Packingham v. North Carolina

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Packingham v. North Carolina

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
15-1194	N.C.	Feb 27, 2017 Tr.Aud.	Jun 19, 2017	8-0	Kennedy	OT 2016

Disclosure: Vinson & Elkins LLP, whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, was among the counsel to the petitioner at the cert stage in this case.

Holding: The North Carolina statute, which makes it a felony for a registered sex offender "to access a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages," impermissibly restricts lawful speech in violation of the First Amendment.

Judgment: Reversed and remanded, 8-0, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy on June 19, 2017. Justice Alito filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas joined. Justice Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Jan 15 2016	Application (15A757) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from February 4, 2016 to March 21, 2016, submitted to The Chief Justice.
Jan 20 2016	Application (15A757) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until March 21, 2016.
Mar 21 2016	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 22, 2016)
Apr 6 2016	Waiver of right of respondent North Carolina to respond filed.
Apr 19 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of May 12, 2016.
Apr 20 2016	Brief amici curiae of Profs. Ashutosh Bhagwat, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Apr 28 2016	Response Requested . (Due May 31, 2016)
May 26 2016	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including June 30, 2016.
Jun 30 2016	Brief of respondent North Carolina in opposition filed.
Jul 20 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 26, 2016.
Jul 22 2016	Reply of petitioner Lester Gerard Packingham filed. (Distributed)
Oct 3 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 7, 2016.
Oct 11 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 14, 2016.
Oct 24 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 28, 2016.
Oct 28 2016	Petition GRANTED.
Nov 16 2016	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party or of neither party from counsel for the respondent.
Nov 18 2016	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is extended to and including December 15, 2016.
Dec 12 2016	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party or of neither party from counsel for the petitioner.
Dec 15 2016	Brief of petitioner Lester Gerard Packingham filed.
Dec 15 2016	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed)
Dec 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Protection of Free Expression filed.
Dec 22 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed.
Dec 22 2016	Brief amici curiae of Cato Institute, et al. filed.
Dec 22 2016	SET FOR ARGUMENT on Monday, February 27, 2017.
Dec 22 2016	Brief amici curiae of Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, et al. filed.
Dec 22 2016	Brief amici curiae of Electronic Frontier Foundation, et al. filed.
Dec 22 2016	Brief amici curiae of Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), et al. filed.
Dec 30 2016	Record requested from the Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jan 17 2017	Brief of respondent North Carolina filed. (Distributed)
Jan 18 2017	CIRCULATED.
Jan 23 2017	Brief amici curiae of State of Louisiana,and Twelve Other States filed. (Distributed)
Jan 24 2017	Brief amici curiae of Stop Child Predators, and Shared Hope International filed. (Distributed)
Jan 24 2017	Brief amici curiae of Council of State Governments, et al. filed.
Jan 31 2017	Record received from the Supreme Court of North Carolina and North Carolina Court of Appeals. The record is electronic.
Feb 16 2017	Reply of petitioner Lester Gerard Packingham filed. (Distributed)
Feb 27 2017	Argued. For petitioner: David T. Goldberg, Stanford, Cal. For respondent: Robert C. Montgomery, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Raleigh, N. C.
Jun 19 2017	Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined. Alito, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas, J., joined. Gorsuch, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Jul 21 2017	MANDATE ISSUED.
Jul 21 2017	JUDGMENT ISSUED.

Featured Posts

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter
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On Monday, the Supreme Court released orders from the June 20 conference; the justices granted eight new cases, for a total of five hours of oral argument next term: Guerrero-Lasprilla v. Barr, Ovalles v. Barr, Dex Media Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP, Maine Community Health Options v. United States, Moda Health Plan Inc. v. United States, Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Co. v. United States, Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc. and Banister v. Davis.
Also on Monday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: United States v. Davis, Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, Iancu v. Brunetti and The Dutra Group v. Batterton.
The Supreme Court will release opinions in one or more argued cases on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Major Cases
- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
- Gamble v. United States
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Recent Decisions
- Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media Where commercial or financial information is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy, the information is “confidential” within the meaning of 5 U. S. C. §552(b)(4), the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption 4.
- Iancu v. Brunetti The Lanham Act prohibition on the registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks infringes the First Amendment.
- The Dutra Group v. Batterton A plaintiff may not recover punitive damages on a maritime claim of unseaworthiness.
- United States v. Davis Title 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(3)(B), which provides enhanced penalties for using a firearm during a “crime of violence,” is unconstitutionally vague.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Atlanta Gas Light Co. v. Bennett Regulator Guards Inc. (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred in concluding that it had jurisdiction to review the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute inter partes review of respondent’s patent over respondent’s objection that it was time-barred; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred when it rejected the longstanding principle that a dismissal without prejudice leaves the parties as if a suit had never been brought, splitting the circuits.
- Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California (1) Whether the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy is judicially reviewable; and (2) whether DHS’s decision to wind down the DACA policy is lawful.
- Kelly v. United States Whether a public official “defraud[s]” the government of its property by advancing a “public policy reason” for an official decision that is not her subjective “real reason” for making the decision.
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On June 3, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke with David Rubenstein for the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual lecture at the Supreme Court.

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Cases argued	69
Cases decided	61
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	74

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