Wow. Judge Rules that Pro-Lifer Doesn’t Have Free Speech

Pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger has been calling the NAACP the National Association for the Abortion of Colored People for years now as a way of criticizing the groups abortion advocacy. A judge has ruled that he’s not allowed to say that anymore.

Seriously.

Hampton Roads reports:

U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson this week ordered the Virginia Beach man and his nonprofit to stop referring to the 105-year-old civil rights organization as the “National Association for the Abortion of Colored People.”

Jackson also ordered Bomberger’s The Radiance Foundation – an organization with a Christian worldview that advocates for adoption and involved fathers, among other things – to pay unspecified court costs.

“Radiance is not prevented from criticizing the NAACP’s positions or activities, but may not present such critiques in a manner that is likely to confuse the public,” Jackson wrote, explaining the altered name amounted to trademark infringement.

In a statement, Bomberger called the ruling a “frightening assault on our First Amendment rights.” He did not say whether he would appeal.

“Judge Jackson’s decision denies the right to openly criticize or satirize an organization’s documented actions in news commentary,” he said.

Does anyone actually think that anyone would read Bomberger’s statement on his website and become so confused about the actual name of the NAACP? This is just awful.

And this is not an isolated incident. Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Susan B. Anthony List v. Steve Driehaus. SBA List petitioned the high court to allow their First Amendment challenge to Ohio’s “false statement” law to proceed on the grounds that the statute empowers a state agency to determine what constitutes true or false political speech. In 2010, SBA List attempted to erect billboards to expose then Rep. Steve Driehaus for supporting taxpayer funded abortion by voting for the Affordable Care Act. SBA List was prevented from doing so because of the Ohio law, and was threatened with prosecution if it engaged in similar speech about Driehaus or other candidates in Ohio.

Religious people are being stripped of their rights. Make no mistake about it.