Court-sanctioned terrorism by anti-choice extremists

[phantom power]

This is a remarkably insane ruling. I wonder: if a mobster shakes down a store owner for protection money, do they now get off free? Judge: "Hey, now that the plaintiff has paid the protection money, he has no reason to fear any mobster retribution."

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion rights zealots won another big one the other day. They're now free to threaten and harass doctors as much as they want to:

Dillard wrote in her letter that thousands of people from across the nation were scrutinizing Means’ background and would know “your habits and routines.”

“They know where you shop, who your friends are, what you drive, where you live,” the letter said. “You will be checking under your car every day because maybe today is the day someone places an explosive under it.”

Let's turn this around a little bit, shall we? What if a young American Muslim sent a letter with exactly the same wording to a US government official saying: "you will be checking under your car every day because maybe today is the day someone places an explosive under it?" Is that free speech too? Or is only ok for anti-abortion terrorists to make such threats?

If so, it's kind of odd because there aren't a whole lot of homegrown terrorist groups that have made good on their death threats over the years, but the anti-abortion movement is one that has quite an impressive body count.

Not that any of this matters really. The threats worked:

The judge also rejected the government’s request for a permanent injunction prohibiting Dillard from again contacting Means. He was persuaded by the defense argument that she would have no reason to do so since Means no longer has any plans to offer abortion services in Kansas.

In other words, because the threats succeeded in stopping the legal act the terrorist opposed, there was no reason to pursue this any further. Also, since the terrorist is rational rather than crazy, there's no reason to fear that her threats were real. Good to know.

We talk a lot about progress in this country and are proud of having overcome some of our deepest injustices by acknowledging the basic human rights of everyone. But anyone who thinks that once acknowledged it's then impossible to lose should take a look at what's happening to women's fundamental rights, right now, in state legislatures and courtrooms all over this country.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/taxpayer-paid-brainwashing-in-34-states.html

[Dawson Leery]

1. If this were a muslim, they would have been arrested and convicted.