Wood v. Moss

Last updated

Wood v. Moss
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg
Argued March 26, 2014
Decided May 27, 2014
Full case nameTim Wood and Rob Savage, Petitioners v. Michael Moss, et al. [1]
Docket no. 13-115
Citations572 U.S. 744 ( more )
134 S. Ct. 2056; 188 L. Ed. 2d 1039
Argument Oral argument
Opinion announcement Opinion announcement
Case history
PriorMoss v. U.S. Secret Serv., 572 F.3d 962 (9th Cir. 2009); on remand, 750 F. Supp. 2d 1197 (D. Or. 2010); affirmed in part, 675 F.3d 1213 (9th Cir. 2012); rehearing en banc denied, 711 F.3d 941 (9th Cir. 2012); cert. granted, 571 U.S. 1067(2013).
Holding
Secret Service agents are entitled to qualified immunity from First Amendment claims after they removed protesters who had crossed their security perimeter from demonstrating against the President.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
Antonin Scalia  · Anthony Kennedy
Clarence Thomas  · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer  · Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor  · Elena Kagan
Case opinion
MajorityGinsburg, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Wood v. Moss, 572 U.S. 744 (2014), was a United States Supreme Court case holding secret service officers who moved protesters away from the president were protected by qualified immunity. [2] Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opinion for a unanimous court. The case arose out of a campaign stop President George W. Bush made during the 2004 presidential campaign. Prior to the campaign event, Bush dined at a restaurant near where a group of supporters and a group of protesters had gathered. Two secret service agents directed local police to move the protesters to protect the president. The protesters sued the agents in the U.S. District Court of the District of Oregon. The agents filed a motion to dismiss which was eventually granted based upon the Supreme Court's decision.

Contents

Background

Factual background

President George W. Bush went to Jacksonville, Oregon for a campaign event for the 2004 presidential election. Two groups assembled, with permission, on opposite sides of a street near the venue: a group of supporters and a group of protesters. President Bush decided to make an unplanned stop for food at the Jacksonville Inn prior to the event, causing the protesters to move closer to the restaurant. [3] :2060 Two secret service officers, with the help of local police, made the decision to move the protesters to another block, causing the protesters to then be further away from restaurant than the supporters. After the President's meal, the President's motorcade left the restaurant and its route left protesters too far away to be seen or heard. [3] :2064

Procedural history

The protesters filed suit against the two secret service agents in U. S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The protesters claimed the actions of the officers had violated the protesters' First Amendment rights, specifically engaging in view point discrimination by moving the protesters further away than the supporters. The agents moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim and further arguing they were protected by qualified immunity. The District Court denied the motion. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit then reversed on interlocutory appeal, but instructed the lower court to allow protesters the opportunity to amend their complaint. The protesters supplemented their complaint with allegations the secret service systematically attempted to remove protesters from the vicinity of event sites and motorcade routes. Ibid. [3] :2065 The agents again moved to dismiss and the District Court denied the motion. On a second interlocutory appeal the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari. [3] :2066

Opinion of the Court

In a unanimous opinion, authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court held the two secret service agents were entitled to qualified immunity. [3] :2070 To circumvent the doctrine of qualified immunity, the protesters would need to show the violation of a constitutional right and that the right was "clearly established" at the time of the conduct. [3] :2066–67 Only one prior Supreme Court case had addressed the qualified immunity of secret service agents. Hunter v. Bryant , 502 U.S. 224(1991) applied qualified immunity to secret service agents who had arrested an individual for a threat to assassinate the president. In other cases, the Court has recognized the importance of protecting the chief executive. Ibid. [3] :2067

Although the Ninth Circuit had found fault with the secret service agents for failing to provide a reason for treating the supporters and protesters differently, the Supreme Court found that no existing law would have alerted the secret service agents that they had an obligation under the First Amendment to give each group comparable locations at all times. [3] :2068 The Court was persuaded there was a security motive for moving the protesters, who had been in weapons range with an unobstructed view of the President dining on the patio and there would have been no such rationale for moving the supporters. Ibid. No existing law required the secret service to interfere with the speech rights of supporters more than security concerns necessitated. [3] :2068–69

The Court also rejected the protesters' allegation that the secret service agents moved the protesters to engage in viewpoint discrimination. [3] :2069 After noting that a White House manual urging political operatives to work with secret service designate a protest area outside of the view of presidential motorcades was not actually the policy of the secret service itself, the Court noted the actual agents themselves would need to have acted with discriminatory intent. [3] :2069–70 The Court found it persuasive that a security motive existed for moving the protesters. [3] :2070

The Supreme Court's decision dismissed the claims against the two secret service agents, however, other claims against the Jacksonville Chief of Police, the city of Jacksonville and former Sheriff remained active. Protesters who were detained were certified as a class whereas individual claims of excessive force, including a claim from Michael Moss, the named respondent in Wood v. Moss, proceeded individually. [4]

Responses and analysis

This case was one of several to allege the Bush administration used the secret service to keep protesters away from Bush's public appearances. [5]

The New Republic found the decision to be a hopeful one for future protections for free speech. Although the protesters lost, The New Republic noted that the Court indicated that acting purely based on viewpoint discrimination might have yielded a different result. The New Republic also found Ginsburg's treatment of the field manual as disapproving. [6]

The American Civil Liberties Union released a statement expressing its disappointment with the decision to dismiss the case. The organization believed a jury should have been able to decide whether the secret service was censuring speech. [7]

Related Research Articles

Free speech zones are areas set aside in public places for the purpose of political protesting. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The existence of free speech zones is based on U.S. court decisions stipulating that the government may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner – but not content – of expression.

Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court case, in which José Padilla, an American citizen, sought habeas corpus relief against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as a result of his detention by the military as an "unlawful combatant."

Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), was a case in which the US Supreme Court ruled that an implied cause of action existed for an individual whose Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizures had been violated by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The victim of such a deprivation could sue for the violation of the Fourth Amendment itself despite the lack of any federal statute authorizing such a suit. The existence of a remedy for the violation was implied by the importance of the right violated.

Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal.4th 33 (2006), was a California Supreme Court case concerning online defamation. The case resolved a defamation claim brought by Stephen Barrett, Terry Polevoy, and attorney Christopher Grell against Ilena Rosenthal and several others. Barrett and others alleged that the defendants had republished libelous information about them on the internet. In a unanimous decision, the court held that Rosenthal was a "user of interactive computer services" and therefore immune from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorcade</span> Procession of official vehicles, often VIP limousines

A motorcade, or autocade, is a procession of motor vehicles. Uses can include ceremonial processions for funerals or demonstrations, but can also be used to provide security while transporting a very important person. The American presidential motorcade is an example of both and is a staple of public appearances by the president of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Brown Clement</span> American judge (born 1948)

Edith Brown Clement is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle of federal constitutional law that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from lawsuits for damages unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known". It is comparable to sovereign immunity, though it protects government employees rather than the government itself. It is less strict than absolute immunity, by protecting officials who "make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions", extending to "all [officials] but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law". Qualified immunity applies only to government officials in civil litigation, and does not protect the government itself from suits arising from officials' actions.

Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., 544 U.S. 280 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court clarified the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and its relation to preclusion and concurrent jurisdiction.

Hartman v. Moore, 547 U.S. 250 (2006), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the pleading standard for retaliatory prosecution claims against government officials. After a successful lobbying attempt by the CEO of a manufacturing company against competing devices that the US Postal Service supported, the CEO found himself the target of an investigation by US postal inspectors and a criminal prosecution that was dismissed for lack of evidence. The CEO then filed suit against the inspectors and other government officials for seeking to prosecute him in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights to criticize postal policy. The Court ruled 5-2 that to prove that the prosecution was caused by a retaliatory motive, the plaintiff bringing such a claim must allege and prove that the criminal charges were brought without probable cause.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 term per curiam opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States</span>

The Supreme Court of the United States handed down six per curiam opinions during its 2004 term, which began October 4, 2004 and concluded October 3, 2005.

Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court considered the qualified immunity of a police officer to a civil rights case brought through a Bivens action.

Ziglar v. Abbasi, 582 U.S. ___ (2017), is a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court determined, by a vote of 4–2, that non-U.S. citizens detained in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks cannot recover monetary damages from high level federal officials for the conditions of their confinement. The case was consolidated with Hastey v. Abbasi, and Ashcroft v. Abbasi. It was argued on January 18, 2017.

City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, 544 U.S. 197 (2005), was a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands 200 years later did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion.

Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443 (2011), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held that speech made in a public place on a matter of public concern cannot be the basis of liability for a tort of emotional distress, even if the speech is viewed as offensive or outrageous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 term per curiam opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States</span>

The Supreme Court of the United States handed down eight per curiam opinions during its 2013 term, which began October 7, 2013 and concluded October 5, 2014.

Hernandez v. Mesa was a pair of United States Supreme Court cases in which the court held that the precedent established under the 1971 Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents decision did not extend to claims based on cross-border shootings.

Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States clarified whether a case becomes moot when a party provides a settlement offer that satisfies a named plaintiff's claims in a class action suit and whether a government contractor is entitled to "derivative sovereign immunity".

Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. 391 (2019), was a civil rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided that probable cause should generally defeat a retaliatory arrest claim brought under the First Amendment, unless officers under the circumstances would typically exercise their discretion not to make an arrest.

Plumhoff v. Rickard, 572 U.S. 765 (2014), is a United States Supreme Court case involving the use of force by police officers during high-speed car chases. After first holding that it had jurisdiction to hear the case, the Court held that the conduct of the police officers involved in the case did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Tanzin v. Tanvir, 592 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving legal remedies that could be sought by litigants against federal officials for violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. In a unanimous decision issued December 10, 2020, the court ruled that the Act allowed for litigants to seek not only injunctive relief but also monetary damages.

References

  1. "Docket File 13-115". Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  2. "Wood v. Moss". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Wood v. Moss,No. 13-115 , 572 U.S. ___(2014).
  4. Associated Press (December 3, 2015). "Protesters detained at 2004 Bush appearance in southern Oregon get class-action status". OregonLive.com. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  5. Savage, David G. (May 7, 2014). "Supreme Court rejects free-speech suit from anti-Bush protesters". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  6. Schlanger, Margo (March 28, 2014). "The Supreme Court Gives a Subtle Boost to Free Speech". New Republic. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  7. "ACLU Comment on Wood v. Moss Ruling". American Civil Liberties Union. May 27, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2017.