Petition for Rehearing in Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness, Seeking a Hold for McCullen v. Coakley

I’ve blogged quite a bit about Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness, a First Amendment pro-life protester case in which my cocounsel and I filed a cert petition earlier this year. The Court recently denied certiorari in that case, but two weeks later it granted certiorari in McCullen v. Coakley, another First Amendment pro-life protester case.

We’ve therefore filed a petition for rehearing, asking the Court to hold Scott pending the result in McCullen, and then perhaps granting the petition, vacating the decision below, and remanding for reconsideration in light of McCullen (a so-called “GVR”). Though the issues raised in McCullen and Scott aren’t identical, the petition explains how the outcome of McCullen may affect the outcome of Scott, and how that can justify a hold for a possible GVR. The petition also discusses the Court’s power to grant a rehearing (within the 25-day period following denial of cert, as authorized by the Court rules) in order to hold a case for a newly granted case.

In any event, I know some of our readers have been interested in Scott, so I thought I’d blog about this latest development.

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