Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Scott Ogle v. Texas
Paid petition · Court of Appeals of Texas, Third District, No. 03-18-00207-CR, 03-18-00208-CR · judgment August 1, 2018
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
Texas criminalizes the repeated sending of “electronic communications in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another,” if those communications are sent “with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 42.07(a)(7). Texas appellate courts have held that section 42.07(a)(7) is not unconstitutionally overbroad. And Texas’s highest criminal court—which has upheld the telephonic-communication subsection of section 42.07(a) that includes the same intent and “reasonably likely” benchmarks—has repeatedly refused to review the electronic-communication subsection at issue here. The Supreme Court of Montana has upheld a similar statute, while the high courts of Colorado and New York have held that functionally identical statutes are unconstitutionally overbroad. The question presented is: Does a statute criminalizing electronically communicated speech that is both intended and reasonably likely to annoy, alarm, or embarrass another person prohibit a substantial amount of protected speech in relation to the statute’s legitimate sweep, thus violating the First Amendment?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Mark William Bennett
Bennett & Bennett
For respondent
Kyle Douglas Hawkins
Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP
Proceedings
- Oct 07 2019Petition DENIED.
- Aug 07 2019DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
- Aug 02 2019Reply of petitioner Scott Ogle filed.
- Jul 22 2019Brief of respondent Texas in opposition filed.
- Jun 17 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including July 22, 2019.
- Jun 13 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 21, 2019 to July 22, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 22 2019Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed.
- May 08 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including June 21, 2019.
- May 06 2019Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 22, 2019 to June 21, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
- Apr 22 2019Response Requested. (Due May 22, 2019)
- Apr 11 2019Brief amicus curiae of The Rutherford Institute filed. (Distributed)
- Apr 10 2019DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/26/2019.
- Apr 05 2019Waiver of right of respondent Texas to respond filed.
- Mar 08 2019Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 11, 2019)
- Jan 29 2019Application (18A671) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until March 8, 2019.
- Jan 21 2019Application (18A671) to extend further the time from February 7, 2019 to March 8, 2019, submitted to Justice Alito.
- Dec 27 2018Application (18A671) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until February 7, 2019.
- Dec 20 2018Application (18A671) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from January 8, 2019 to March 8, 2019, submitted to Justice Alito.