From yesterday's decision by Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. (S.D. W. Va.) in W. Va. Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Inc. v. Morrisey (some formatting changed); note that the court upheld some other provisions of the law, which I discuss in a separate post:
In March 2018, the West Virginia Legislature enacted House Bill 4817 [the Parking Lot Amendments], which amended the BLPA to prohibit property owners from banning firearms in the parking lot areas of their properties ….
The Parking Lot Amendments also prohibit owners, lessees, or persons "charged with the care, custody, and control" over parking lots from "violat[ing] the privacy rights of a customer, employee, or invitee … [b]y verbal or written inquiry, regarding the presence or absence of a firearm locked inside or locked to a motor vehicle in a parking lot[.]" The court will refer to this section as the "Inquiry Provision." …
Subsection 61-7-14(d)(2)(C) prohibits the same individuals from taking "any action against a customer, employee, or invitee based upon verbal or written statements of any party concerning possession of a firearm stored inside a motor vehicle in a parking lot for lawful purposes, except upon statements made pertaining to unlawful purposes or threats of unlawful actions involving a firearm made in violation of § 61-6-24 [pertaining to threats of terrorist acts] of this code." The court will refer to this subsection as the "Take-No-Action Provision."
The court held that the Inquiry Provision violated the First Amendment, and that the Take-No-Action provision was unconstitutionally vague in part because of the possibility that it would be read as restricting speech as a form of action. The opinion is very long, so I thought I'd excerpt just portions of the free speech discussion (which I think is generally correct):
