Anti-abortion racketeers?:
Gaffney, Edward McGlynn Jr.
if not overcome. And although the Vietnamese community at a pluralistic tradition?" Saint Jerome's will be building its own church shortly-it Unfortunately, most of the...
...But it does not born human life as at least equal in digment of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to necessarily follow, as Time magazine re- nity to the lives of all the animals, large replace him has Court watchers off and ports (October 4, 1993), that she will cast and small (from whales to sea lion pups), running looking for clever things to say a decisive vote in National Organization that they seek to protect...
...It should be perfectly these organizations strongly support broad with any shift in the Court's obvious from this and other things known freedom of choice for women who seek personnel, the retirement about Justice Ginsburg that she will be sen- abortion, and some strongly support unof Justice Byron White and the appoint- sitive to women's issues...
...But the solici- protestors...
...The reach of RICO is now well beyond groups like "the Mafia," but the Court can artic- TURNING WINE INTO VINEGAR ulate principled limits on the use of the PRE-CANA NEEDS WORK federal government to avoid turning the federal courts into a forum for vengeance against ideological adversaries on the burning political issues of the day...
...v. Scheidler, to hold that If abortion is not the meeting ground undoubtedly come under the intense the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organ- for these activists, what is...
...Lower Finally, RICO should not be applied to an willing to engage in acts of civil disobe- federal courts have disagreed, holding that organization that advocates radical social dience if they might otherwise bring only economic motivation is an essential ele- and political change without differentiatminor sanctions in state courts, but who ment of a RICO claim, and dismissing the ing members of the organization who know would rightly think twice about violating suit accordingly...
...sions larger than the facts warrant...
...But our dence of the sort of economic motivation tected conduct on the one hand and a fedsystem of federalism dictates that when that triggers RICO...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS Edward Gaf fney, Jr...
...All that is necessary is that the er-in-law to round up everyone she knows ing on the priest or married couple who Court decline to accept the invitation of to attend a Support Our Aging Religious conducted the course, a common complaint NOW to read the statute as expansively as (SOAR) fundraising dinner...
...They were swapping Catholic couples, their experiences ranged its on such an act if it were to chill pro- stories about the nuns who taught them in from "awful," "the most ridiculous thing tected expression or activity...
...When I began asking other would still be issues of constitutional lim- two other couples...
...Saint Jerome's will be building its own church shortly-it Unfortunately, most of the debate over multiculturalism gets has had a longstanding wish to form its own parish-better that caught in an either-or: either one maintains that there has to such decisions be confronted in a forum of mutual understanding be a universal national identity to which one must assimilate than left to the rumor mill of mutual misunderstanding...
...Liberties Union, which also urged the apply to such activity without a clear man- What Now apparently means by this Court-in a separate brief on behalf of neidate from Congress to do so...
...It would have a strong that the acts of the abortion protestors who control the organizations...
...When culture is But it is noteworthy that the city of Houston has turned to the conceptualized as a "possession," one is left with either the Diocese of Galveston-Houston for assistance because of the dio- uniform identity of the "melting pot" or the relativist identicese's concrete experience with multiple cultures...
...organizations use their funds solely to fur- America, let Congress do it, and not the There is and there ought to be a lot of ther their programs, and may not allow Court...
...Social dissent, in- NOW is arguing that they should nonethe- bers who are innocent of those tactics...
...ne night this summer, my At the rehearsal dinner for my cousin Even if Congress were to amend RICO husband, Peter, and I, Jim's wedding this summer, every couple expressly to confer jurisdiction upon fed- caught the tail end of a at the table had a story to tell about the eral courts over conduct such as that com- grown-up dinner party my Catholic church's marriage preparation plained of in the Scheidler case, there parents were having with requirement...
...Animal Rights-opposing the broad readRICO GOES TO THE SUPREME COURT ing of RICO that the National Organization of Women (Now) has urged the Court to adopt in this case...
...For instance, munity which neither assimilates nor separates cultural groups...
...Moreover, unlike enterprises clear- still that voice...
...of civil disobedience such as those engaged enable them to predict the outcome of the One does not have to agree with Oper- in by Operation Rescue could have disCourt's docket...
...If Congress really means tivity that offends against the peace and ly targeted under RICO, nonprofit to do that to the struggle for the soul of dignity of their communities...
...Commonweal 5 November 1993: 7...
...or one must maintain that our culThe initiatives of one parish are hardly instructive for secu- tural identities are so diverse and autonomous that the best we lar political communities whose constitutive groups are much can do is guarantee the integrity of each enclave and abandon more competitive and whose common "faith" is less clear-cut...
...that most couples inevitably face...
...As which she now sits...
...But this case grade school, not an unusual conversation I've ever been through," "amusing," "endoes not require the Court to strike down among Catholics of my parents' genera- joyable," "useful" to "we loved it," and "it an act of Congress for the simple reason tion...
