On July 7, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those who enter a women’s health clinic, including doctors, counselors, patients, and social workers, no longer have a 30 foot “bubble” around them. By “bubble” I mean that no protester or sidewalk counselor could have come within thirty feet of the clinic or the people walking in. Don’t worry, though, the court did allow an eight foot bubble of safety to stay.

That is a twenty-two foot cut in one ruling. At least the government is embracing the go big or go home philosophy.

The bubble came into question because Massachusetts’ government tried to make the bubble five feet larger, and people protested all the way to the Supreme Court.

Even now, as newspaper “The Nation” reported, in Massachusetts alone, there have been eight murders, seventeen attempted murders and 550 cases of stalking or harassment targeting pro-choice doctors, patients, staff and advocates.

570 crimes total in a single state; and the government’s solution? To yank away the safety zone by cutting away twenty-two feet, of course. Logic?

The protestors of the bubble’s existence claimed that their right to the freedom of speech was being blindly attacked. Exercising freedom of speech in a peaceful way is great; however, while some are peaceful, others are anything but. The bubble existed for a reason.

Also, this bill only attacked women’s health clinics and the rights of the persons that enter. The new law says nothing about the bubbles around polling booths or government buildings. Only clinics are named as having their bubbles narrowed. Still, Supreme Court Justice Alto said as the court was finishing that the bubble’s existence was “blatant viewpoint discrimination.”

If the Supreme Court supports the freedom of speech so strongly, why does the court have a 150 feet bubble around it, about five times the women’s health clinic’s bubble before the cut? Should we be ready for the right to protest the decisions they make where we can be heard directly?

“It’s insane the lengths the government will go to protect itself while ignoring, and even negatively affecting in some cases, the safety of an entire subset of its population,” Johnda Washington (12) said.

Twenty-two feet of the space for few were dropped to increase the verbal rights of all protected by the Constitution.

Twenty-two feet of rights for all were dropped to increase verbal rights unharmed.