Fields v. City of Philadelphia — civil rights — reversal — Ambro

In a landmark free-speech ruling, the Third Circuit today held that individuals have a First Amendment right to film police activity in public. A panel majority further held that the officers who did the filming here were entitled to qualified immunity from suit because the right had not been sufficiently clearly established; Judge Nygaard dissented on this ground. The court remanded for the district court to decide whether the city was subject to municipal liability.

Joining Ambro was Restrepo; Nygaard joined in part and dissented in part. Arguing counsel were Molly Tack-Hooper of ACLU-PA for the plaintiffs and Craig Gottlieb of the Philadelphia city Law Department for the defendants. A host of top-flight appellate lawyers were on the briefs on the ACLU’s side, including Jonathan Feinberg of Kairys Rudovsky, Alicia Hickok of Drinker Biddle, and Ilya Shapiro of Cato Institute.

Early commentary by Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy here and by Mark Joseph Stern at Slate here.

US v. Stimler* — criminal — affirmance — Roth

The Third Circuit affirmed the convictions of three Orthodox Jewish rabbis who were convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping for their role in “a scheme through which they … sought to assist Orthodox Jewish women to obtain divorces from recalcitrant husbands.”  The court rejected 8 different challenges to the convictions; Judge Restrepo wrote separately to disagree with the panel majority’s conclusion that investigators’ warrantless use of cell site location information did not violate the Fourth Amendment, but would have affirmed anyway under the good-faith exception.

Joining Roth was Chagares; Restrepo concurred in the judgment in part. Arguing counsel were Nathan Lewin of Washington DC for one defendant, Aidan O’Connor of Pashman Stein for the second, and Peter Goldberger for the third. Arguing for the government were Norman Gross and Glenn Moramarco of the NJ US Attorney’s office.

Early news coverage here and here.

UPDATE: on July 17 the court issued an order stating that the government “has advised of factual errors contained within the opinion” and that in light of the letter the Court will issue an amended opinion. It states that the amendment does not alter the judgment.

*The link at the top of this entry now goes to the amended opinion issued July 17. The original, withdrawn opinion is here.

UPDATE 2: On August 30 the court granted panel rehearing for one of the co-defendants on the Fourth Amendment issue that Judge Restrepo had written separately on.

UPDATE3: on January 21, 2019, the court issued a new opinion on rehearing that now held that use of the cell-site location data violated the Fourth Amendment but still affirmed under the good faith exception.