Irvis v. Scott

Decision Date26 August 1970
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 69-107.
Citation318 F. Supp. 1246
PartiesK. Leroy IRVIS, Plaintiff, v. William Z. SCOTT, Chairman, Edwin Winner, Member, and George R. Bortz, Member, Liquor Control Board, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Moose Lodge No. 107, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

Harry J. Rubin, Liverant, Senft & Cohen, York, Pa., for plaintiff.

Thomas J. Shannon, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harrisburg, Pa., for defendant, Pennsylvania, Liquor Control Board.

Thomas D. Caldwell, Jr., Harrisburg, Pa., for Moose Lodge 107.

Robert E. Woodside, Woodside, Woodside & Zwally, Harrisburg, Pa., Clarence J. Ruddy, Aurora, Ill., amicus curiae.

Before FREEDMAN, Circuit Judge, SHERIDAN, Chief District Judge, and NEALON, District Judge.

OPINION

FREEDMAN, Circuit Judge.

The facts in this case are undisputed. They are drawn from the pleadings and stipulations of the parties.

Defendant Moose Lodge No. 107 is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Pennsylvania. It is a subordinate lodge chartered by The Supreme Lodge of the World, Loyal Order of Moose, a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Indiana, which we permitted to intervene and argue as amicus curiae. The local Lodge conducts all its activities in Harrisburg in a building which it owns. It has never been the recipient of public funds. It is the holder of a club liquor license issued by the defendant Liquor Control Board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pursuant to the provisions of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code, Act of April 12, 1951, P.L. 90, as amended.1

Under its charter from the Supreme Lodge the local Lodge is bound by the constitution and general by-laws of the Supreme Lodge.2 The Constitution of the Supreme Lodge provides: "The membership of the lodges shall be composed of male persons of the Caucasian or White race above the age of twenty-one years, and not married to someone of other than the Caucasian or White race, who are of good moral character, physically and mentally normal, who shall profess a belief in a Supreme Being. * * *"3 The lodges accordingly maintain a policy and practice of restricting membership to the Caucasian race and permitting members to bring only Caucasian guests on lodge premises, particularly to the dining room and bar.4

On Sunday, December 29, 1968, a Caucasian member in good standing brought plaintiff, a Negro, to the Lodge's dining room and bar as his guest and requested service of food and beverages. The Lodge through its employees refused service to plaintiff solely because he is a Negro.

Plaintiff complained of the refusal of service to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which upheld his complaint. The Commission held that the dining room was a "place of public accommodation," within the definition of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act of February 28, 1961, P.L. 47,5 and that the local Lodge had been guilty of discrimination against defendant. On appeal by the local Lodge the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County reversed the Commission and held that the dining room was not a place of public accommodation within the meaning of the Act.6

In the meanwhile plaintiff brought this action in the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and this three-judge court was constituted under 28 U.S.C. § 2281 to determine whether the issuance or renewal by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board under the Pennsylvania Liquor Code of a club liquor license to the local Lodge despite its discrimination against Negroes violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Racial discrimination is undisputed in this case. It was not only practiced against plaintiff by the local Lodge but is required by the constitution of the Supreme Lodge.

The question in the case, therefore, is focused on whether the admitted discrimination by the local Lodge in refusing to serve plaintiff a drink of liquor because of his race bore the attributes of state action and so falls within the prohibition of the Fourteenth Amendment against the denial by a state of the equal protection of the laws.

The boundaries which define what is state action are not always clear.7 This case presents a situation which is one of first impression. It comes to us surrounded by a mass of decisions which can serve as guides, although they do not authoritatively direct our conclusion.8

We believe the decisive factor is the uniqueness and the all-pervasiveness of the regulation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of the dispensing of liquor under licenses granted by the state. The regulation inherent in the grant of a state liquor license is so different in nature and extent from the ordinary licenses issued by the state that it is different in quality.

It had always been held in Pennsylvania, even prior to the Eighteenth Amendment, that the exercise of the power to grant licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquor was an exercise of the highest governmental power, one in which the state had the fullest freedom inhering in the police power of the sovereign.9 With the Eighteenth Amendment which went into effect in 1919 the right to deal in intoxicating liquor was extinguished. The era of Prohibition ended with the adoption in 1933 of the Twenty-first Amendment, which has left to each state the absolute power to prohibit the sale, possession or use of intoxicating liquor, and in general to deal otherwise with it as it sees fit.10

Pennsylvania has exercised this power with the fullest measure of state authority. Under the Pennsylvania plan the state monopolizes the sale of liquor through its so-called state stores, operated by the estate. Resale of liquor is permitted by hotels, restaurants and private clubs, which must obtain licenses from the Liquor Control Board, authorizing them "to purchase liquor from a Pennsylvania Liquor Store at a discount and keep on the premises such liquor and, subject to the provisions of this Act and the regulations made thereunder to sell the same and also malt or brewed beverages to guests, patrons or members for consumption on the hotel, restaurant or club premises."11

