Wednesday, April 22, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.
A U.S. District Court jury in Chicago ruled Monday that three anti-abortion leaders violated a federal racketeering statute when it found that threats and violence used by anti-abortion leaders were tantamount to extortion. The federal statute was passed in 1970 as a law enforcement tool to use against organized crime, but it also has been used against businesses over the past few years. And in 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that RICO could be used against those in the anti-abortion movement.
Even the man responsible for drafting the RICO legislation, Notre Dame Professor G. Robert Blakely, told the New York Times the law was never supposed to apply to political groups. "If you look at this case and say it's about abortion, you're missing the point," Blakely said. "Everybody who loves the First Amendment has got to sleep uneasily tonight."
Blakely is absolutely correct. No political group, whether it's Greenpeace or Operation Rescue, should be prosecuted under this statute. If members of a political group are threatening or committing violence, there are enough applicable laws already in place to prosecute these people. Using RICO this way could have a chilling effect on free speech, especially among groups who fall into public disfavor.
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