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Margo Roman v. Massachusetts Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine

Paid petition · Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, No. SJC-13653 · judgment May 6, 2025


Certiorari denied · January 12, 2026
Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

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

Question presented

In its coming Term, this Court will address occupational speech issues in the pending matter of Chiles v. Salazar (No. 24-539), cert. granted, 145 S. Ct. 1328 (2025). Meanwhile, at least three other certiorari petitions in cases involving occupational speech are being held pending the decision in Chiles (including Crownholm v. Moore (No. 24-276), 360 Virtual Drone Servs. LLC v. Ritter (No. 24-279), and Hines v. Pardue (No. 24- 920)). In this case raising similar legal issues as Chiles, the question presented is: whether a state occupational licensing board is entitled to apply a lower standard of constitutional scrutiny to speech that is neither commercial nor incidental to conduct simply because the speaker was subject to professional licensure.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Thaddeus Alan Heuer
Foley Hoag, LLP

For respondent
Grace Gohlke
Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Jan 12 2026
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 16 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/9/2026.
  3. Dec 08 2025
    Reply of petitioner Margo Roman filed.
  4. Dec 02 2025
    Brief of respondent Massachusetts Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine in opposition filed.
  5. Sep 26 2025
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including December 2, 2025.
  6. Sep 18 2025
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 3, 2025 to December 2, 2025, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Sep 04 2025
    Brief amici curiae of Veterinarians, et al. filed.
  8. Sep 03 2025
    Response Requested. (Due October 3, 2025)
  9. Aug 20 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
  10. Aug 06 2025
    Waiver of right of respondent Massachusetts Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine to respond filed.
  11. Aug 04 2025
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 4, 2025)