The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent | Est. 2002

The Volokh Conspiracy

The Fourth Amendment and Laws Requiring Video Recording Inside Stores

A new Ninth Circuit ruling raises a number of hard issues.

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Yesterday, a divided Ninth Circuit handed down Richards v. Newsom, rejecting a facial challenge to a California law, California Penal Code Section 26806, which requires federally licensed firearms dealers to maintain digital recording systems on their business premises.  The law was challenged on First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Fifth Amendment grounds.  I wanted to focus on the Fourth Amendment issues in this post, as I'm not sure the majority's reasoning was right.

I hadn't heard of this law until yesterday, so my apologies if I'm getting the details wrong.  But as I understand it, the law requires federally licensed firearms dealers (which I'll just call "gun shops" for short, if that's not too inaccurate) to have 24/7 video surveillance of "interior views of all entries or exits to the premises, [a]ll areas where firearms are displayed[, and] all points of sale, sufficient to identify the parties involved in the transaction."  They have to store the video for at least a year, and agree to turn over video records in response to a search warrant or other court order.

From a Fourth Amendment perspective, this is a hard law school exam question.  For starters, you have to figure out what to make of the order to have the system. Is the requirement of installation and use (to the extent a particular shop doesn't already have such a system) forcing the gun shop owner to act as a state actor, installing the device?   If so, what exactly is searched, and whose interests are implicated— those of the gun store owner, or the customers and others in the gun store?  Does this fall within the famously murky record-keeping framework of California Bankers Association v. Schultz, or is it more like an order to compel records as in Carpenter or Chatrie?

But wait, there's more. Under Maryland v. Macon, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a store open to the public, but here the surveillance is 24/7, and you don't know what might get recorded after work hours.  So would there be Fourth Amendment rights in the video itself, or would it depend on which time window of video the government later tries to compel?  And which of these issues can be addressed in a facial challenge, and how might the closely regulated industries exception apply or not apply, under City of Los Angeles v. Patel?

I don't have time for a long post to do the case justice, unfortunately.  But here's one part I want flag that strikes me as at the very least incomplete, if not likely wrong: The state action analysis.  At one point in the case, the panel discusses the plaintiffs' argument that the law made gun shops state actors under the Fourth Amendment.  Here's what the court says:

Unable to articulate any physical intrusion or actual access of audiovisual recordings by the government, Plaintiffs instead argue that Section 26806 transforms FFLs into state actors for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. To support this argument, Plaintiffs argue that they satisfy three tests discussed in Brunette v. Humane Society of Ventura County for determining when a private party has engaged in state action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983: (1) the "joint action" test, (2) the "symbiotic relationship" test, and (3) the "public functions" test. See 294 F.3d 1205, 1210 (9th Cir. 2002). Again, we disagree.

This seems odd.

First, Fourth Amendment state action is generally an agency test that looks at whether the private party was acting as the government's agent, which in turn looks to knowledge, acquiescence, and the like.   The Ninth Circuit has sometimes instead in Fourth Amendment cases tried to summarize state action analysis from outside Fourth Amendment law, which is what the panel is doing here, and was doing in Brunette.  But even if you try to apply the different "tests" from outside Fourth Amendment law, the 2002 Brunette case did not purport to provide a comprehensive list of theories of state action.

Of particular relevance, Brunette did not ask the court to consider the "state compulsion" test.  As the court put it in Children's Health Defense v. Meta Platforms, quoting Supreme Court caselaw:

As we have explained, the Supreme Court has identified four tests for when a private party "may fairly be said to be a state actor": (1) the public function test, (2) the joint action test, (3) the state compulsion test, and (4) the nexus test. Lugar, 457 U.S. at 937, 939, 102 S.Ct. 2744.

The Supreme Court in Lugar rooted this test in Adickes v. SH Kress & Co., which held that a restaurant would be a state actor if it refused service to a customer because of a state-enforced custom of segregating the races in public restaurants. Adickes noted:

For state action purposes it makes no difference of course whether the racially discriminatory act by the private party is compelled by a statutory provision or by a custom having the force of law—in either case it is the State that has commanded the result by its law.

I wonder, why isn't a gun shop turned into a state actor by a statutory provision requiring action under this state compulsion test?  Maybe the resulting act wasn't a search or seizure, and maybe it's not an issue that can be address in a facial challenge.  But I'm not sure why whatever action is compelled wouldn't be state action.

Politics

Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

Fabricated identities, fictitious daycares, and made-up laws.

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Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.