The issuance or refusal of a license to a club is in the discretion of the Liquor Control Board.12 In order to secure one of the limited number of licenses which are available in each municipality13 an applicant must comply with extensive requirements, which in general are applicable to commercial and club licenses equally. The applicant must make such physical alterations in his premises as the Board may require and, if a club, must file a list of the names and addresses of its members and employees, together with such other information as the Board may require.14 He must conform his overall financial arrangements to the statute's exacting requirements15 and keep extensive records.16 He may not permit "persons of ill repute" to frequent his premises17 nor allow thereon at any time any "lewd, immoral or improper entertainment."18 He must grant the Board and its agents the right to inspect the licensed premises at any time when patrons, guests or members are present.19 It is only on compliance with these and numerous other requirements and if the Board is satisfied that the applicant is "a person of good repute" and that the license will not be "detrimental to the welfare, health, peace and morals of the inhabitants of the neighborhood," that the license may issue.20

Once a license has been issued the licensee must comply with many detailed requirements or risk its suspension or revocation. He must in any event have it renewed periodically. Liquor licenses have been employed in Pennsylvania to regulate a wide variety of moral conduct, such as the presence and activities of homosexuals,21 performance by a topless dancer,22 lewd dancing,23 swearing,24 being noisy or disorderly.25 So broad is the state's power that the courts of Pennsylvania have upheld its restriction of freedom of expression of a licensee on the ground that in doing so it merely exercises its plenary power to attach conditions to the privilege of dispensing liquor which a licensee holds at the sufferance of the state.26

These are but some of the many reported illustrations of the use which the state has made of its unrestricted power to regulate and even to deny the right to sell, transport or possess intoxicating liquor. It would be difficult to find a more pervasive interaction of state authority with personal conduct. The holder of a liquor license from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania therefore is not like other licensees who conduct their enterprises at arms-length from the state, even though they may have been required to comply with certain conditions, such as zoning or building requirements, in order to obtain or continue to enjoy the license which authorizes them to engage in their business. The state's concern in such cases is minimal and once the conditions it has exacted are met the customary operations of the enterprise are free from further encroachment. Here by contrast beyond the act of licensing is the continuing and pervasive regulation of the licensees by the state to an unparalleled extent. The unique power which the state enjoys in this area, which has put it in the business of operating state liquor stores and in the role of licensing clubs, has been exercised in a manner which reaches intimately and deeply into the operation of the licensees.

In addition to this, the regulations of the Liquor Control Board adopted pursuant to the statute affirmatively require that "every club licensee shall adhere to all the provisions of its constitution and by-laws."27 As applied to the present case this regulation requires the local Lodge to adhere to the constitution of the Supreme Lodge28 and thus to exclude non-Caucasians from membership in its licensed club. The state therefore has been far from neutral. It has declared that the local Lodge must adhere to the discriminatory...

To continue reading

Request your trial
11 cases
  • Moose Lodge No 107 v. Irvis 8212 75
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 12, 1972
    ...of that regulation should be enjoined to the extent that it requires appellant to adhere to those practices. Pp. 177—179. Irvis v. Scott, D.C., 318 F.Supp. 1246, reversed and Frederick Bernays Wiener, Washington, D.C., for appellant. Harry J. Rubin, York, Pa., for appellees. Mr. Justice REH......
  • Braden v. University of Pittsburgh
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit
    • December 10, 1975
    ...closely was Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis, 407 U.S. 163, 92 S.Ct. 1965, 32 L.Ed.2d 627 (1972), in which the Court reversed Irvis v. Scott, 318 F.Supp. 1246 (M.D.Pa.1970) (three-judge court). 13 Irvis v. Scott, supra, had relied upon Burton in holding that the acts of racial discrimination of......
  • N.A.A.C.P. v. Federal Power Com'n
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit
    • February 5, 1975
    ...segregated private schools); Green v. Kennedy, 309 F.Supp. 1127 (D.D.C.1970) (preliminary injunction in same case); Irvis v. Scott, 318 F.Supp. 1246 (M.D.Pa.1970) (state liquor license of fraternal order that excluded Negroes held invalid), rev'd sub nom. Moose Lodge No. 407 v. Irvis, 407 U......
  • McGlotten v. Connally
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
    • January 11, 1972
    ...is gained at this stage by attaching a different label to the same inquiry depending on who is the defendant. 32 See Irvis v. Scott, 318 F.Supp. 1246 (M.D.Pa.1970), prob. juris. post. until merits, Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis, 401 U.S. 992, 91 S.Ct. 1236, 28 L.Ed.2d 529 (1971). 33 See Ethr......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT