Asheville, North Carolina — March 25, 2024. Today, the Center for Religious Expression (CRE) obtained a major legal victory for Zachary Hebb, unmuting his protected, pro-life speech in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Asheville. Chief Judge Reidinger, in the Western District of North Carolina granted Hebb’s motion for summary judgment, striking down as unconstitutional. Asheville criminalized Hebb’s use of amplification to speak conversationally with his intended audience.
With this victory, Hebb can share the hope of Jesus with women considering abortion while standing on a public sidewalk bordering Planned Parenthood property. He is further free to communicate tangible help he willingly provides to women so they can keep their babies or facilitate an adoption.
While disallowing Hebb’s conversational speech through an amplifier, Asheville’s ordinance allowed the abortion clinic to play loud music through an amplifier designed to muzzle Hebb’s offers of hope and help. This concern was one of several reasons Chief Judge Reidinger found Ashville’s ordinance unconstitutional. He was also troubled by the practical effects of the ordinance’s ban, extending thousands of feet in different directions. And the judge further found fault with the ordinance’s application to plastic cones that merely direct speech.
When it passed in July of 2021, Ashville ordinance §10-85(2) left Hebb muted and exiled, but thankfully, he was aware of CRE’s legal ministry and reached out. And by God’s grace, Hebb regained his fundamental freedoms through legal recourse.
“We praise God for this decision”, said CRE Chief Counsel, Nate Kellum. “Asheville does not have the authority to silence speech it considers politically incorrect. Hebb has the constitutional right to share and those women visiting the Planned Parenthood clinic have a constitutional right to receive the truth about abortion, along with the hope and help that Hebb offers.”
To read the opinion, click here: Memo Decision and Order
