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Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty in Support of Petitioners

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Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty in Support of Petitioners No. 19-968 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States CHIKE UZUEGBUNAM AND JOSEPH BRADFORD, Petitioners, v. STANLEY C. PRECZEWSKI, JANN L. JOSEPH, LOIS C. RICHARDSON, JIM B. FATZINGER, TOMAS JIMINEZ, AILEEN C. DOWELL, GENE RUFFIN, CATHERINE JANNICK DOWNEY, TERRANCE SCHNEIDER, COREY HUGHES, REBECCA A. LAWLER, AND SHENNA PERRY, Respondents. ON PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT BRIEF FOR AMICUS CURIAE JEWISH COALITION FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS DANIEL P. KEARNEY, JR. Counsel of Record KEVIN GALLAGHER PAUL VANDERSLICE LYDIA LICHLYTER HYUN-SOO LIM WILMER CUTLER PICKERING HALE AND DORR LLP 1875 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20006 (202) 663-6000 [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ........................................... ii INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE............................... 1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ......................................... 1 ARGUMENT ....................................................................... 3 I. SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES MUST BE PROTECTED WITH PARTICULAR VIGOR .............. 3 II. NOMINAL DAMAGES SERVE TO VINDICATE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS MINORITIES ............. 6 A. Nominal Damages Are A Vital Tool For The Vindication Of Absolute Rights When No Actual Damages Are Available ................................................................. 7 B. The Lower Court’s Decision Provides Insufficient Protection For Religious Minorities ............................................................... 9 CONCLUSION ................................................................. 12 ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Page(s) Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc., 568 U.S. 85 (2013) ............... 9 Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43 (1997) .............................................................. 11 Ben-Levi v. Brown, 136 S. Ct. 930 (2016) ............. 3, 10, 11 Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753 (1995) ........................................ 5 Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247 (1978)............................ 1, 7 Chafin v. Chafin, 568 U.S. 165 (2013) .............................. 9 Christian Legal Society Chapter of University of California, Hastings College of Law v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010) ..................................... 5 Flanigan’s Enterprises, Inc. of Georgia v. City of Sandy Springs, Georgia, 868 F.3d 1248 (11th Cir. 2017) .............................................................. 8 Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000) .............................................................. 9 Guzzi v. Thompson, 2008 WL 2059321 (1st Cir. May 14, 2008) ............................................................... 10 Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972) ................................. 3 Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, 567 U.S. 298 (2012) ............... 9, 11 Larsen v. United States Navy, 525 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2008) ...................................................................... 11 Mellen v. Bunting, 327 F.3d 355 (4th Cir. 2003) ............. 6 iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) National Black Police Ass’n v. District of Columbia, 108 F.3d 346 (D.C. Cir. 1997) ................ 11 United States v. Concentrated Phosphate Export Ass’n, 393 U.S. 199 (1968) .............................. 9 University of Cincinnati Chapter of Young Americans for Liberty v. Williams, 2012 WL 2160969 (S.D. Ohio June 12, 2012) ...................... 4 STATUTORY PROVISIONS 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ................................................................. 10 OTHER AUTHORITIES 1 Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the Laws of England (Oxford Clarendon Press, 8th ed. 1778) .................................................................. 7 Broderick, Cynthia & Kevin Fosnacht, Religious Intolerance on Campus: A Multi-Institutional Study (Nov. 2017), http://nsse.indiana.edu/pdf/presentations/20 17/ASHE_2017_Broderick_Fosnacht.pdf ................. 5 Davis, Joseph & Nicoles R. Reaves, The Point Isn’t Moot: How Lower Courts Have Blessed Government Abuse of the Volun- tary-Cessation Doctrine, 129 Yale L.J. Fo- rum 325 (2019) ....................................................... 10, 11 iv TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Frazin, Rachel, Columbia University student first to file anti-Semitism complaint un- der Trump order, The Hill (Dec. 26, 2019), https://thehill.com/homenews/administratio n/475980-columbia-university-student-first- to-file-anti-semitism-complaint .................................. 