Amnesty Intern., Usa v. Battle

• Decision Date: 23 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-12442.,07-12442.
• Citation: 559 F.3d 1170
• Parties: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, USA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Louis BATTLE, Thomas Cannon, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

559 F.3d 1170

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, USA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Louis BATTLE, Thomas Cannon, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 07-12442.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

February 23, 2009.

Louis M. Jepeway, Jr., Jepeway and Jepeway, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

John A. Greco, Henry Joseph Hunnefeld, Craig Edward Leen, Miami, FL, Osnat

K. Rind, Cohen & Rind, Hialeah, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before HULL, MARCUS and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

Amnesty International ("Amnesty") appeals the dismissal of its complaint against police officers Louis Battle and Thomas Cannon brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and alleging violations of its First Amendment rights during a protest rally. The district court found that Battle and Cannon were entitled to qualified immunity. We hold that Amnesty's complaint properly states a valid claim alleging a violation of its First Amendment rights including its right to be heard and to distribute pamphlets without unreasonable police interference and therefore reverse the district court's dismissal of Amnesty's complaint.

I. BACKGROUND

The complaint alleges the following facts:

On November 20, 2003, Amnesty planned to hold a demonstration and rally near, and in protest against, a meeting of the Free Trade Association of the Americas in Miami.¹ Amnesty obtained a permit from the City of Miami Police Department to conduct this demonstration on that date at the Torch of Friendship, a monument with a surrounding plaza within Bayfront Park in Miami.

Anticipating that a large number of people would assemble in downtown Miami to protest the Free Trade Association meeting, the City of Miami Police Department formulated a security plan to handle the demonstrations and enlisted the help of police entities from other jurisdictions, including the Miami-Dade County Police Department. Defendants Battle and Cannon were officers supervising subordinate police officers in the downtown area of Miami on November 20, 2003. Battle worked for the Miami-Dade Police Department and Cannon worked for the City of Miami Police Department.

Just after 10:00 am, Amnesty had gathered ten to twelve people in the Torch of Friendship area, most of whom were speakers and Amnesty members, and attempted to begin its demonstration. At around the same time, Defendants directed their subordinate officers to create a police cordon 50 to 75 yards from the Torch of Friendship and to allow no one to enter the area. "People in the area," as stated in the complaint, attempted to attend the demonstration but the cordon prevented them from doing so. They also could not hear or see the people speaking at Amnesty's demonstration because the police cordon kept them at too great a distance. Amnesty members attempted to pass through the cordon to hand out Amnesty literature to the crowd beyond the cordon, invite people to attend their demonstration, and obtain media coverage for their rally, but the police cordon kept the Amnesty members inside the Torch of Friendship and prevented them from doing any of these above activities.

Specifically, the complaint alleges:

[t]he Defendants knew of Amnesty's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, knew that these rights were clearly established, knew of Amnesty's permit, and knew that their actions would destroy these rights ... As the direct and proximate result of the illegal and unconstitutional acts of the Defendants .. . Amnesty's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were destroyed, it was unable to have its message heard, people were unable to attend its rally/demonstration, people were unable to hear its speakers, it was unable to invite people to attend the rally/demonstration, it was unable to distribute literature to the people, it was unable to obtain media coverage of its rally/demonstration, it was unable to distribute literature to representatives of the media and it was unable to speak to representatives of the media.

Amnesty requested compensatory and punitive damages, a declaratory judgment that Defendant's actions violated Amnesty's First and Fourteenth² Amendment rights, and attorney's fees and costs.

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, asserting qualified immunity and arguing that Amnesty lacked standing. The district court granted the motion, finding that the allegations were not detailed enough to satisfy the heightened pleading standard for § 1983 actions, especially in light of the failure to identify a specific individual who was prevented from joining the rally or a specific media reporter that was unable to cover the protest.

