ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

UPDATE: As a few commenters have indicated, the Supreme Court did not "rule" on this case. The Court denied certiorai. We apologize for the error.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that anti-abortion activists who created "wanted" posters to identify clinic doctors should pay $5 million in damages.

The poster makers had created Wild West style posters and a website that targeted abortion doctors. The 12 activists and two anti-abortion groups were sued under a racketeering law and the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it illegal to incite violence and threaten abortion doctors.

Maria Vullo, the lawyer for Planned Parenthood, said the Supreme Court had "finally put an end to re-litigation of these issues." She said her clients did not contest the reduction of the punitive damages to $4.73 million. A Portland, Oregon jury first awarded the doctors $108 million in punitive damages, but that was later reduced by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"This case has never been about the money. It's about protecting doctors' lives," Vullo said.

Creators of the posters claimed that they have only meant the posters to be a form of protest, not a threat. But abortion doctors feel differently and point to examples such as Dr. Bayard Britton, who was shot and killed, along with his bodyguard, by an abortion protester outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic in July 1994 after his name appeared on a similar poster.