5 Howard, A. Celia, No Place for Speech Zones: How Colleges Engage in Expressive Gerrymandering, 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 387 (2019) .............................................................................. 5 Shapiro, Susan, Anti-Semitism at NYU, Wall Street Journal (Apr. 21, 2019), https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-semi tism-at-nyu-11555873457 ............................................. 5 Sonoma State University Statement on Civility and Tolerance, sonoma.edu/ about/diversity/civility-and-tolerance (last visited Mar. 2, 2020) ..................................................... 4 University of Texas at San Antonio, Handbook of Operating Procedures, utsa.edu/hop/ chapter9/9-9.html (last visited Mar. 2, 2020) ............ 4 Weinberg, Beverly, Treating the Symptom Instead of the Cause: Regulat-ing Student Speech at the University of Connecticut, 23 Conn. L. Rev. 743 (1991).............................................. 4 INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE1 Amicus is an incorporated group of lawyers, rabbis, and communal professionals who practice Judaism and are committed to defending religious liberty. Repre- senting members of the legal profession and as adher- ents of a minority religion, amicus has a unique interest in ensuring that the First Amendment protects the di- versity of religious viewpoints and practices in the United States. To that end, amicus urges the Court to grant certiorari and protect the freedom of speech for all Americans, including college students and religious minorities. SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT Nominal damages allow plaintiffs to “vindicate dep- rivations of certain ‘absolute’ rights” that are “im- port[ant] to organized society.” Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 266 (1978). Among the most important of those rights is the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment. And among the most important ar- eas where freedom of speech requires protection is at colleges and universities, given their historic role as in- stitutions designed to promote free and open discus- sion. Contrary to these principles, the decision below ef- fectively closed the courthouse doors on two college students whose freedom of speech was infringed by 1 Counsel of record for both parties received notice at least 10 days prior to the due date of amicus curiae’s intention to file this brief. No counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or in part, and no person, other than amicus or their counsel, made any monetary contribution to the preparation or submission of this brief. Letters consenting to the filing of this brief are on file with the Clerk. 2 school officials. The college confined free speech to a designated “free speech zone” comprising a mere 0.0015% of the campus. Yet Petitioners were told that they could not exercise their speech rights even in that limited space. Petitioners sued, and Respondents, fear- ing that their speech restrictions would be found un- constitutional, changed their policies. The lower court then denied as moot both Petitioners’ prospective in- junctive claims and their nominal-damages claims for past injuries. That latter decision was an error—one with significant consequences for the free speech rights of religious minorities and other individuals on college campuses. The lower court’s decision is concerning in light of a troubling trend of speech restrictions at American col- leges and universities. Rather than fostering free in- quiry, American colleges and universities have some- times attempted to narrowly define permissible speech on campus, using speech codes, free speech zones, and other coercive regulation. The Eleventh Circuit’s ap- proach to nominal damages leaves students especially vulnerable to unconstitutional speech restrictions, as it largely forecloses students from obtaining meaningful relief for past constitutional injuries. This Court should reaffirm the important role claims for nominal damages play in vindicating basic constitutional rights. Nominal-damages claims hold government officials accountable for their unconstitu- tional conduct; officials cannot escape review by tacti- cally changing their policies prospectively. Such claims also recognize that free speech restrictions and other deprivations of basic constitutional rights inflict real injuries, even if those injuries are not precisely quanti- fiable or financial in nature. 3 These principles are of particular importance to members of minority religions, who often find their constitutional rights burdened and may have difficulty vindicating those rights in the face of government ef- forts to moot their claims. A recent example is the cer- tiorari petition presented to this Court in Ben-Levi v. Brown, where application of the voluntary cessation doctrine would have frustrated the petitioner’s chal- lenge to a prison policy that discriminated against Jew- ish prisoners. 136 S. Ct. 930, 935 n.7 (2016). The Elev- enth
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