World | Wed Jun 1, 2016 3:13pm EDT

Pittsburgh abortion clinic buffer zone challenge is revived

BY JONATHAN STEMPEL

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance that established a 15-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics in that city, to make it easier for patients to avoid protesters.

By a 3-0 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said anti-abortion campaigners seeking to provide "sidewalk counseling" to women entering a Planned Parenthood facility in downtown Pittsburgh could pursue claims that the 2005 ordinance violates their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The Philadelphia-based appeals court had rejected a similar challenge in 2009, but said a different conclusion was now required after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law setting a 35-foot buffer zone.

"The speech at issue is core political speech entitled to the maximum protection afforded by the First Amendment," Circuit Judge Kent Jordan wrote. "The city cannot burden it without first trying, or at least demonstrating that it has seriously considered, substantially less restrictive alternatives that would achieve the city's legitimate, substantial, and content-neutral interests."

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