Packingham v. North Carolina

Packingham v. North Carolina

Argument preview: Justices to hear oral argument on additional time for sex offenders who violate terms of supervised release – Amy Howe

Argument analysis: Meandering argument suggests justices likely to narrow bankrupts’ power to rescind licenses in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Opinion analysis: A win for one taxpayer, but not many more – Daniel Hemel

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Orders

RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)

Opinions

Conference

Orders

MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)

MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

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

Argument preview: Justices to hear oral argument on additional time for sex offenders who violate terms of supervised release – Amy Howe

Argument analysis: Meandering argument suggests justices likely to narrow bankrupts’ power to rescind licenses in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Opinion analysis: A win for one taxpayer, but not many more – Daniel Hemel
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The Supreme Court released orders from the February 15 conference on Tuesday; the justices added County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund to next term's merits docket and summarily reversed in Moore v. Texas.
On Wednesday the justices released their opinions in Dawson v. Steager and Timbs v. Indiana.
On Tuesday, the justices heard oral argument in Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service.
On Wednesday, the justices heard oral argument in Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC.
On Friday, the justices will meet for their February 22 conference.
Major Cases
- 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.
- New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York
  Whether New York City’s ban on transporting a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside city limits is consistent with the Second Amendment, the commerce clause and the constitutional right to travel.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Decisions
- Dawson v. Steager By taxing the federal pension benefits of U.S. Marshals Service retiree James Dawson, while exempting from taxation the pension benefits of certain state and local law enforcement officers, West Virginia unlawfully discriminates against Dawson as 4 U.S.C. §111 forbids.
- Timbs v. Indiana The Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause is an incorporated protection applicable to the states under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.
- Moore v. Texas The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ redetermination that Bobby James Moore does not have an intellectual disability and is thus eligible for the death penalty is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Moore v. Texas.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda Whether the prohibition in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), against employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation.
- Baxter v. United States (1) Whether a conviction for robbery under Florida law qualifies as a “violent felony” within the Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause simply because it requires overcoming victim resistance, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held, or whether such a conviction fails to qualify as an ACCA “violent felony” because Florida caselaw confirms that overcoming victim resistance does not invariably requires the use of “violent force” as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has held; and (2) whether a conviction for any state robbery offense that includes “as an element” the common law requirement of overcoming “victim resistance” is categorically a “violent felony” within the ACCA’s elements clause if the offense has been specifically interpreted by state appellate courts to require only slight force to overcome resistance.
- Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia Whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.
More Petitions »
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Cases argued 45

Cases decided 13

Summary reversals 3

Merits cases granted to date 74

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Justice Sotomayor at the Library of Congress

On February 14, Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared at the Library of Congress with Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and Professor Eloise Pasachoff of the Georgetown University Law Center for the Supreme Court Fellows Annual Lecture.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

15
Conference

19
Orders
RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

20
MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)
Opinions

22
Conference

25
Orders
MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

26
UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)
MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

27
THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

Cases argued	45
Cases decided	13
Summary reversals	3
Merits cases granted to date	74