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Scott A. Boyler v. City of Lackawanna, New York, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 18-839 · judgment March 13, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 7, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 4%–12%)

Before the decision, about 1.7× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a Second Circuit decision below, and counsel who has filed here before, and down for a state or local-government respondent.

Questions presented

  1. Did the Second Circuit err in adopting a subjective test for whether retaliation chilled free speech, contrary to at least six other Circuits that use an objective test.

  2. Did the Second Circuit err in holding that the plaintiff could be arrested for posting pure political speech on social media?

  3. Did the trial court err in holding that the individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity as it was not clearly established that a citizen could not be arrested for posting pure political speech on Facebook?

  4. Did the trial court err in holding that a website post can constitute aggravated harassment under New York law?

  5. Did the trial court err in granting summary judgment to the defendants?

  6. Did the trial court err in holding that the defendants were entitled to summary judgment with respect to the malicious prosecution causes of action?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Michael Kuzma
Michael Kuzma

For respondent
Julie P. Apter
Goldberg Segalla

Case

Subject area
First Amendment (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, October 7, 2019 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. Oct 07 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 17 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
  3. Jun 24 2019
    Waiver of right of respondents City of Lackawanna, Joseph Leo and Brian Lakso to respond filed.
  4. Jun 10 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 22, 2019)