Kansas City, Mo. ? Attorneys representing abortion protesters arrested three years ago after displaying large photographs of aborted fetuses near a busy Kansas City intersection want the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal.

The arrests came in June 2001 during a protest that featured the display of several signs, including poster-sized pictures of decapitated and aborted fetuses. Some motorists complained, and police asked the protesters to move the signs away from the intersection, saying they caused a traffic hazard.

The protesters refused, and police then arrested five for loitering. The charges were later dropped, but the protesters sued in federal court, claiming a violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.

In upholding a district judge’s dismissal of the case, a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the protesters were asked to move the signs, not take them down, and said the main objective of the police was to protect public safety, not censor the photographs.

“The police officers narrowly tailored the restrictions to serve a significant governmental interest and left open alternative channels of communicating their message,” the court said.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that’s based in Virginia Beach, Va., filed the appeal of that decision to the Supreme Court.

“This is an important case involving the constitutional rights of those who oppose abortion to be able to speak out freely without being punished for their views,” said Francis Manion, the center’s senior counsel.

“The appeals court wrongly concluded that the city acted properly in punishing pro-life demonstrators because of the content of their signs,” he said. “The Constitution does not permit public officials unfettered discretion to decide which messages are ‘too offensive’ and then take action to remove the message simply based on the content of the message.”

The petition seeking Supreme Court review cites the dissent of Appellate Judge C. Arlen Beam, who said the Constitution “does not allow a small group of passers-by to censor, through their complaints, the content of a peaceful, stationary protest.”

The petition also cites a conflict among federal appeals courts concerning the display of signs along roads.