No one favors abuse of the elderly. But when the clear purpose of a statute is twisted to provide special protection that would be unavailable for all, we have a serious constitutional issue.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A judge has ordered animal-rights activists to keep their distance from a 75-year-old furrier because state law protects the businessman from elder abuse by shouting profanities.

Horst Grimm, the owner of Nicholas Ungar Furs, won an order Wednesday requiring four anti-fur activists to stay at least 50 feet away from Grimm and 15 feet away from his downtown Portland store.

Attorneys in the case believe it was the first time state laws to protect the elderly have been used to limit free speech.

Clackamas County Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Jones said both sides presented reasonable arguments. But he said the level of profanity that protesters directed at Grimm clearly violated state law.

The Oregon elder-abuse law prohibits using derogatory names, harassment, coercion, threats, cursing, or intimidation that threatens significant physical or emotional harm to elderly or disabled people.

But wait – aren’t such laws designed to protect the elderly from abuse related to their age and dependency? If so, then this law is clearly being misused here to stop social/political protest that is otherwise protected by the First Amendment – and in doing so does violence not only to the free speech provision of the Constitution, but to the very concept of equal protection of the law as well. After all, younger furriers would not be able to avail themselves of protection from similar abusive treatment by protesters out to destroy their businesses.

That is not to say that I side with the harassers. Surely there are other laws that could be applied here – laws against disorderly conduct, stalking, and harassment that are laws of general application. And if there are not, then it is the province of the Oregon legislature to pass such laws, not of the courts to create novel interpretations of existing statutes to solve a problem that those laws were not designed to address.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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