Noise law can't be used to stop pro-life pastor's sidewalk preaching, says court

Authorities cannot restrict a pastor's anti-abortion preaching outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Portland, a federal judge ruled on Monday, May 23.

Andrew March, pastor of Cell 53 Church, filed for a motion for preliminary injunction against the police and attorney general Janet Mills who are trying to restrict his church's activities on the sidewalk beside the Planned Parenthood facility. The authorities are apparently using a noise ordinance included in the Maine Civil Rights Act as a reason to stop the preaching.

Judge Nancy Torresen said the said noise law, which protects people seeking medical care from being disturbed by noise, cannot be used against March and his church who are speaking up against abortion. She said the case raises the argument of whether a state law that protects women's rights to obtain health care violates a person's First Amendment rights to free speech.

"I conclude that it does," Torresen wrote in the order.

One of the objectives of Cell 53 Church is "to plead for the lives of the unborn at the doorsteps of abortion facilities," the document said. However, last year, the police told March to keep his voice down because his preaching could be heard inside the Planned Parenthood center.

March noted that other people on the sidewalk speaking in favor of abortion were not apprehended.

Torreson said that the Maine Civil Rights Act provision that says a person who has received a warning cannot interefere with activities in an abortion facility is unconstitutional because it presents a bias against pro-life advocates.

"Continued enforcement of a content-based restriction on speech would result in irreparable harm to the Plaintiff," Torreson stated. She said there are other ways of maintaining public order on the sidewalk.

The judge has yet to issue a final ruling regarding the case.

The lawsuit was filed in March last year as a counterclaim to the Maine attorney general's lawsuit against Brian Ingalls, an elder of the church. Ingalls, who also preached outside the Planned Parenthood facility, was accused by the attorney general to violate the state's noise law, Portland Press Herald reported.

The attorney general filed for a motion to keep Ingalls from standing within 50 feet of any Planned Parenthood center in Maine.

The judge handling the lawsuit against Ingalls has not given a ruling.