The Supreme Court\u27s Narrow View on Civil Rights

The right to choose abortion, although recently significantly curtailed from its original scope,\u27 is a federally protected liberty interest of women, and is at least protected against the imposition of undue burdens by state and local government.2 Some of the most serious threats to women\u27s ability to choose abortion have come not from government regulation, but from private, national, organized efforts to prevent abortions. In addition to seeking change through the political system, some of these organizations, most notably Operation Rescue, have focused on the providers of abortion, and have attempted to prevent abortions by forcibly closing abortion clinics and harassing and intimidating women and employees entering the clinics. These groups do not shy away from using illegal means to accomplish their goal.3 In Bray v Alexandria Women\u27s Health Clinic,4 the Supreme Court rejected the consensus among lower federal courts5 that private conspiracies to blockade abortion clinics were subject to federal court injunctions under 42 USC § 1985(3),6 a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 187 1.7 Bray is the latest in a line of decisions that has rendered empty the fortysecond Congress\u27s promise of federal court protection against organized groups who interfere with individuals attempting to exercise their federal constitutional rights