.- It was a major win for pro-life demonstrators in the City of West Palm Beach, where a federal judge ruled that the area outside an abortion clinic is public property and no trespassing arrests can be made there, reported The Associated Press.
In three years, the city has made at least three arrests and threatened to arrest others on the swale between the road and sidewalk at an abortion clinic, under the mistaken belief that the land was private property.
Protesters insisted the land was public property, but the city disagreed. However, a survey completed in June, concluded the land was public, Assistant City Attorney Joni Hamilton told U.S. District Judge William Zloch.
Hamilton told the judge that city police would no longer arrest or threaten to arrest people in those areas.
Demonstrators also are challenging the city's noise ordinance, which allows the clinic to play music from a boombox in its driveway but forbids the demonstrators from using a megaphone.
The city ordinance bans sound originating on public but not private property from traveling more than 10 feet.
