Ahead of Oral Arguments, NYCLU and Local Advocates Condemn Nassau County’s Unconstitutional No-Speech Buffer Zone Law

Advocates rallied as the court hears NYCLU’s lawsuit against Nassau’s unlawful no-speech policy

NASSAU COUNTY – Ahead of oral arguments in Borecky v. Nassau County, today the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Planned Parenthood, Gender Equality New York, and other local advocates rallied against Nassau County’s unconstitutional law broadly restricting constitutionally-protected expressive activity outside places of worship. As the NYCLU argued in court, the law violates Nassau County residents’ First Amendment and Due Process rights.

“Nassau’s buffer law is unnecessary, stifles free speech, and violates Nassau County residents’ rights to engage in peaceful political protest,” said JP Perry, senior staff attorney at the NYCLU. “New York law already protects Nassau residents from entering and leaving places of worship — and there is no record of any resident facing intimidation, harassment, or violence outside of a county place of worship that justifies such an extreme prohibition. It’s clear that the purpose of this law is to silence protected speech, deny residents their expressive rights to the sidewalks and streets, and to give Nassau police cover to conduct arbitrary and biased arrests. Like we said in court today, unjustified and unnecessary no-speech buffer zones violate people’s rights. Nassau’s law cannot stand.”

“When I learned that I could be jailed for distributing a New York Catholic Bishops’ Statement to churchgoers because of Nassau’s buffer zone law, I felt my voice being silenced and my freedoms chipped away,” said Claudia Borecky, a plaintiff in the case, who organizes protests and leafleting throughout Nassau County. “As a Christian, an American, and an activist, I can’t stay silent and ignore policies that leave millions of children hungry or dehumanize our immigrant neighbors. Our freedom of speech and right to assemble exist for a reason, and if we lose these rights, everything else falls with it. We must stand up and fight back. I hope fellow Christians pause, look inward, and ask themselves with honesty and compassion: What would Jesus do?”

The NYCLU originally filed their challenge to Nassau’s no-speech buffer zone law on April 7. Since the filing, the NYCLU moved for a preliminary injunction on April 13 on behalf of the plaintiffs, two activists and practicing Catholics, who wish to engage in leafleting, oral advocacy, and other expressive activities near places of worship in Nassau.

“Protecting our First Amendment rights—the right to speak out and protest—has never been more important,” said Lauren La Magna, Director of Advocacy & Government Relations, Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic Action Fund. “Recent events have clearly shown how fragile our democratic system can be, and we must do everything we can to protect it. While everyone deserves safe access to reproductive health care facilities and houses of worship, legislators must treat this issue with the nuance and specificity it deserves – giving equal regard to New Yorkers’ religious exercise and their other constitutional rights.”

“As an advocacy organization representing transgender, nonbinary, and intersex New Yorkers, we strongly oppose Nassau County’s proposed no-speech buffer zone law and any legislation that restricts the right to peaceful protest on public sidewalks,” said Juli Grey-Owens, Executive Director at Gender Equality New York (GENY). “This proposal is overly broad, poorly drafted, and dangerously vague in its application. Worse, it risks exposing members of our community and our allies to increased discrimination, harassment, violence, and arrest simply for exercising their constitutional rights. As Americans, New Yorkers, and Long Islanders, we reject this clear attempt to undermine the First Amendment freedoms of speech, protest, and public assembly.”

This rally and lawsuit come on the heels of the New York City Council passing a bill aimed at limiting protests outside places of worship, as well as Governor Hochul and other state lawmakers’ growing calls to prohibit expressive activity outside of places of worship and reproductive healthcare facilities. If the Governor’s proposal passes, protest and many other forms of speech would be restricted or banned across enormous swathes of the state, including nearly 17,000 churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship, as well as many secular buildings like hospitals, urgent cares, fertility clinics, pharmacies, primary health facilities, airports, and many schools.

The Trump Administration has also launched increasingly aggressive attacks on protest, free speech, and dissent across the nation, including the deployment of thousands of federal troops into U.S. cities following anti-ICE protests; threats of violence against anyone who dissents; the nationwide crackdown on protest; and the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good earlier this year.

New York has robust, long-standing laws that already protect people leaving and entering places of worship or reproductive health facilities. In fact, section 240.70-71 of the state’s Penal Code criminalizes intentionally interfering with another person’s ability to obtain or provide reproductive health services and exercise of religion at a house of worship, imposing special penalties on those who physically obstruct someone from accessing these sites. And the rest of New York’s Penal Code already protects every New Yorker from harassment, menacing, assault, or battery wherever they are, including when entering or leaving a house of worship, reproductive health facility, or an educational facility.