The Supreme Court declined to take up a pro-life challenge to an abortion center buffer zone policy.
The court rejected an appeal from the pro-life organization Coalition Life, which challenged a Clarendale, Illinois law that restricts anti-abortion activity within 100 feet of clinics.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the rejection. While Alito did not offer his reasoning, Thomas wrote that he would have used the case to overturn the 2000 decision in Hill v. Colorado. The decision upheld a Colorado law that required a pro-life individual to receive consent to come within eight feet of a person in a 100-foot radius of the facility.
Thomas wrote in his dissent that the Hill decision has been “seriously undermined, if not completely eroded, and our refusal to provide clarity is an abdication of our judicial duty.”
“It is undisputed that Carbondale’s ordinance is identical to Colorado’s law in all material respects,” he wrote. “It is likewise undisputed that both the District Court and the Seventh Circuit dismissed Coalition Life’s suit exclusively on the ground that those courts felt bound by Hill. This case would have allowed us to provide needed clarity to lower courts.”
“I would have taken this opportunity to explicitly overrule Hill,” Thomas added. “For now, we leave lower courts to sort out what, if anything, is left of Hill’s reasoning, all while constitutional rights hang in the balance. I respectfully dissent.”
Coalition Life asked the Supreme Court to take up the case in July 2024, arguing that Carbondale’s policy violates the First Amendment.
