ACLJ Fights Unconstitutional Buffer Zone Outside Englewood Abortion Clinic

Jeryl Turco has been sidewalk counseling on the public sidewalks outside the Metropolitan Medical Associates abortion business for 15 years in Englewood, New Jersey. In 2014, the city enacted buffer zones to ban pro-life speech around abortion clinics. Shortly after the Englewood law went into effect, the Supreme Court – unanimously – struck down a buffer zone law in Massachusetts (McCullen v. Coakley) as a violation of the free speech rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors.

Other states soon followed in repealing buffer zone laws, but not Englewood. So we sued the city, arguing that, like the Massachusetts law struck down in McCullen, Englewood's law was not a narrowly tailored regulation. It burdened far more speech than was necessary to further the city's interest in ensuring access to health care facilities. In addition, the city could not show that, before enacting the no-speech zones, it had tried or seriously considered and reasonably rejected less restrictive alternatives (such as the ones suggested in McCullen).