{"schema":"abhortion.org/case.v1/v1","id":"hill-v-colorado-2000","type":"case","case_name_short":"Hill v. Colorado","case_name_full":"Hill et al. v. Colorado et al.","citation":"530 U.S. 703 (2000)","docket_number":"98-1856","status":"Doubtful","court":"U.S. Supreme Court","date_argued":"2000-01-19","date_decided":"2000-06-28","vote":"6-3","question_presented":"Whether Colorado's statute making it unlawful within 100 feet of a health facility entrance to 'knowingly approach' within 8 feet of another person, without consent, for purposes of 'passing a leaflet or handbill,' 'displaying a sign,' or 'engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling' violates the First Amendment.","holding":"The Colorado statute is constitutional. It is a content-neutral time, place, and manner regulation that leaves open ample alternative channels of communication.","reasoning_summary":"Justice Stevens held the law was content-neutral because it applied to all approaches, not just anti-abortion speech, and served significant state interests in protecting patients accessing medical care.","practical_effect":"Colorado and similar 'floating buffer zone' laws were upheld. The ruling was in significant tension with McCullen v. Coakley (2014), which struck down a Massachusetts fixed buffer zone. Hill has been widely criticized as anomalous First Amendment doctrine.","opinions":[{"role":"majority","author":"Stevens, J.","joined_by":"Rehnquist, C.J.; O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer, JJ.","summary":"The Colorado statute is constitutional. It is a content-neutral time, place, and manner regulation that leaves open ample alternative channels of communication."},{"role":"concurrence","author":"Souter, J.","joined_by":"O'Connor, Ginsburg, Breyer, JJ.","summary":"Emphasized the content-neutrality of the statute."},{"role":"dissent","author":"Scalia, J.","joined_by":"Thomas, J.","summary":"Argued the statute was content-based and should fail strict scrutiny; sharply criticized the majority for creating an 'abortion-speech-only' First Amendment doctrine."},{"role":"dissent","author":"Kennedy, J.","summary":"Characterized the statute as vague, overbroad, and viewpoint discriminatory."}],"key_quotes":[{"quote":"Today's decision is not an isolated distortion of our traditional constitutional principles, but is one of many aggressively pro-abortion novelties announced by the Court in recent years... Today, however, the ability of a citizen to approach another person on a public sidewalk to hand out a leaflet, to display a sign, or to speak, is no longer a First Amendment right.","speaker":"Scalia, J. (dissenting)","location":"530 U.S. at 741"}],"perspectives":{"abolitionist":"Abolitionists sharply criticize Hill as an example of anti-pro-life bias in First Amendment doctrine. Its continued vitality after McCullen (2014) is doubtful.","mainstream_prolife":"Widely criticized as departing from ordinary First Amendment doctrine to disfavor pro-life speech.","prochoice":"Defended as necessary protection for patients accessing sensitive healthcare."},"significance":{"overall":4,"legal_precedential_weight":4,"practical_impact_on_access":2,"movement_relevance_abolitionist":5,"enduring_relevance_2026":5,"rationale":"In significant tension with McCullen (2014); several Justices (Scalia in McCullen; Thomas, Alito) have urged overruling."},"sources":{"primary":[{"name":"supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/530/703","href":"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/530/703/"}],"secondary":[{"name":"firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/hill-v-colorado","href":"https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/hill-v-colorado/"}]},"related_cases":{"cites_earlier":["Madsen v. Women's Health Center (1994)"],"cited_by_later":["McCullen v. Coakley (2014)"]},"notes":"In McCullen (2014), Scalia's concurrence urged overruling Hill; the majority pointedly declined to reach the question.","links":{"html":"https://www.abhortion.org/cases/hill-v-colorado-2000.html","markdown":"https://www.abhortion.org/cases/hill-v-colorado-2000.md","json":"https://www.abhortion.org/cases/hill-v-colorado-2000.json"}}