New case! IJ clients Charles and Eli Copley own 50 wooded acres in Roxbury, Conn., where they've always welcomed hikers for a small hourly fee, an absolutely harmless use that is not visible to the neighbors. But the town says that might violate the zoning code—just not any part of the code that is written down—and the Copleys haven't been able to have any hikers for a year. Outrageous! Click here to learn more.

New on the Short Circuit podcast: Our #12Months12Circuits series makes it to the Eighth. There's irreparable harm and contractor speech.

  1. Today in news you can use: Check your prospective interns' resumes and references! A Project Veritas undercover journalist fabricated a false identity to infiltrate a Democratic political consulting firm, and some of her recorded material was used in an embarrassing series of YouTube videos that caused major clients to ditch the firm. Firm sues reporters and wins a big verdict. D.C. Circuit (over a partial dissent): While her fraudulent actions may have been tortious, most of the videos were fully protected by the First Amendment, so the jury's award here must be overturned because it didn't specifically tie damages to the fraudulently procured aspects.
  2. New Hampshire parents (and a grandparent) are barred from school property after wearing pink wristbands at high school soccer game in protest of a trans player on the visiting team. First Circuit: Seems like a First Amendment problem.
  3. Congress reformed the immigration removal system three decades ago, allowing some—but not all—aliens to be released on bond pending their hearing. A regulation issued soon after explaining that bond was available only for people already within the U.S., not for those arriving at the border. The feds reversed course last summer; now, no bond for any aliens. Cool? Fifth, Eighth circuits: Yup. First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and now Third circuits: No. Read More

Free Speech

"This Case Begins with a Viral Video" (and Goes on to Involve "the Anti-Doxing League")

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From today's decision by Judge Kyle Dudek (M.D. Fla.) in Noshirvan v. Couture (for a 2023 decision stemming from the same incident, see Plaintiff Sues Defendant, Alleging Defendant's "Niche Is Cancel Culture"):

This case begins with a viral video. Plaintiff Danesh Noshirvan is a citizen journalist who built a social media following by exposing bad behavior in public spaces. In January 2022, he posted a video of Defendant Jennifer Couture confronting a young woman in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot. The video caught fire, resulting in criminal charges for Couture and public backlash. Couture and her now-husband, Defendant Dr. Ralph Garramone, allegedly decided to get even.

According to Noshirvan, Couture and Garramone—acting individually and through Garramone's various business entities—hired a convicted computer hacker named Joseph Camp to retaliate. Camp, in turn, connected the couple with Defendant Patrick Trainor, a New Jersey lawyer who operates the Anti-Doxing League. What followed, Noshirvan alleges, was a retaliatory conspiracy by these defendants to systematically destroy his life and livelihood.

Trainor responded to Noshirvan's lawsuit with counterclaims for defamation and civil conspiracy. According to Trainor, Noshirvan used his social media account to falsely brand Trainor as a "Nazi," a "White supremacist," and a "pedophile."

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Free Speech

No Anti-Stalking Order Against Rabbi Based on His Actions Opposing Anti-Israel Protest

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From the long opinion in Rokhvand v. Herzfeld, decided by D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Roy McLeese, joined by Judges Corinne Beckwith and John Howard:

This case arises from three incidents that occurred on three separate days in March and May of 2024 during demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy….

Ms. Rokhvand and Ms. Barmada were engaged in a multi-month demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. in protest of Israel's recent military actions in Gaza…. The protesters used a designated area outside the embassy to set up their display of flags, tents, and signs and to engage in "noise demonstrations," during which they spoke into megaphones, played Palestinian music, or used noise machines. They displayed large signs with messages against Israel's military actions in Gaza, as well as a sign offering earplugs to passersby, along the sidewalk.

Rabbi Herzfeld is the rabbi of a Washington, D.C. congregation and the founder and leader of a Jewish school. During his tenure in D.C., Rabbi Herzfeld has been involved in the wider community and worked with other local faith leaders and elected officials. Rabbi Herzfeld has close relationships with family and friends in Israel and was "devastat[ed]" by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Rabbi Herzfeld did not know of Ms. Barmada or Ms. Rokhvand before his interactions with them at the Israeli embassy. Likewise, neither Ms. Barmada nor Ms. Rokhvand had heard of or met Rabbi Herzfeld before their interactions with him during the embassy demonstrations.

The first incident occurred in the middle of the day while Ms. Barmada and a few other protesters, not including Ms. Rokhvand, were at the protest site. According to Ms. Barmada, a group of men including Rabbi Herzfeld approached the protest site and began slowly walking through the demonstration and "intensely … looking around." Ms. Barmada heard Rabbi Herzfeld call her a "Hamas supporter" and a "terrorist" who supported "raping women" and "beheading babies." Another man in the group called Ms. Barmada a "Nazi bitch" and said that she should "go to the concentration camp."

