McCullen

McCullen is a surname used in English-speaking countries. The name is best known in public life for the petitioner in the United States Supreme Court case McCullen v. Coakley (2014), which addressed the constitutionality of a state’s buffer-zone law around abortion clinics.

In McCullen v. Coakley, the Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts’ 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics violated the First Amendment by restricting expressive activity in public spaces near clinics. The decision is frequently cited in discussions of free speech, protest rights, and the balance between public safety and constitutional protections at healthcare facilities.

Beyond this case, McCullen appears as a family name in various contexts, with individuals bearing the surname in a range of professions. The name also appears in genealogical and historical records, and may be used for fictional characters in literature or media. Etymology and regional distribution of the surname are not uniformly documented in widely available sources, and spellings or related forms may vary.