However, today:
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April 13, 2001
Lawmakers Join Abortion Case Brief
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:40 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 40 lawmakers from both parties have joined a
legal brief asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling
that allows wanted-style posters of abortion doctors.
New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer, who circulated the brief among his
colleagues, said there were worries that the ruling could incite violence at
abortion clinics.
The lawmakers planned to file their brief Friday.
On March 28, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in San
Francisco ruled that anti-abortion activists could not be held liable for
maintaining a Web site that labeled abortion doctors ``baby butchers.''
That ruling overturned a $107 million verdict against the activists who had
compiled the information. The judges said they could be held liable only if
the material authorized or directly threatened violence.
The Nuremberg Files Web site featured the names and addresses of doctors and
other health professionals working at reproductive health clinics.
Schumer's brief asks the full Ninth Circuit to review the decision in the
case of Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists. Lawyers
in the case said they will appeal to the full court.
Thirty House members signed the brief, as did 12 senators, including
Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine, and Jim
Jeffords, of Vermont.