Rabbi Herzfeld began speaking about the protesters, pointing at Ms. Barmada and referring to the protesters as the "wicked people" that "we will defeat." The group of men again approached the protesters and walked back and forth in front of them, during which time Ms. Barmada and Rabbi Herzfeld exchanged a couple of remarks and Rabbi Herzfeld took something out of his pocket and stood near Ms. Barmada with his group. Ms. Barmada perceived the interaction to be a threat designed to "intimidate" her. She felt "scared" and "harassed" and that the incident was "violating."

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Equal Protection

Official Precedent from a Supreme Court Justice's Opinion: We Jews Are "a Highly Intellectual Race"

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Just came across this in Justice Stephen Field's opinion as Circuit Justice in Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan (C.C.D. Cal. 1879):

We have, for instance, in our community a large number of Jews. They are a highly intellectual race, and are generally obedient to the laws of the country.

Thank you, Justice! (Recall that this was a time when "race" was used to include what we would today call an "ethnic group," such as Norwegians, Italians, and the like.) Meantime, the broader context of the case, which isn't about us at all (not everything is about us):

The plaintiff is a subject of the emperor of China, and the present action is brought to recover damages for his alleged maltreatment by the defendant, a citizen of the state of California and the sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco. The maltreatment consisted in having wantonly and maliciously cut off the queue of the plaintiff, a queue being worn by all Chinamen, and its deprivation being regarded by them as degrading and as entailing future suffering.

It appears that in April, 1876, the legislature of California passed an act 'concerning lodging-houses and sleeping apartments within the limits of incorporated cities,' declaring, among other things, that any person found sleeping or lodging in a room or an apartment containing less than five hundred cubic feet of space in the clear for each person occupying it, should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than ten or more than fifty dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Under this act the plaintiff, in April, 1878, was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of ten dollars, or in default of such payment to be imprisoned five days in the county jail. Failing to pay the fine, he was imprisoned.

The defendant, as sheriff of the city and county, had charge of the jail, and during the imprisonment of the plaintiff cut off his queue, as alleged. The complaint avers that it is the custom of Chinamen to shave the hair from the front of the head and to wear the remainder of it braided into a queue; that the deprivation of the queue is regarded by them as a mark of disgrace, and is attended, according to their religious faith, with misfortune and suffering after death; that the defendant knew of this custom and religious faith of the Chinese, and knew also that the plaintiff venerated the custom and held the faith; yet, in disregard of his rights, inflicted the injury complained of; and that the plaintiff has, in consequence of it, suffered great mental anguish, been disgraced in the eyes of his friends and relatives, and ostracised from association with his countrymen; and that hence he has been damaged to the amount of ten thousand dollars….

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Free Speech

Home Possession of AI-Generated Porn Depicting Fake Children Remains Constitutionally Protected, Seventh Circuit Rules

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From U.S. v. Anderegg, decided Tuesday by Seventh Circuit Judge John Lee, joined by Judges Doris Pryor and Joshua Kolar:

Steven Anderegg is charged with producing, distributing, and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring such material to a minor under the age of sixteen. According to the government, Anderegg produced these images using Stable Diffusion, a generative artificial intelligence ("GenAI") software that allowed him to create hyper-realistic images of prepubescent children engaging in sexually explicit acts.

The appeal in this case deals only with Anderegg's challenge to the home possession charge, not to the production or distribution charge. Here's the court's analysis:

Obscenity, along with certain other categories of speech, has historically fallen "outside the scope of the First Amendment." And, although the precise meaning of "obscenity" is difficult to pin down, the Supreme Court has offered the following articulation: "[S]peech is obscene to the public at large—and thus proscribable—if (a) 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards[,] would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest'; (b) 'the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law'; and (c) 'the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.'" Miller v. California (1973).

At the same time, "[t]he Constitution extends special safeguards to the privacy of the home." The Supreme Court addressed the clash of these two principles—the government's interest in proscribing obscenity and an individual's privacy in one's home—in Stanley v. Georgia (1969)…. Acknowledging that the government retains "broad power to regulate obscenity," the Supreme Court held that the State's "power simply does not extend to mere possession by the individual in the privacy of his own home." "If the First Amendment means anything," the Court explained, "it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch." …

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Free Speech

Israeli-American Emory Professor's Civil Rights Conspiracy Claim Against CAIR Georgia and Emory Student Can Go Forward (in Part)

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From yesterday's decision by Judge Thomas Thrash (N.D. Ga.) in Winer v. Mohammad:

This action arises out of alleged defamatory statements that Defendant Umaymah Mohammad, a student at the Emory University School of Medicine, made about Plaintiff Joshua Winer, a physician and professor at Emory….

