In the case Commonwealth v. Cruz, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court considered whether a criminal conviction for threatening to commit a crime violated the First Amendment after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Counterman v. Colorado (2023).
Doctors and clinics sued anti-abortion activist group Operation Rescue for invasion of privacy, tortious interference, and civil conspiracy. Anti-abortion activists planned to picket and obstruct abortion clinics and homes of physicians who worked for the clinics to coincide with the 1992 Republican National Convention. The district court granted a permanent injunction to restrict anti-abortion demonstrations, which prohibited activists from, among other things, demonstrating within specified areas of each clinic. Operation Rescue appealed.
In State v. Higginbotham, 257 N.J.
