The North Carolina Property Protection Act gives property owners a civil cause of action for certain torts committed in the nonpublic areas of their property. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 99A-2. It specifically bars employees from taking or recording information without authorization and using that information to breach their duty of loyalty to their employer. Id. § 99A-2(b)(1), (2). A divided panel of the Fourth Circuit held that these prohibitions violate the First Amendment when applied to employees who have a "newsgathering" aim.

The question presented is whether the First Amendment prohibits applying state tort law against double-agent employees who gather information, including by secretly recording, in the nonpublic areas of an employer's property and who use that information to breach their duty of loyalty to the employer.

Whether the First Amendment prohibits applying state tort law against double-agent employees who gather information, including by secretly recording, in the nonpublic areas of an employer's property and who use that information to breach their duty of loyalty to the employer