Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away two appeals from abortion rights opponents asking the justices to overrule a 25-year-old decision that allowed for buffer zones around abortion clinics, leaving that ruling in place. In declining to ...

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a pair of cases from abortion opponents who say laws limiting anti-abortion demonstrations near clinics violate their First Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court opted against hearing arguments in a pair of appeals Monday seeking to wipe out protest buffer zones around abortion clinics – a move that, for now, will leave those restrictions in place.

The Supreme Court turned down an opportunity to overturn its precedent permitting buffer zones around abortion clinics over the objections of two of the court’s leading conservatives. In two orders issued Monday, the court declined to take up challenges ...

For nearly three years, it has seemed inevitable that the Supreme Court would strike down the “buffer zones” that restrict protests near the entrances of reproductive health clinics. A majority of the court has already castigated these laws—and past precedent upholding them—as a subversion of anti-abortion protesters’ First Amendment rights.

At issue was a 25-year precedent that allows local governments to create protest-free buffer zones around all health-care facilities, not just abortion clinics.

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Monday passed on the chance to get rid of protest-free zones at abortion clinics, frustrating activists who say they need to get close enough to patients to ...