A judge in Illinois has decided that state’s law meant to protect abortion clinics by forcing pro-life community pregnancy help centers to promote abortion services against their biblically based principles is unconstitutional.
In an order issued Dec. 20, Circuit Judge Eugene G. Doherty determined that the constitutional right to be free from compelled speech takes precedence. He wrote the issue is not over the “merits of the message” but rather the government’s authority to compel a citizen to speak it.
“For reasons stated above, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have raised a fair question as to whether their right to be free from government compelled speech is violated by SB 1564, and so the Court enjoins its enforcement against them as stated above,” he wrote. “This injunction is effective until the conclusion of the case of further order of the Court.”
Click here to read the entire opinion and injunction order. It applies only to the specific plaintiffs in the case, but establishes a clear legal argument against the law and others like it—including California’s similarly worded law. While the matter of the California case is in federal courts, it is likely this case or others like it will force the matter to the Supreme Court, which will have to decide which of the competing lower court opinions is correct—or create its own superseding opinion.
President-elect Donald Trump, who has made it clear he opposes abortion and will appoint judges who are likely to be inclined against the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion, reportedly has more federal judicial vacancies to fill than his predecessor had in 2008. According to The Washington Post, there are more than 100 federal bench seats to be filled by the new president after Jan. 20.
In so doing, the federal judiciary could be entirely reshaped. {eoa}
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