Brittany Valencia Martin v. South Carolina

It is a “rule of federal constitutional law” that in “cases raising First Amendment issues,” appellate courts must “make an independent examination of the whole record in order to make sure that the judgment does not constitute a forbidden intrusion on the field of free expression.” Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 499 (1984); see also, e.g., Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229, 239 (1963). The question presented is: May state appellate courts refuse to conduct independent First Amendment review based on statespecific appellate practices, as three states have held, or does the independent review obligation supersede such state rules, as other states have held?