Court, nor in that of ours, do we find the faintest hint that the uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate on public issues extolled by Justice Brennan in New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270, 84 S.Ct. 710, 721, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964), is to be limited to things that do not matter much, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 1187, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943), or to the other fellow's cherished ideas and beliefs, not our own. 41 The Public Interest Prerequisite for a Preliminary Injunction and Conclusion 42 Given the preceding discussion, it is not likely that the public interest would be served by insulating potential abortion clients from the information, stark and unsavory though it may be, which these protestors seek to communicate. The right to choose abortion services at MWMC still exists, though the choice may be made harder because the wrapping is undone. The First Amendment retains a primacy in our jurisprudence because it represents the foundation of a democracy--informed public discourse. If the people are to choose wisely what laws they wish to live under and what rights and privileges are to be maintained, then neither the MWMC nor this Court must be permitted to cull and censor the information upon which their choices are to be made. Because MWMC has not carried the burden of persuasion on any of the four Callaway prerequisites, injunctive relief cannot be granted and the district court's refusal to do so is hereby AFFIRMED.