| McCullen v. Coakley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued January 15, 2014 Decided June 26, 2014 | |
| Full case name | Eleanor McCullen, et al., Petitioners v. Martha Coakley, Attorney General of Massachusetts, et al. |
| Docket no. | 12-1168 |
| Citations | 573 U.S. 464 (more) 134 S. Ct. 2518; 189 L. Ed. 2d 502; 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4499 |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Statute upheld as to facial challenge, 573 F. Supp. 2d 382 (D. Mass. 2008); affirmed, 571 F.3d 167 (1st Cir. 2009); cert. denied, 130 S. Ct. 1881 (2010); statute upheld as to as applied challenge, 759 F. Supp. 2d 133 (D. Mass. 2010); affirmed, 708 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2013); cert. granted, 570 U.S. 916 (2013). |
| Holding | |
| The provisions of the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Act limiting protesting within 35 feet of an abortion clinic violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed and remanded. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Roberts, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Concurrence | Scalia (in judgment), joined by Kennedy, Thomas |
| Concurrence | Alito (in judgment) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. I | |
McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U.S. 464 (2014), is a United States Supreme Court case involving a First Amendment challenge to the validity of a Massachusetts law establishing 35-foot (11 m) fixed buffer zones around facilities where abortions were performed.
The law – part of the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Act – barred non-exempt individuals from entering or remaining "on a public way or sidewalk adjacent to a reproductive health care facility within a radius of 35 feet". The Court unanimously held that the law violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applied to Massachusetts through the Fourteenth Amendment.