First Amendment Cases on Today’s Supreme Court Conference Docket

As flagged by Scotusblog, the cert petitions in the following cases present First Amendment issues:

*Kansas City Premier Apartments v. Missouri Real Estate Commission (Docket No. 11-552). The question presented in the petition asks “[w]hether a court considering a First Amendment challenge to a law that restricts protected speech may presume the law’s constitutionality and require the party whose speech is being restricted to prove that the law “clearly and undoubtedly violates the constitution.” In the case, the operator of an Internet-based service that provides listings of local rental properties questions the application of Missouri’s real estate licensing requirements to this type of business enterprise.

*Locke v. Shore (Docket No. 11-348). This challenge to Florida’s regime for the licensing of interior decorators seeking to work in a commercial setting. Lawyers from the Institute for Justice outline the basis for their First Amendment attack on the licensing law’s restriction of “occupational speech” in a recent piece in the National Law Journal.

*NATSO v. 3 Girls Enterprises (Docket No. 11-350). The questions presented in the petition are: (1) Whether a First Amendment objection to a federal district court discovery order requiring the production of private political communications and petitioning strategies by trade associations and their members falls within the Cohen collateral order or Perlman doctrines of appellate jurisdiction, or whether a timely objection to such an order may be raised on appeal only via an extraordinary petition for writ of mandamus; and (2) whether a district court order compelling trade associations and their members to disclose private political communications and petitioning strategies to their political opponents without limitation has so self-evident a chilling effect on First Amendment rights as to trigger First Amendment scrutiny without the need for any additional evidentiary showing.

Bluman v. Federal Election Commission (Docket No. 11-275), which asserts that the federal bar on campaign contributions or independent expenditures by non-citizens violates the First Amendment, will also be considered at today’s conference.

JFB