Martin v. Burgess

── Martin v. Burgess ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Date: April 22, 2026 Category: Civil Rights Case: 24-20495 Document: 64-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 04/22/2026 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ____________ United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 24-20495 ____________ FILED April 22, 2026 Scott Martin, Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Plaintiff—Appellant, versus Marilyn Burgess, Harris County District Clerk, In her Official and Individual Capacities; Judge Genesis Draper, In her Official and Individual Capacities; Judge Shannon Baldwin, In her Official and Individual Capacities, Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. 4:23-CV-3228 ______________________________ Before Clement, Graves, and Ho, Circuit Judges. Edith Brown Clement, Circuit Judge: For decades, Plaintiff-Appellant Scott Martin has earned a living collecting criminal defendants’ contact information from the Harris County court system’s public records and distributing that information to private attorneys. The Harris County Criminal Courts at Law (“HCCCL”) issued an administrative order restricting from public access certain bail bond orders filed in misdemeanor cases. Martin challenged the constitutionality of the Case: 24-20495 Document: 64-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 04/22/2026 No. 24-20495 administrative order. The district court dismissed his complaint for failure to state a claim. We affirm. I Martin operates a company called Pronto Direct Mail Marketing, Inc., in Harris County, Texas. For decades, Martin has collected criminal defendants’ contact information and distributed it to private criminal defense attorneys. Martin has primarily relied on publicly available bail bond orders to obtain this information. His attorney clients depend on him to provide this information so they can engage potential clients and maintain a steady flow of business. Martin contends that his direct mail marketing business makes it easier for criminal defendants to secure competent private counsel, reduces the number of warrant arrests and the caseload of an already-overburdened public defender’s office, and drives down costs for criminal defendants by encouraging more competition among lawyers. On June 27, 2023, then-Presiding Judge Genesis Draper of the HCCCL issued an administrative order to the Harris County District Clerk, Marilyn Burgess. The administrative order requires the district clerk to “keep confidential the contents of any General Order Bond . . . or Personal Bond . . . filed in misdemeanor criminal cases assigned to the [HCCCL].” Only the “title, filing date, and page enumeration of the filed General Order Bond or Personal Bond is to remain viewable to the public.” Burgess complied with the administrative order and began restricting from public view the contents of the General Order Bonds and Personal Bonds filed in misdemeanor cases. As a result, the criminal defendants’ personal information—their street addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses—provided in the bond orders was now restricted from public view. Judge Shannon Baldwin later became the presiding judge of the HCCCL and