WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a student in Georgia could pursue a lawsuit challenging speech restrictions at his college even though he sought only nominal damages. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority in the 8-to-1 decision, said a request for even a token sum, typically a dollar, satisfied the Constitution’s requirement that federal courts decide only actual cases or controversies in cases. The fact that the college had withdrawn the speech code challenged in the suit, he wrote, did not make the case moot. “Despite being small,” Justice Thomas wrote, “nominal damages are certainly concrete.”In a spirited dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the majority’s approach will have the effect of “turning judges into advice columnists.”“If nominal damages can preserve a live controversy,” he wrote, “then federal courts will be required to give advisory opinions whenever a plaintiff tacks on a request for a dollar.”

Source: New York Times March 08, 2021 19:52 UTC