ACLJ Urges Federal Court to Block Enforcement of New York City Law Targeting Crisis Pregnancy Centers

(New York City, NY) - The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) today urged a federal district court to block enforcement of New Yorks recently adopted ordinance targeting crisis pregnancy centers in the City.  The ACLJ, which represents numerous crisis pregnancy centers, filed a federal lawsuit last month challenging the constitutionality of the new ordinance.  Today, the ACLJ filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the court to prevent the law from being enforced.

"The problem with the Citys new ordinance is that it literally destroys the chosen messages of these crisis pregnancy centers by forcing them to adopt and express the views and opinions about abortion and contraception preferred by the New York City Council," said CeCe Heil, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ.  She pointed out the constitutional defects that are the problem of the new ordinance:  "The Supreme Court has said, on numerous occasions, that the right to freedom of speech includes both the right of a speaker to choose his own preferred message, and the right not to speak a message with which the speaker disagrees. New York Citys ordinance strikes at both of these important components of the right to free speech.  First, it selects which individuals and groups will be targeted based on their chosen message. Second, it coerces crisis pregnancy centers, on pain of forced closures and fines, to express the Citys messages."

The New York City Council passed the measure in March which was signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The ACLJ represents The Evergreen Association (Expectant Mother Care Pregnancy Centers-EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers) and Life Center of New York (AAA Pregnancy Problems Center) which operate a total of 13 crisis pregnancy centers across New York City.

The suit contends that the ordinance violates the constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of the press, and due process of law, guaranteed to Plaintiffs by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the New York Constitution.

The ordinance requires crisis pregnancy centers to post signs in the lobbies of their counseling centers, add extensive additional written language to their advertising materials, and to provide oral statements during both in person and telephonic conversations regarding the services offered by crisis pregnancy centers.

The ACLJ filed its lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The motion for a preliminary junction was filed today in that court and Judge William H. Pauley has set June 7, 2011 as the hearing date on the motion.  The ACLJ lawsuit is posted here. The motion for a preliminary injunction is posted here.

The ACLJ is being assisted in the case by Christopher A. Ferrara, New York Litigation Counsel to American Catholic Lawyers Association, who is serving as local counsel.

Similar ordinances were recently struck down as unconstitutional by federal judges in Baltimore and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice focuses on constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C.