Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Case Must Be Fully Briefed on Appeal

An anti-abortion protester’s appeal from a decision upholding Colorado’s abortion clinic buffer zone law must be fully briefed and argued, not decided summarily, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied Wendy Faustin’s motion to dispense with normal appellate procedures and affirmed that the US Supreme Court’s decision in Hill v. Colorado barred her First Amendment challenge to buffer zone provisions in the state and the city of Denver. If granted, the move would have allowed Faustin to ask the top court to overrule Hill more quickly than if the appeal proceeded ...