Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc.
Plaintiffs represent a class of women who have used or would use the services of an abortion clinic and all such clinics. In 1986, plaintiffs filed suit against defendants, a group of anti-abortion activists, alleging, among other things, that their protest tactics violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the Hobbs Act, the federal extortion statute. An initial trip through the seventh circuit to the Supreme Court resulted in a remand to the district court for trial of the plaintiffs' RICO claims. A jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded damages to the two named clinics, and the district court issued a permanent nationwide injunction prohibiting the defendants from conducting blockades, trespassing, damaging property, or committing acts of violence at the class clinics. The court of appeals affirmed, holding, among others, (1) that RICO authorizes private plaintiffs to seek injunctive relief and (2) that interfering with intangible property, such as the right to conduct business, violates the Hobbs Act.
Questions Presented:
1. Whether the Seventh Circuit correctly held, in acknowledged conflict with the Ninth Circuit, that injunctive relief is available in a private civil action for treble damages brought under
RICO.
2. Whether the Hobbs Act, which makes it a crime to obstruct, delay, or affect interstate commerce ”by robbery or extortion” and which defines ”extortion” as ”the
obtaining of property from another, with [the owner’s] consent,” where such consent is ”induced by the wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or
fear” (18 U.S.C. ยง 1951(b)(2) (emphasis added)) criminalizes the activities of political protesters who engage in sit-ins and demonstrations that obstruct the public’s access to a
business’s premises and interfere with the freedom of putative customers to obtain services offered there.