...It is the scant attention paid to they would like the Court to do...
...ID room in the law between activity that is unqualifiedly protected under the First Amendment and activity that is severely OF SEVERAL MINDS Liz Leibold McCloskey punished under a federal statute in which Congress took aim at organized crime...
...in order to be an American...
...For ex- be expanded to sweep in the activities that To do so, say these organizations, would ample, as an advocate many years ago Operation Rescue followers engage in...
...On the contrary, dissenters who espouse their cause...
...in The Good Society, Robert Bellah argues that John Courtney If multiculturalism were indeed j ust the most recent academic Murray's We Hold These Truths-a text which reconciled vogue, then it might be fun to engage in polemical banter...
...De Colores...
...my generation have a different bond: at- the connection between family and work Since the case began six years ago, NOW tending marriage preparation sessions...
...ties of "separate-but-equal" cultural enclaves...
...any notion of a substantive common good...
...Catholics of emerged...
...claim is that Operation Rescue has re- ther party-to go slow before it allows Rico It is not that acts of civil disobedience ceived charitable donations from those charges to be leveled against the abortion go unpunished...
...about her...
...Before the Supreme Court and approve of illegal tactics from memthe federal RICO statute...
...Donations are related eral felony offense with severe penalties the acts of civil disobedience constitute of- to an organization's activities, if at all, under RICO on the other...
...Each detail of her decisions will of Women, Inc...
...1960 presidential campaign ("Catholics and the Presidency," JOHN FRANCIS BURKE January 1, 1960), are we to have "a pluralistic society with a John Francis Burke teaches political theory and American strong Protestant tradition rather than a Protestant society with politics at the University of Houston-Downtown...
...It is hard enough fenses under state law, federal courts only incidentally...
...cluding civil disobedience, plays such an less be allowed to proceed with their suit On this point the animal-rights activists important role in shaping our society that because they alleged that the defendants enjoy the support of the American Civil the judiciary should not expand RICO to were "profiting" from their activities...
...behalf of several organizations that engage in social activism relating to animal rights-including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Feminists for ANTI-ABORTION RACKETEERS...
...For constitute an unwarranted excursion into Ginsburg successfully litigated several example, I wrote a brief amicus curiae on political and social advocacy and dissent 6: 5 November 1993 Commonweal not targeted by Congress when it enacted has advocated that they did not nded to show those funds to inure to the benefit of those the RICO statute...
...The point is that multiple cultures but how: seeking "unity in diversity" offers inclusion in the political discourse need not be at the expense a much more constructive approach at the grassroots level then of abandoning one's cultural background...
...in our republic (from the abolitionists to tation and receipt of donations by an or- There must be more to the law than the the suffragists to the Vietnam War pro- ganization engaged in social and political simplistic and stark choice that NOW urges testers) have usually suffered swift and cer- advocacy should not be considered evi- in the Scheidler case, between fully protain penalties for their conduct...
...As pinpointed by a either imposing a monoculture or rending our communities and Commonweal editorial amid the sectarian atmosphere of the nation apart in the manner of the Balkans...
...The powerful influence of nuns is the was a great experience...
...chilling effect on activists who would be were motivated by economic gain...
...To do so is to impinge on the traditional RICO crimes like mob extor- devastating effect of RICO to diminish or proper role of the states in punishing ac- tion...
...ation Rescue tactics in order to reach the astrous consequences for civil liberties in Sometimes the pundits draw conclu- conclusion that the RICO law should not this country...
...The question is not whether we have to deal with the civil rights, women's, and gay movements...
...But when culRather than necessarily being opposed to a moral consensus ture is understood as a relation between people, a "gift" to be for America, advocates of a positive multiculturalism think that shared with others, then one can envision a moral-political comall cultures can in fact contribute to this consensus...
...They are not the direct for civil libertarians to sustain a coherent should be wary of construing federal laws result of advocacy activities in the way and vigorous defense of the voice of as the appropriate vehicle for imposing economic gains are the direct product of protest in this society, without adding the sanctions...
...This brief adopts no position on the un0 n the first Monday in Oct- equal-protection cases dealing with gen- derlying issue of abortion in the Scheidler ober, the Supreme Court der discrimination before the Court on case...
...Some members and supporters of opened its new term...
...But Catholic natural law with the American compact-was the ini- the rapid cultural diversification in Houston and elsewhere is tial volley in a series of cultural challenges: first Catholics, then very real...
...Though people's that it does not now have such a statute kind of experience that prompts my moth- experiences varied wildly, often dependbefore it...
...The answer is (which is not always to say careful) scruti- izations Act (RICO) may be applied to the fear that allowing federal courts to apply ny of the pundits, in order to place her con- Operation Rescue for its repeated acts of the stiff sanctions of the RICO law to acts veniently into a facile category that will civil disobedience at abortion clinics...
Vol. 120 • November 1993 • No. 19
