Today is Religious Freedom Day. It is very interesting that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties' groups are not championing a free speech decision handed down on January 12th by the United States Supreme Court. Maybe it is because the decision handed a great victory to the pro-life movement.

The "California Catholic Daily," in yesterday's article entitled "No double standard for pro-life speech," said that the nation's highest court denied "appeal of ruling in favor of California pro-lifers who drove truck with graphic photos of aborted baby around public school." The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had appealed a lower federal court ruling last year that deputies violated the constitutional rights of two pro-life protesters who were detained for 75 minutes and then ordered to leave the area after they drove a truck depicting an aborted baby past a California public school.

Commendably, the lower federal court which had upheld the free speech rights of the pro-lifers and overturned a district federal court decision was the infamous and liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which generally hands down very anti-family and left-wing decisions.

Last July 2nd, that 9th Circuit Court panel ruled that the Los Angeles sheriff's deputies violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of two associates of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform who were forced to move a mobile billboard display of gigantic pictures of early-term aborted unborn babies away from a middle school in Rancho Palos Verdes. This group has, for over seven years, had a number of large-box trucks on freeways around the United States which show billboard-sized photos of aborted babies and the word "Choice." Naturally, the sensibilities of the easily offended caused the arrest of the two pro-lifers.

The 9th Circuit Court panel was headed by Judge Harry Pregerson, who wrote the opinion. His decision was supported by Judges William A. Fletcher and Marsha S. Berzon. They ruled that “the government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear, or even anger.” Judge Harry Pregerson writing the unanimous decision said: “It would therefore be an unprecedented departure from bedrock First Amendment principles to allow the government to restrict speech based on listener reaction simply because the listeners are children."

Also very interesting is that any Supreme Court decision such as this, favoring a liberal group, would be championed by liberal news media outlets as "a landmark decision." Instead, because this decision favors the First Amendment rights of the pro-life movement, it is relegated to the back pages of America's newspapers and barely mentioned, if at all, in television news broadcasts. Considering that today is Religious Freedom Day, Monday's Supreme Court decision made this a very good week for the religious rights of all Americans.