Discovery Institute Accuses Rioters of Rights Violations

Nathan Newman nathan.newman at yale.edu
Fri Aug 4 13:40:50 PDT 2000


On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Tom Wheeler wrote:


> Discovery Institute Accuses Rioters of Rights Violations

Chapman called upon Congress to
> investigate the activities and civil-rights violations of the
> tax-exempt funding of groups such as Global Exchange, Direct Action
> Network (and its localized variations), and Rainforest Action
> Network.

When someone sues all these groups under RICO, we will be able to thank NOW for having established the precedent that non-economic motives still qualifies a group as engaging in "racketeering activities." Essentially, the NOW attack on anti-choice activists revived conspiracy as a legal attack on civil disobediance and established the bankrupting of political opponents through RICO suits as a new tool.

It is a sad fact that for the last decade, almost all the bad Supreme Court precedents rolling back First Amendment Rights have had either NOW or Planned Parenthood in the plaintiff position, with often liberal judges reversing old labor and civil rights precendents in order to silence anti-abortion activists.

Unfortunately, what comes around goes around.

-- Nathan Newman



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