Amy Howe

Oct 16 2023

Court will not hear PETA undercover recording case

The Supreme Court will not weigh in on the constitutionality of a North Carolina law that allows employers to sue employees who make undercover video or audio recordings. The denial of review in North Carolina Farm Bureau v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Stein v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals came as part of a list of orders – mostly denying review – released on Monday morning from the justices’ Oct. 13 conference. The court had previously granted review in four cases from that conference last Friday.

The law at the center of the North Carolina cases was enacted in 2015 in response to a dispute between ABC News and the grocery chain Food Lion in the 1990s. PETA and other food-safety and animal-welfare groups challenged the law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed with the challengers that the law is unconstitutional when applied to the groups’ efforts to gather news.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and a trade association representing North Carolina farmers asked the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit’s ruling. The justices considered the case at three consecutive conferences, but ultimately denied review without comment.

The justices once again did not act on several petitions for review that they considered at last Friday’s conference, including a challenge to a Washington state law that bars licensed therapists from practicing conversion therapy on children and the pair of cases challenging New York’s rent-stabilization regime.

The justices’ next conference is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 27.

This post is also published on SCOTUSblog.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Tweets by @AHoweBlogger
Recent ScotusBlog Posts from Amy
  • Federal employees urge Supreme Court to keep order in place preventing their firing
  • Supreme Court denies Florida’s request to enforce state law on illegal immigration
  • Supreme Court allows Trump administration to implement plans to significantly reduce the federal workforce
More from Amy Howe

Recent Posts

  • Court appears to back legality of HHS preventative care task force
  • Justices take up Texas woman’s claim against USPS
  • Supreme Court considers parents’ efforts to exempt children from books with LGBTQ themes
  • Justices temporarily bar government from removing Venezuelan men under Alien Enemies Act
  • Court hears challenge to ACA preventative-care coverage
Site built and optimized by Sound Strategies