Anti-Abortion Protesters Lose Free Speech Fight Against Detroit

An anti-abortion group lost its bid to revive a suit alleging that restrictions imposed on it during the Democratic party’s 2019 presidential primary debates in Detroit violated the First Amendment, because it didn’t show the restrictions were content-based or didn’t serve government interests, the Sixth Circuit said.

Created Equal, which is incorporated as Reform America, complained that the restrictions kept it from effectively communicating its anti-abortion message to candidates and audience members. But setting up a ticketed-only area was a content-neutral restriction, and dividing protest areas according to groups’ messages served a compelling government interest in keeping the peace, the ...