No. 20-1588

Michael Konowicz, aka Michael Phillips, et al. v. Jonathan P. Carr, et al.

Lower Court: Third Circuit
Docketed: 2021-05-17
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Tags: actual-malice commercial-speech constitutional-interpretation defamation first-amendment fourteenth-amendment free-speech lanham-act
Key Terms:
FirstAmendment Trademark
Latest Conference: 2021-09-27
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Court should revisit the 'actual malice' doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether the Court should revisit the fifty-year old “actual malice” doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny to determine if the “original meaning” of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution is consistent with Constitutionalizing the common law tort of defamation, and to determine whether the same level of “breathing space” deemed necessary in 1964 continues to be necessary for Twenty-First Century speech. 2. Whether this Court should step in and establish a test for what constitutes “commercial speech” under the Lanham Act, where the Courts of Appeal have applied different standards to define the term.

Docket Entries

2021-10-04
Petition DENIED.
2021-06-30
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/27/2021.
2021-05-05
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 16, 2021)

Attorneys

Michael Konowicz, et al.
G. Alexander BochettoBochetto & Lentz, P.C., Petitioner
G. Alexander BochettoBochetto & Lentz, P.C., Petitioner