Professor Mark L. Rienzi, Co-Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law), published an article in National Review, on August 3, 2023. Rienzi discusses the potential overturning of the Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Hill v. Colorado, arguing that its restrictions on First Amendment represent a grave error on the part of the Court.

The article is available for viewing at this link.

National Review
By: Mark Rienzi
Date: August 3, 2023
Time to Kill Hill

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Twenty-three years ago, the Supreme Court approved of a novel state law banning sidewalk counselors from approaching women outside abortion clinics and speaking with them about alternatives to abortion. That decision was one of the Court’s most egregious First Amendment mistakes this century — and last week, a case landed on its docket asking the justices to fix it.

In Hill v. Colorado, the Supreme Court considered a law banning people near abortion clinics from approaching within eight feet of another person for purposes of “oral protest, education, or counseling.” The Court upheld the law, with Justice Stevens claiming for the majority that it was needed to protect a newly minted interest of an “unwilling listener” in “avoiding unwanted communication.” Following Hill, numerous jurisdictions around the country have adopted their own versions of Hill laws — not only silencing life-affirming sidewalk counselors, but also depriving abortion-vulnerable women of a final opportunity to receive a little more information, consider offers of help, and learn about the resources available to them before making a potentially life-altering choice.

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