Anti-Abortion Picketers Rights Violated When Ordrered To Put Down Graphic Signs

In Lefemine v. Davis, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68725 (D SC, July 8, 2010), a South Carolina federal district court enjoined Greenwood County (SC) sheriff officials from imposing content-based restrictions on graphic anti-abortion depictions on signs carried by a Christian anti-abortion group. When the group picketed at the busiest intersection in the county, law enforcement officials ordered them to put down the signs because they were disturbing to young people. The court concluded that this amounted to a content-based restriction that was not narrowly tailored to further the compelling interest of protecting children. It therefore violated the free speech and assembly rights as well as the free exercise rights of the picketers from Columbia Christians for Life.