"The first pro-life person has been charged under the new bubble zone law in Chicago....So he was just there...and was arrested.
Thomas More Society attorney Peter Breen entered a "not guilty" plea in court Tuesday morning on behalf of Joseph Holland, who was charged with disorderly conduct.
Holland, a Northwestern University graduate student, was praying the rosary on a public sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood Near North abortion facility on July 3 when staff called the police, claiming that he had violated the new ordinance.
The "Bubble Zone" ordinance prohibits approaching within eight feet of a person without their consent "for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling."
The law establishes a 50-foot buffer outside the entrances of abortion centers and, within that zone, no one can come within an 8-foot zone to distribute literature, counsel or display a sign.
According to witnesses and video taken of the incident, Holland was engaged solely in prayer activity and not in leafleting, picketing or "sidewalk counseling."
Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while Lennon read a book of Marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died........
