Courthouse News Serv. v. Planet

• Decision Date: 07 April 2014
• Docket Number: No. 11–57187.,11–57187.
• Citation: 750 F.3d 776
• Parties: COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Michael D. PLANET, in his official capacity as Court Executive Officer/Clerk of the Ventura County Superior Court, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

750 F.3d 776

COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Michael D. PLANET, in his official capacity as Court Executive Officer/Clerk of the Ventura County Superior Court, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 11–57187.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued May 8, 2013.

Filed April 7, 2014.

Rachel Matteo–Boehm (argued), Roger Myers, David Greene, and Leila Knox, Bryan Cave LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Robert A. Naeve (argued), Erica L. Reilley, and Nathaniel P. Garrett, Jones Day, Irvine, CA, for Defendant–Appellee.

Lucy A. Dalglish, Gregg P. Leslie, and Kristen Rasmussen, Arlington, VA, for Amicus Curiae The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 2:11–cv–08083–R–MAN.

Before: JOHN T. NOONAN, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, and MARY H. MURGUIA, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge:

Courthouse News Service (“CNS”) is a national news organization that publishes daily reports for its subscribers about civil litigation, including the filing of new lawsuits. In courthouses around the country—large and small, state and federal—CNS reporters review civil complaints on the day they are filed. For many years, the Superior Court for the State of California for the County of Ventura (“Ventura County Superior Court”) provided CNS with prompt access to newly filed “unlimited' ” ¹ civil complaints. Now, in contrast with this prior practice, the Ventura County Superior Court withholds newly filed unlimited complaints from the public until they have been fully processed, which sometimes may take days or weeks.

CNS appeals the district court's order dismissing its complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against Michael Planet (“Planet”), the Executive Officer/Clerk of the Ventura County Superior Court. It alleges that the Ventura County Superior Court's failure to provide same-day access to newly filed unlimited civil complaints violates its right of access to public judicial proceedings under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court granted Planet's motion to abstain from hearing the case under Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941), and O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974), which permit the federal courts to decline to decide matters over which they have jurisdiction but which implicate sensitive state interests. This case presents an important First Amendment question, U.S. Const. amend. I, that should be decided by the federal courts, and CNS's requested relief would not excessively intrude on sensitive state functions. We conclude that the district court erred by abstaining and dismissing this action and, accordingly, reverse and remand.

I.

We treat the factual allegations in CNS's complaint as true for the purpose of reviewing the district court's decision to abstain.² In his motion to dismiss, Planet explicitly represented to the district court that it was “obligated to assume the truth of the complaint's allegations,” citing Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). This representation suggests that Planet's motion was a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and that we should take the well-pleaded facts in the complaint as true. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937;Alvarez v. Chevron Corp., 656 F.3d 925, 930–31 (9th Cir.2011).

Even if we were to view Planet's motion as a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1), it is a “facial” challenge to the federal court's exercise of jurisdiction, not a “factual” one. Safe Air for Everyone v. Meyer, 373 F.3d 1035, 1039 (9th Cir.2004).³ A factual challenge “rel[ies] on affidavits or any other evidence properly before the court” to contest the truth of the complaint's allegations. St. Clair v. City of Chico, 880 F.2d 199, 201 (9th Cir.1989); accord Savage v. Glendale Union High Sch., 343 F.3d 1036, 1039 n. 2 (9th Cir.2003). Planet's motion did not do so. It expressly treated the complaint's allegations as true. Nor did the district court make any findings of fact. Though Planet submitted evidence before the district court suggesting that it would be difficult for the Ventura County Superior Court to provide same-day access to newly filed complaints, he did so only in response to CNS's motion for a preliminary injunction. Planet's motion to dismiss is therefore a facial Rule 12(b)(1) motion, if it is a Rule 12(b)(1) motion at all. When reviewing the district court's grant of such a motion, we treat the factual allegations in the complaint as true. See Safe Air for Everyone, 373 F.3d at 1039.⁴

II.

CNS alleges that it is a news wire service that specializes in reporting on civil lawsuits. It has about three thousand individual and institutional subscribers nationwide, including law firms, university and law school libraries, and major media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. It publishes sixteen reports on new litigation in federal and state courts in California and enables subscribers to receive email alerts about new filings involving matters of interest to them. CNS maintains a website with news stories and commentary freely available to the general public.

To provide this extensive news coverage, CNS employs more than one hundred reporters who daily visit courthouses around the country to review recently filed civil complaints. In state and federal courthouses throughout California and across the United States, CNS is generally able to access civil complaints on the day they are filed. For instance, at the Los Angeles Division of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, reporters have a key to a room where complaints are placed in boxes for their review at the end of each day, before the complaints have been processed. At the San Jose Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a clerk prints out a list of all new complaints filed each day, and reporters go behind the counter to view and scan any complaints they deem noteworthy. At the San Francisco Division of the Northern District, reporters go behind the counter to review complaints filed each day even if the complaints have not yet been fully docketed. The U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of California also provide same-day access to new civil complaints.

In many California counties, the state Superior Court provides same-day access to newly filed unlimited complaints. At the Superior Court for Contra Costa County, located in Martinez, California, unlimited civil complaints are placed in a media bin at 4:00 p.m. daily, and reporters are permitted to review the complaints until 4:45 p.m. even though the court closes to the general public at 3:00 p.m. At the Santa Monica branch of the Superior Court for Los Angeles County, reporters can view the cover page of all newly filed complaints each afternoon and then request and receive the full text of any complaint of interest. At the Superior Court for Santa Clara County in San Jose, reporters may view all unlimited civil complaints filed by 3:30 pm each day before they have been fully processed. In Riverside County, the Clerk of the Superior Court enabled same-day access to unlimited civil complaints by shifting employees' schedules to begin and end work later in the day.

Busy courts in other states do the same. At the New York County Supreme Court, the court of general jurisdiction for Manhattan, court officials place paper copies of new complaints in a secure area behind the counter where reporters can view the complaints on the day of filing. At the state trial court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a CNS reporter is given a “review pile” of new complaints on the day they are filed, before they have been fully processed or made available on the internet.

CNS began regular coverage of new civil case filings at the Ventura County Superior Court in 2001, and the same reporter has been responsible for its coverage since then. The reporter initially visited the Ventura County Superior Court once or twice a week, and was able to review the large majority of the unlimited civil complaints that had been filed since her last visit. Beginning in early 2008, however, the clerk's office implemented “a series of small and large changes that made ... review of new civil complaints less timely and more difficult,” including, ultimately, a rule that limited the reporter to viewing twenty-five complaints each day. CNS and court staff worked out an informal arrangement that would allow CNS's reporter to access newly filed unlimited complaints before they were fully processed. The Ventura County Superior Court did not adhere to this arrangement, however, and court staff soon began withholding complaints until after they had been fully processed.

In November 2010, CNS began covering the Ventura County Superior Court on a daily basis. It again sought to work out an informal procedure to enable same-day access for its reporter, but it could not reach agreement with court staff. In June 2011, CNS's counsel wrote to Planet, explaining that the delays in access were “effectively denials of access” and requesting that complaints be made available on the day of filing before being fully processed. CNS's counsel noted that many other courts, in California and elsewhere, allowed reporters to access complaints before full processing was complete. Three weeks later, Planet denied this request. Citing “serious resource shortages as a result of budget reductions,” Planet explained that the Ventura County Superior Court could not “prioritize [same-day] access over other priorities and mandates.” He refused to make complaints available before they had...