Cite as: 506 U. S. 263 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
seling services, and incite others to engage in similar unlawful activity. They also engage in malicious conduct, such as defacing clinic signs, damaging clinic property, and strewing nails in clinic parking lots and on nearby public streets.6 This unlawful conduct is "vital to [petitioners'] avowed purposes and goals." 7 They show no signs of abandoning their chosen method for advancing their goals.8
Rescue operations effectively hinder and prevent the constituted authorities of the targeted community from providing local citizens with adequate protection.9 The lack of advance warning of petitioners' activities, combined with limited police department resources, makes it difficult for the police to prevent petitioners' ambush by "rescue" from closing a clinic for many hours at a time. The trial record is replete with examples of petitioners overwhelming local law enforcement officials by sheer force of numbers. In one "rescue" in Falls Church, Virginia, the demonstrators vastly outnumbered the police department's complement of 30 deputized officers. The police arrested 240 rescuers, but were unable to prevent the blockade from closing the clinic for more than six hours. Because of the large-scale, highly organized nature of petitioners' activities, the local authorities are unable to protect the victims of petitioners' conspiracy.10
6 Ibid.
7 Id., at 1495.
8 Id., at 1490.
9 Presumably this fact, as well as her understanding of the jurisdictional issue, contributed to the decision of the attorney general of Virginia to file a brief amicus curiae supporting federal jurisdiction in this case. The city attorney for Falls Church, Virginia, has also filed an amicus curiae brief supporting respondents.
10 See id., at 1489, n. 4. The District Court's findings contain several examples illustrating the character of petitioners' "rescue" operations: "For example, on almost a weekly basis for the last five (5) years, Commonwealth Women's Clinic has been the target of 'rescue' demonstrations by Operation Rescue. One of the largest of these occurred on October 29, 1988. That 'rescue' succeeded in closing the Clinic from 7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., notwithstanding the efforts of the Falls Church Police Depart-
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