Mohammad wrote about Winer that, among other things,

one of the professors of medicine we have at Emory [apparently referring to Winer -EV] recently went to serve as a volunteer medic in the Israeli Offense Force [sic] and recently came back. This man participated in aiding and abetting a genocide, in aiding and abetting the destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza and the murder of over 400 healthcare workers, and is now back at Emory so-called teaching medical students and residents how to take care of patients.

She and CAIR Georgia and CAIR Foundation, plaintiff alleged, used this and similar statements to "call[] for Emory to investigate him and/or terminate his employment."

Plaintiff sued for defamation; see this post for more details on that claim, which the court allowed to go forward in part. But the court also allowed plaintiff's federal civil rights conspiracy claim to go forward, as to the claim that defendants conspired to violate his rights under Title VI:

To state a claim under § 1985(3), a plaintiff must establish that the defendant has

(1) conspired … (2) for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws, (3) taken or caused an action to be taken in furtherance of the conspiracy's object, and (4) injured an individual's person or property or deprived her of exercising any right or privilege of a United States citizen….

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Separation of Powers

Prosecution of Congresswoman for Assaulting and Impeding Federal Officials at ICE Delaney Hall Detention Facility Can Continue

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Some excerpts from the long opinion in U.S. v. McIver, written by Third Circuit Judge Cindy Chung and joined by Judges Stephanos Bibas:

Congresswoman McIver represents New Jersey's 10th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives and serves on the Committee on Homeland Security. On May 9, 2025, Congresswoman McIver and two other Representatives conducted an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility, pursuant to statutory authority…. Upon arrival, Congresswoman McIver and the other Representatives entered through the security gate into the secured exterior area of the facility. They proceeded inside Delaney Hall and waited for over an hour in the facility's administrative office.

During that time, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and his security detail arrived at Delaney Hall and they were allowed through the security gate into the secure exterior premises of the facility. Meanwhile, dozens of protestors and media members had amassed outside the security gate.

{We draw these facts from the Indictment, from evidence in the record, and as set forth by the District Court in its opinions. We accept as true the facts alleged in the Indictment for purposes of considering a motion to dismiss. Neither party challenges the facts as set forth by the District Court.}

The Homeland Security Investigations ("HSI") Special Agent in Charge in New Jersey (referred to in the Indictment and by the District Court as "Victim-1" or "V-1") approached the Mayor inside the security gate and advised him that he was not allowed on the premises, ordered him to leave, and told him he would be arrested if he did not comply. At that time, Congresswoman McIver and the two other Representatives left the administrative office and walked toward the security gate, where the Mayor was speaking with Victim-1. Victim-1 directed the Mayor and his security detail outside of the Security Gate to the unsecured area outside the facility, and Congresswoman McIver and the two Representatives began to walk back towards the administrative office.

Moments later, Victim-1 informed a group of federal agents that the United States Deputy Attorney General had authorized the Mayor's arrest, and the agents exited the secured premises and approached the Mayor and his security detail. Upon observing this, the Congressional delegation also proceeded into the unsecured area. An unidentified member of the crowd yelled, "circle the Mayor," and some protesters, as well as Congresswoman McIver and the two Representatives, encircled the Mayor as Victim-1 and the other agents pushed their way through the crowd to apprehend him.

Video surveillance shows Congresswoman McIver placing herself between the Mayor and Victim-1. The Indictment states that Congresswoman McIver then "slammed her forearm into the body of V-1" and "reached out and tried to restrain V-1 by forcibly grabbing him."

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Free Speech

Court Upholds N.Y. Law Mandating Platforms Post Terms of Service and Report How Content Moderation Policies Have Been Enforced

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From Judge John Cronan (S.D.N.Y.) today in X Corp. v. James:

Businesses might not always want to share every detail about the products or services they offer. But when the government requires those businesses to speak truthfully about their offerings, the First Amendment typically allows for that kind of disclosure requirement. "Such disclosure furthers, rather than hinders, the First Amendment goal of the discovery of truth and contributes to the efficiency of the 'marketplace of ideas.'"

That principle resolves this case. The State of New York requires social-media companies to disclose certain aspects of their content-moderation policies. X Corp. wants to share less of its policies than New York requires, so it invokes the First Amendment to avoid New York's requirement. But the First Amendment poses no obstacle to New York's law. Here, more speech—like sunlight—is "the best of disinfectants." …

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