Protecting Pro-Life Speech in Pittsburgh

It's a significant victory that safeguards the constitutional rights of all Pittsburghers - a key decision today by a federal judge who acted to uphold the free speech rights of pro-life advocates.

U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone granted our request for an injunction that will prohibit the City of Pittsburgh from enforcing an ordinance that would prohibit free speech by pro-life advocates. As you may recall, we filed suit last fall against the City of Pittsburgh challenging the ordinance in question, Pittsburgh Ordinance 601.02. 

Our suit asserts that the ordinance is overbroad, vague and impinges on the rights of free speech and due process that the United States Constitution guarantees. 

It targets one of our most cherished constitutional rights - the right to free speech.

At issue was the right of pro-life advocates to educate the public on pro-life matters, especially as they related to last November's election.  Our clients wanted to distribute pro-life leaflets - in the days leading up to the election - on unoccupied parked cars without fear of fine, penalty or censure.  

That's why we sought and successfully obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) last October, which cleared the way for our clients to continue to distribute their literature.  That TRO is posted here.

In today's decision, the judge granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that our arguments demonstrated "a likelihood of success on the merits" and enjoined the City from enforcing this ordinance.
 
In issuing his ruling, Judge Cercone noted that Supreme Court decisions [s]uggest that preventing littering is simply not a sufficiently significant interest to preclude leafletting.  You can read the court's opinion here.

We're being assisted in this case by Pittsburgh attorney Noah P. Fardo of the law firm Flaherty Fardo LLC.

We're very pleased with this decision.  The ruling is significant because our clients - and others - may freely distribute pro-life leaflets in the City of Pittsburgh without fear of being fined. 

The decision also represents an important step toward the final resolution of this suit.