Term: 2013
Docket: 13-115
Wood v. Moss
- Pro
13-115 WOOD V. MOSS DECISION BELOW: 711 F.3d 941 CERT. GRANTED 11/26/2013 QUESTION PRESENTED: Petitioners are Secret Service agents who, while protecting President George W. Bush, are alleged to have required that a group of 200 to 300 anti-Bush demonstrators be moved away from an alley next to an outdoor patio where the President was making a last-minute, unscheduled stop to dine. After they were moved, the anti-Bush demonstrators were less than one block farther from the alley than a group of pro-Bush demonstrators (who had not been adjacent to the alley at the outset). They were also two blocks farther from the route that the President's motorcade subsequently took when he left the restaurant. The court of appeals held that petitioners are not entitled to qualified immunity from a claim under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), of viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The questions presented are as follows: 1. Whether the court of appeals erred in denying qualified immunity to Secret Service agents protecting the President by evaluating the claim of viewpoint discrimination at a high level of generality and concluding that pro-and anti-Bush demonstrators needed to be positioned an equal distance from the President while he was dining on the outdoor patio and then while he was travelling by motorcade. 2. Whether respondents have adequately pleaded viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment when no factual allegations support their claim of discriminatory motive and there was an obvious security-based rationale for moving the nearby anti-Bush group and not the farther-away pro-Bush group. LOWER COURT CASE NUMBER: 10-36152, 10-36172
In the case of Wood v. Moss, Secret Service agents were granted qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging viewpoint discrimination during a 2004 visit by President George W. Bush to Oregon. The plaintiffs claimed that they were moved further away from the president than supporters due to their critical views, violating their First Amendment rights. However, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the agents stating there was no evidence showing that agents acted with discriminatory intent rather than for security reasons when moving protesters farther away from where Bush was dining compared to his supporters who remained closer but out of sight and hearing range.
The dissenting opinion in the case of Wood v. Moss is not available because the decision was unanimous, with all justices agreeing on the outcome. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Secret Service agents who moved protesters away from President George W. Bush during a 2004 campaign trip to Oregon are immune from lawsuit claims that they violated the demonstrators' First Amendment rights by treating them differently than pro-Bush supporters. The court held that law enforcement officers responsible for protecting public officials must make quick decisions in potentially dangerous situations and should therefore be shielded from liability unless it can be proven they acted with discriminatory intent.
