Colorado’s governor and several officials are facing a lawsuit over free speech restrictions near abortion clinics.
“The government may not target life-affirming speech simply because it disagrees with the message. That is unlawful viewpoint discrimination. It should not be a crime to lovingly and compassionately approach another person to tell them about alternatives to abortion,” First Liberty Senior Counsel Roger Byron said in a statement.
According to the law, it is illegal to approach an individual within a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic to offer counseling or speak about pro-life advocacy.
“The First Amendment presumes it is unconstitutional for the government to restrict a private citizen’s expression because of ‘its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.’ The laws imposed by Colorado and Denver favor one message over another. That’s unconstitutional,” said Charles Cooper, Chairman and Founding Partner at Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, as quoted in First Liberty’s statement.
From The Blaze:
Wendy Faustin, represented by First Liberty and Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, filed the lawsuit over Colorado's law and local ordinances that establish buffer zones around abortion clinics that punish people for engaging in certain forms of speech. Faustin's attorneys say these laws were adopted with the intent targeting pro-life speech in particular. They say that targeting disfavored speech in such a manner is unconstitutional on its face as blatant viewpoint discrimination.
