Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York

Summary

The Court held that a content-neutral injunction restricting demonstrations outside abortion clinics must burden no more speech than necessary to serve significant governmental interests. It invalidated the floating 15-foot buffer zones around people and vehicles because they substantially burdened ordinary sidewalk speech and created uncertainty about compliance, but upheld the fixed 15-foot zones around clinic entrances and driveways based on the protesters' repeated obstruction, harassment, and aggressive conduct. The judgment was therefore affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. Justice Scalia, dissenting in part, would have rejected the fixed zones and the Court's reliance on interests not properly supporting the injunction, while Justice Breyer, dissenting in part, would have affirmed because the injunction did not necessarily create unconstitutional floating zones.