Virginia v. Kevin Lamont Hicks (539 U.S. 113)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 16, 2003 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 539 U.S. 113 · 123 S. Ct. 2191
- Decided
- June 16, 2003
- Term
- October Term 2002
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue presented in this case is whether the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s trespass policy is facially invalid under the First Amendment’s overbreadth doctrine. H-l The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) owns and operates a housing development for low-income residents called Whitcomb Court. Until June 23, 1997, the city of Richmond owned the streets within Whit-comb Court. The city council decided, however, to “privatize” these streets in an effort to combat rampant crime and drug dealing in Whitcomb Court — much of it committed and conducted by nonresidents. The council enacted Ordinance No. 97-181-197, which provided, in part: “‘§1. That Carmine Street, Bethel Street, Ambrose Street, Deforrest Street, the 2100-2300 Block of Sussex Street and the 2700-2800 Block of Magnolia Street, in Whitcomb Court... be and are hereby closed to public use and travel and abandoned as streets of the City of Richmond.’ ” App. to Pet. for Cert. 93-94. The city then conveyed these streets by a recorded deed to the RRHA (which is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia). This deed required the RRHA to “ ‘give the appearance that the closed street, particularly at the entrances, are no longer public streets and that they are in fact private streets.’” Id., at 95. To this end, the RRHA posted…
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