Edwards

Vickie Edwards and Kathleen MeCaulley, two “sidewalk counselors,” challenged an ordinance of the City of Santa Barbara, California limiting demonstration activity near health care facilities and places of worship, passed after a protracted history of harassment by anti-abortion protestors. The ordinance prohibits demonstration within eight feet of entrances to medical facilities or places of worship, and permits a patient or worshiper to create an eight foot “floating buffer zone” or “bubble” within one hundred feet of such entrances by asking the demonstrator to withdraw. 1 The district court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of the ordinance. We remanded for reconsideration in light of Sabelko v. City of Phoenix, 68 F.3d 1169 (9th Cir.1995). On remand, the district court enjoined three of the four challenged provisions, upholding only the floating buffer zone within one hundred feet of a health care facility. The plaintiffs successfully moved for supplemental fees and costs. The City appealed the grant of the, injunction and the award of fees and costs.

In the interim, the Supreme Court vacated our decision in Sabelko and remanded in light of Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of…