Legal cases on the HHS mandate & abortion clinic 'bubble zones': 2 must-read op-eds

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jan 06, 2014 | In On the Good

Here are two short opinion pieces that are well worth reading:

1. For National Review, Matt Bowman analyzes the legal argument put forward by the Obama administration in its battle against the Little Sisters of the Poor, and concludes that the argument is not only weak but “surreal.” The Obama legal team insists that the nuns accept the contraceptive mandate, even though their acceptance would have no practical consequences, Bowman reports: “The government admits that its offensive coerced speech might not actually achieve the government’s goals, but the Little Sisters must speak it anyway.”
2. For the Wall Street Journal, Floyd Abrams, the noted 1st-Amendment advocate, argues that the Supreme Court should overturn a Massachusetts law that creates a 35-foot “bubble zone” outside abortion clinics. Pro-lifers cannot enter that bubble zone, but abortion advocates can. So it’s not a neutral law; it’s a content-based restriction of speech. Abrams—who notes that he supports legal abortion—says the law goes too far, and wonders why the ACLU does not agree.