Wood v. Moss

572 U.S. 744, 24 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 794, 188 L. Ed. 2d 1039, 134 S. Ct. 2056, 82 U.S.L.W. 4386, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 3614, 2014 WL 2178340
Supreme Court of the United States·Decided May 27, 2014·No. 13–115.·Published·Cited by 529 cases

Opinion

Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case concerns a charge that two Secret Service agents, in carrying out their responsibility to protect the President, engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint-based discrimination. The episode in suit occurred in Jacksonville, Oregon, on the evening of October 14, 2004. President George W. Bush, campaigning in the area for a second term, was scheduled to spend the evening at a cottage in Jacksonville. With permission from local law enforcement officials, two groups assembled on opposite sides of the street on which the President's motorcade was to travel to reach the cottage. One group supported the President, the other opposed him.

*748 The President made a last-minute decision to stop in town for dinner before completing the drive to the cottage. His motorcade therefore turned from the planned route and proceeded to the outdoor patio dining area of the Jacksonville Inn's restaurant. Learning of the route change, the protesters moved down the sidewalk to the area in front of the Inn. The President's supporters remained across the street and about a half block away from the Inn. At the direction of the Secret Service agents, state and local police *2061 cleared the block on which the Inn was located and moved the protesters some two blocks away to a street beyond handgun or explosive reach of the President. The move placed the protesters a block farther away from the Inn than the supporters.

Officials are sheltered from suit, under a doctrine known as qualified immunity, when their conduct "does not violate clearly established ... constitutional rights" a reasonable official, similarly situated, would have comprehended. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 , 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The First Amendment, our precedent makes plain, disfavors viewpoint-based discrimination. See Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819 , 828, 115 S.Ct. 2510 , 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995). But safeguarding the President is also of overwhelming importance in our constitutional system. See Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 , 707, 89 S.Ct. 1399 , 22 L.Ed.2d 664 (1969) ( per curiam ). Faced with the President's sudden decision to stop for dinner, the Secret Service agents had to cope with a security situation not earlier anticipated. No decision of this Court so much as hinted that their on-the-spot action was unlawful because they failed to keep the protesters and supporters, throughout the episode, equidistant from the President.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled otherwise. It found dispositive of the agents' motion to dismiss "the considerable disparity in the distance each group was allowed to stand from the Presiden[t]." Moss v. United States Secret Serv., 711 F.3d 941 , 946 (2013). Because no "clearly established law" so controlled the agents'

*749 response to the motorcade's detour, we reverse the Ninth Circuit's judgment.

I

A

On October 14, 2004, after a nearby campaign appearance, President George W. Bush was scheduled to spend the night at a cottage in Jacksonville, Oregon. Anticipating the visit, a group of individuals, including respondents (the protesters), organized a demonstration to express their opposition to the President and his policies. At around 6:00 p.m. on the evening the President's motorcade was expected to pass through the town, between 200 and 300 protesters gathered in Jacksonville, on California Street between Third and Fourth Streets. See infra, at 2062 (map depicting the relevant area in Jacksonville). The gathering had been precleared with local law enforcement authorities. On the opposite side of Third Street, a similarly sized group of individuals (the supporters) assembled to show their support for the President. If, as planned, the motorcade had traveled down Third Street to reach the cottage, with no stops along the way, the protesters and supporters would have had equal access to the President throughout in delivering their respective messages.

This situation was unsettled when President Bush made a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop for dinner at the Jacksonville Inn before proceeding to the cottage. The Inn stands on the north side of California Street, on the block where the protesters had assembled. Learning of the President's change in plans, the protesters moved along the block to face the Inn. The respective positions of the protesters and supporters at the time the President arrived at the Inn are shown on the following map, which the protesters attached as an exhibit to their complaint: 1

*2062 *750 As the map indicates, the protesters massed on the sidewalk directly in front of the Inn, while the supporters remained assembled on the block west of Third Street, some *751 distance from the Inn. The map also shows an alley running along the east side of the Inn (the California Street alley) leading to an outdoor patio used by the Inn's restaurant as a dining area. A six-foot high wooden fence surrounded the patio. At the location where the President's supporters gathered, a large two-story building, the U.S. Hotel, extended north around the corner of California and Third Streets. That structure blocked sight of, and weapons access to, the patio from points on California Street west of the Inn.

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Wood v. Moss, 572 U.S. 744, 24 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 794, 188 L. Ed. 2d 1039, 134 S. Ct. 2056, 82 U.S.L.W. 4386, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 3614, 2014 WL 2178340 (2014).

572 U.S. 744 (Wood v. Moss) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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