Paul v. Davis

Paul v. Davis
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 4, 1975 Decided March 23, 1976
Full case name	Paul, Chief of Police, Louisville, et al. v. Davis
Citations	424 U.S. 693 (more) 96 S. Ct. 1155; 47 L. Ed. 2d 405; 1976 U.S. LEXIS 112; 1 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1827
Case history
Prior	Davis v. Paul, 505 F.2d 1180 (6th Cir. 1974); cert. granted, 421 U.S. 909 (1975).
Subsequent	Rehearing denied, 425 U.S. 985 (1976); affirmed on remand, Davis v. Paul, 538 F.2d 328 (6th Cir. 1976).
Holding
Reputation alone is not a constitutionally protected interest.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Stewart, Blackmun, Powell
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall, White (in part)
Stevens took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV; 42 U.S.C. § 1983

Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (1976), is a United States Supreme Court case in which a sharply divided Court held that the plaintiff, whom the local police chief had named an "active shoplifter," suffered no deprivation of liberty resulting from injury to his reputation.^[1] In the case, the court broke from precedents and restricted the definition of the constitutional right to privacy "to matters relating to 'marriage procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education".