Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Racketeering and abortion protest

I just got back from MCing the annual Shrove Tuesday Potluck and Talent Show at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee. Church events are tough because you can't work blue.

So I finally caught up with the Supreme Court's opinion in Scheidler v. National Organization for Women . The case ended a 19 year attempt to apply a federal racketeering statute to certain abortion protesters. In this case, the issue was fairly narrow. The Court decided that the Hobbs Act does not apply to physical violence unrelated to extortion or robbery. The Court's decision was unanimous and that's not surprising to me given that the legal question seems pretty "easy." I don't think today's decision tells us much of anything about the direction of the Roberts Court.

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