This case is relevant to the current anti-free speech clinic access legislation which is again being pushed by the pro-abortion members of of the Weschester County legislature.
Note the penalty the DOJ agreed to pay for this digraceful lawsuit!
US Justice Department drops case against sidewalk counselor
Washington D.C., Apr 4, 2012 / 02:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Department of Justice dropped its case against a pro-life sidewalk counselor and agreed to pay $120,000 for the lawsuit after a federal judge ruled that the case should never have been brought to court.
“I think this sends a strong message that pro-lifers will not be intimidated into silence,” said Mathew Staver, founder the nonprofit group Liberty Counsel, which represented sidewalk counselor Mary Susan Pine.
Staver told CNA on April 3 that from the very beginning, the case against Pine was weak.
Department officials claimed that she had violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law by preventing a car from accessing the Presidential Women's Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. on one occasion in Nov. 2009.
The department sought thousands of dollars in fines and a permanent injunction to prohibit Pine from counseling women outside the clinic.
Staver explained that the allegations centered around Pine walking up to an approaching car, whose passengers stopped, rolled down the window, accepted literature from her and proceeded on their way to the abortion clinic.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. asserted that “various persons are being, have been, and will continue to be injured” by Pine’s conduct.
Federal Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp disagreed, throwing out the case in December with a statement that the Department of Justice had failed to present evidence of wrongdoing.
“The Court is at a loss as to why the Government chose to prosecute this particular case in the first place,” he wrote.