By Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News
PORTLAND, Maine — A Superior Court judge last week denied a motion to dismiss a complaint filed by the Maine attorney general’s office against a man who loudly protests outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Congress Street.
The 12-page decision, written by Justice Lance Walker and dated Thursday, March 17, does not address the merits of the case, which are expected to be considered later this spring.
The civil complaint against Brian Ingalls, 26, of Lisbon alleged that he violated the Maine Civil Rights Act during a protest at Planned Parenthood’s Portland office by yelling so loudly during an Oct. 23, 2015, protest that he “interfered with the delivery of health services,” even after allegedly being warned to stop by a Portland police officer.
The Maine Civil Rights Act protects the right of any person to receive any sort of medical services without disruptions caused by loud noises, according to a previously published report.
Ingalls’ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, arguing that: the state failed to make allegations to support the claim; the restriction sought violated Ingalls’ First Amendment right to free speech; and that the provision cited in the law was unconstitutionally vague.
Walker rejected them all but also said that “it is possible that enforcement against a person in a particular situation could be invalid on an as-applied basis.” The judge will allow Ingalls’ attorneys the opportunity to show that the act “has been enforced selectively in a viewpoint discriminatory against Mr. Ingalls.”
The attorney general’s office on Monday declined to comment on Walker’s ruling.
Ingalls’ attorney, Erin Kuenzig of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said Monday in an email that she and her client “will show just how unconstitutional the state’s actions are here.”
“The state in this case accuses Mr. Ingalls of spreading a pro-life message on the public sidewalk,” the attorney said. “The First Amendment protects speech of all viewpoints, and it is clear from the facts in this case that Mr. Ingalls was specifically targeted due to his message.”
The litigation appears to be a new chapter in the legal battle over the city’s attempt in 2013 to impose a 39-foot buffer zone around the Planned Parenthood clinic. That ordinance was challenged in U.S. District Court on the grounds that it violated protesters’ constitutional rights.
Portland rescinded its buffer zone ordinance in June 2014 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a similar buffer zone that had been implemented in Massachusetts.
The suit against Ingalls, filed in November in Cumberland County, seeks the following:
— A permanent injunction against Ingalls that would prevent him from coming within 50 feet of any of Planned Parenthood’s facilities or intentionally interfering with the safe and effective delivery of health services at a Planned Parenthood of Northern New England facility.
— A declaration that Ingalls has violated the Maine Civil Rights Act.
— An order that Ingalls pay a $5,000 civil penalty and attorney’s fees.
A separate lawsuit filed by Andrew March, 42, of Lewiston, is moving forward on a parallel track in federal court. In December, March sued the attorney general, the city of Portland and several city police officers after he was told on at least three different occasions to speak less loudly while protesting outside the Planned Parenthood clinic.
March claims that he asked police for an objective standard, such as a decibel level, at which he could protest but was told only to speak so his voice could not be heard inside the clinic. March, who has been warned but not charged civilly as Ingalls was, is seeking to have the section of the Maine Human Rights Act as it is being applied to his actions declared unconstitutional.
Ingalls and March both are listed as elders on the website for Cell 53 Church, located at 347 Lisbon St. in Lewiston.
A hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the noise section is set for April 4 before U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen in federal court in Portland.
This story appears through a partnership with the Bangor Daily News.