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Belinda Parker Brown v. Louisiana

Paid petition · Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit, No. 2023KW0989 · judgment January 11, 2024


Certiorari denied · February 24, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Whether a court’s exercise of its contempt powers to punish an individual (in this case, the Petitioner herein) for verbal interactions with a criminal defense attorney and the prosecutor, where the interaction was at the behest of the defense attorney’s client and where the interactions took place during recess and outside of the court’s presence, violated that individual’s First Amendment Rights under the United States Constitution.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Claiborne Wood Brown
Claiborne W. Brown, LLC

For respondent
Jorge Benjamin Aguinaga
Louisiana Department of Justice

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Feb 24 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jan 22 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2025.
  3. Jan 17 2025
    Waiver of right of respondent Louisiana to respond filed.
  4. Dec 16 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 21, 2025)