42 627 Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General of United States 8212 534

• Decision Date: 27 December 1974
• Docket Number: No. A,A
• Citation: 42 L.Ed.2d 627,95 S.Ct. 425,419 U.S. 1314
• Parties: . 42 L.Ed.2d 627 SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY et al. v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF the UNITED STATES of America et al. —534
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

419 U.S. 1314

95 S.Ct. 425.

42 L.Ed.2d 627

SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY et al.

v ATTORNEY GENERAL OF the UNITED STATES of America et al.

No. A—534.

Dec. 27, 1974.

Mr. Justice MARSHALL, Circuit Justice.

This case is before me on an application to stay an order entered by a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, vacating in part an order of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The District Court had granted a preliminary injunction against the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others, barring Government agents and informants from attending or otherwise monitoring the national convention of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), to be held in St. Louis, Mo., between December 28, 1974, and January 1, 1975. Applicants also seek to have the injunction of the District Court reinstated in full.

Applicants, the Socialist Workers Party, the YSA—the party's youth organization—and several individuals, originally brought this action against various Government officials, seeking injunctive and monetary relief for alleged governmental interference in the political activities of the two organizations. In the course of preparing for trial on the merits, the applicants apparently learned that the FBI planned to monitor the YSA national convention and to use confidential informants to gain information about convention activities. They sought to enjoin the FBI, its agents, and its informants from 'attending, surveilling (sic) listening to, watching, or otherwise monitoring,' the convention. After several hearings, the District Court granted the injunction in the form requested by the plaintiffs. On an expedited appeal,¹ the Court of Appeals vacated the District Court's injunction in all respects except one: it barred the FBI from transmitting the names of persons attending the convention to the Civil Service Commission pending final determination of the action. For the reasons stated below, I have concluded that on the facts of this case, the extraordinary relief of a stay is not warranted.

I

The applicants argue that a stay is necessary to protect the First Amendment speech and association rights of those planning to attend the YSA convention. Surveillance and other forms of monitoring, they claim, will chill free participation and debate, and may even discourage some from attending the convention altogether. Beyond this, the applicants allege that the FBI has admitted that its agents or informants 'intend to participate in the convention debate posing as bona fide YSA members.'² This 'double agent' activity, the applicants claim, will result in 'corruption of the democratic process' and consequent irreparable harm to the applicants and others who would participate in the convention.

The applicants further assert that granting the relief requested here will not result in injury to the FBI. The fact that the FBI has a duty to keep itself informed concerning the possible commission of crimes, applicants say, does not justify its permitting informants and agents to participate in the convention, since the YSA has not been shown to have engaged in illegal activities. They further claim that the risk that FBI informants will become identifiable by their nonattendance at the convention is not sufficient to support the Court of Appeals' order. While the applicants' allegations evoke an unsavory picture of deceit and political sabotage, the facts as characterized by the Court of Appeals suggest a less sinister view of the Government's planned activities at the convention. The court noted that the convention would be open to anyone under the age of 29; that anyone could register; that even the 'delegated' sessions would be open to anyone registered at the convention; that the Government planned no electronic surveillance or disruptive activity; and that they only i nvestigative method would be the use of informants who would attend the meetings just as any member of the public would be permitted to do.

The Court of Appeals held that on the facts of this case, the chilling effect on attendance and participation at the convention was not sufficient to outweigh the serious prejudice to the Government of permanently compromising some or all of its informants. The 11th-hour grant or denial of injunctive relief would not be likely to have a significant effect on attendance at the convention, the Court stated, and since the convention is to be open to the public and the press, the use of informants to gather information would not appear to increase appreciably the 'chill' on free debate at the convention. In weighing the nature of the planned investigative activity, the justification for that activity, and the claimed First Amendment infringement in this case, the Court of Appeals determined that the balance of the equities tipped in favor of the Government and that a preliminary injunction was therefore improper.

II

This case presents a difficult threshold question—whether the applicants have raised a justiciable controversy under this Court's decision in Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 92 S.Ct. 2318, 33 L.Ed.2d 154 (1972). In Laird, the plaintiffs protested surveillnce activities by the Army that were in many ways similar to those planned by the FBI in this case. The Court held, however, that the plaintiffs' claim that the Army's surveillance activities had a general chilling effect on them was not sufficient to establish a case or controversy under Art. III of the Constitution.

The Government has contended that under Laird, a 'chilling effect' will not give rise to a justiciable controversy unless the...