Watch Tower Bible & Tract Soc. v. City of Bristol

• Decision Date: 22 July 1938
• Docket Number: No. 2700.,2700.
• Citation: 24 F. Supp. 57
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOC. et al. v. CITY OF BRISTOL et al.

24 F. Supp. 57

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOC. et al. v. CITY OF BRISTOL et al.^*

No. 2700.

District Court, District Connecticut.

July 22, 1938.

Otto H. LaMacchia, of Bridgeport, Conn., and O. R. Moyle, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for complainants.

Dennis P. O'Connor, Deputy Atty. Gen., and Mink & Beach, of Bristol, Conn., for defendants.

Before MANTON, Circuit Judge, and THOMAS and HINCKS, District Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Complainants, members of a religious organization known as Jehovah's Witnesses, brought this suit seeking a temporary and now a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from enforcing § 6194 of the Laws of Connecticut (Revision of 1930), declaring that it is in conflict with the Federal Constitution. The statute provides:

"Breach of the peace. Intimidation. Libel.

Any person who shall disturb or break the peace by tumultuous and offensive carriage, noise or behavior, or by threatening, traducing, quarreling with, challenging, assaulting or striking another or shall disturb or break the peace, or provoke contention, by following or mocking any person, with abusive or indecent language, gestures or noise, or shall, by any writing, with intent to intimidate any person, threaten to commit any crime against him or his property or shall write or print and publicly exhibit or distribute, or shall publicly exhibit, post up or advertise, any offensive, indecent or abusive matter concerning any person, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned in jail not more than one year or both."

Complainants visited the countryside in and around the City of Bristol, Connecticut, preaching their religious doctrines, with the aid of publications which they left with the residents, and by phonographic records which they played in the households to which they gained admission. Some were arrested, prosecuted and convicted on charges of the violation of § 6194, a criminal offense, as persons who "shall write or print and publicly exhibit or distribute, or shall publicly exhibit, post up or advertise, any offensive, indecent or abusive matter concerning any person."

The relief sought is based upon the contention that the statute is in conflict with the Federal Constitution in denying freedom of speech, of the press and religious freedom guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment, U.S.C.A.Const. amend. 14. The offense aimed at by the statute, in substance, has been included in the Connecticut laws since 1865. See: ch. 86 of the Public Acts of 1865; Revision of 1868, title 12, ch. 6, §§ 120, 123; Revision of 1875, title 20, ch. 6, § 10; Revision of 1887, § 1509; Revision of 1902, § 1284; Revision of 1918, § 6343.

Unless the circumstances warrant equitable relief, this court is not concerned with whether or not the defendants, who were accused of breaches of the statute, have been improperly convicted. Nor is it concerned with a possible misconstruction or misapplication of the statute. A court convened pursuant to § 266 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C.A. § 380, has jurisdiction to consider suits in which an interlocutory judgment is sought to restrain, on constitutional grounds, the enforcement "of any statute of a State by restraining the action of any officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute, or in the enforcement or execution of an order made by an administrative board or commission acting under and pursuant to the statutes of such State."

But regard must be had in considering such an application under § 266 for the nature of the legislative action which is said to be unconstitutional and the function of the officers who the complainants ask to restrain.

The defendants herein are the City of Bristol, the Mayor, the Chief of Police and the Prosecuting Attorney for the city. They are local officers performing local functions in a matter of interest to the City of Bristol. They are, however, enforcing a state statute. In Spielman Motor Sales Co. v. Dodge, 295 U.S. 89, 55 S.Ct. 678, 79 L.Ed. 1322, a suit was brought to restrain the district attorney of New York from instituting a criminal action under the laws of the state of New York. The statute was challenged as repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, U.S.C.A.Const. amend. 14. The court pointed out that there were two questions: — First, whether the district attorney was an officer with a state wide function to perform within the meaning of § 266 of the Judicial Code, and second, whether the complaint stated a cause of action within the equitable jurisdiction of the district court. It was held that the district attorney was a local officer but performing a state function in behalf of the people of the state in compelling observance of its laws, and, in that respect, he was acting in a true sense as a state officer, and the statutory court had jurisdiction. But the court held there was no equitable jurisdiction and therefore dismissed the bill. But see Ex parte Public National Bank, 278 U.S. 101, 49 S.Ct. 43, 73 L.Ed. 202, where there was a suit to enjoin city officers from collecting taxes collected by a national bank, and it was held not to be within the jurisdiction conferred by § 266 because it was a purely local function. In the instant case this court, as so convened, has jurisdiction, since a matter of state interest is involved.

However, equity will ordinarily not interfere to prevent the enforcement of a criminal action even though unconstitutional. To justify interference there must be circumstances presented showing clearly that an injunction is necessary in order to afford adequate protection. Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197, 44 S.Ct. 15, 68 L.Ed. 255; Packard v. Banton, 264 U.S. 140, 143, 44 S.Ct. 257, 258, 68 L.Ed. 596. In the instant case, if the statute is misapplied or in conflict with the Federal Constitution, these questions can be raised in the...