NOW's Long-Running Pattern of Racketeering Litigation

Today the Supreme Court will hear the latest installment of the two-decade-old attempt to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as a weapon against anti-abortion activists. The RICO lawsuits are based on a ridiculously broad definition of racketeering that depends on a ridiculously broad definition of extortion. As I argued back in 1998, RICO litigation is neither appropriate nor necessary to address criminal behavior aimed at preventing abortions, and it's bound to have a chilling effect on legal protests by a wide variety of groups. The Thomas More Society, which represents the abortion protesters in Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, notes that opponents of this RICO abuse include the AFL-CIO, Martin Sheen, Dan Berrigan, Howard Zinn, PETA, and Sojourners (not to mention the author of RICO, Notre Dame law professor G. Robert Blakey). For a defense of the litigation that, in typical fashion, completely ignores the free speech implications, see this Boston Globe piece by former NOW lawyer Martha Davis.