Although the Ninth Circuit had found fault with the secret service agents for failing to provide a reason for treating the supporters and protesters differently, the Supreme Court found that no existing law would have alerted the secret service agents that they had an obligation under the First Amendment to give each group comparable locations at all times. The Court was persuaded there was a security motive for moving the protesters, who had been in weapons range with an unobstructed view of the President dining on the patio and there would have been no such rationale for moving the supporters. Ibid. No existing law required the secret service to interfere with the speech rights of supporters more than security concerns necessitated.