The district court also found that, even assuming that the allegations were sufficiently pleaded, Amnesty had "failed to establish that its purported rights were clearly established" and thus failed to overcome Defendants' qualified immunity from suit. The court distinguished the two main cases cited by Amnesty to support its asserted right to protest peacefully, Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229, 83 S.Ct. 680, 9 L.Ed.2d 697 (1963) and Jones v. Parmley, 465 F.3d 46 (2d Cir.2006), by noting that both cases involved the arrest of protestors. Because no member of Amnesty was arrested, the court concluded that those cases could not clearly establish a violation of Amnesty's First Amendment rights. The court stated "Amnesty has failed to show that any reasonable official in Defendants' position would have known that ordering the formation of a cordon of police officers near the sight of a permitted demonstration was a violation of the demonstrating organization's First Amendment rights." Having found that Amnesty failed to overcome Defendants' qualified immunity, the district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. The district court did not address standing. Amnesty timely appealed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We analyze standing de novo. Florida Ass'n of Med. Equip. Dealers, Med-Health Care v. Apfel, 194 F.3d 1227, 1229 (11th Cir.1999).

We also review de novo an order granting a motion to dismiss, Doe v. Pryor, 344 F.3d 1282, 1284 (11th Cir.2003), and "accept all well-pleaded factual allegations as true and construe the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Cottone v. Jenne, 326 F.3d 1352, 1357 (11th Cir.2003).

III. DISCUSSION

Standing

The district court erred in addressing the merits of Amnesty's claim and Defendants' qualified immunity without first assuring itself that Amnesty had standing to bring this suit. "A federal court not only has the power but also the obligation at any time to inquire into jurisdiction whenever the possibility that jurisdiction does not exist arises." Johansen v Combustion Eng'g, Inc., 170 F.3d 1320, 1328 n. 4 (11th Cir.1999). "Standing is a threshold jurisdictional question which must be addressed prior to and independent of the merits of a party's claims." Bochese v. Town of Ponce Inlet, 405 F.3d 964, 974 (11th Cir.2005). The standing inquiry "is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III" of the United States Constitution. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). To have standing, a plaintiff must establish (1) an injury in fact, which is concrete and particularized and actual or imminent; (2) a causal connection between the injury and the causal conduct; and (3) a substantial likelihood that a favorable decision will redress the injury. Granite State Outdoor Adver. v. City of Clearwater, Fla., 351 F.3d 1112, 1116 (11th Cir.2003) (citing Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 167, 117 S.Ct. 1154, 137 L.Ed.2d 281 (1997)).

The party invoking federal jurisdiction — in this case, Amnesty — bears the burden of establishing standing. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Each element of standing must be supported in the same manner as any other matter on which the plaintiff bears the burden of proof. Tanner Adver. Group LLC v. Fayette County, Ga., 451 F.3d 777, 791 (11th Cir.2006). "At the pleading stage, general factual allegations of injury resulting from the defendant's conduct may suffice, for on a motion to dismiss we presume that general allegations embrace those specific facts that are necessary to support the claim." Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130.

Other than the asserted violations of First Amendment rights, Amnesty has alleged no injury-in-fact to either itself or its members. Amnesty's complaint does not describe any injury flowing from the constitutional violations. Amnesty appears to argue on appeal that this court should infer an injury to Amnesty's ability to pressure countries to release political prisoners from Amnesty's inability to have a successful protest rally on November 20, 2003, but this injury is not set forth in the complaint. The complaint provides the mission statement of the organization and discusses the alleged violation of constitutional rights, but fails to describe a link explaining how the violations caused any injury. "It is not enough that the plaintiff's complaint sets forth facts from which we could imagine an injury sufficient to satisfy Article III's standing requirements, since we should not speculate concerning the existence of standing, nor should we imagine or piece together an injury sufficient to give plaintiff standing when it has demonstrated none." Bochese, 405 F.3d at 976 (internal quotation and alteration omitted). Because Amnesty failed to allege an injury-in-fact, it lacks standing to bring a § 1983 claim for compensatory damages.

Section 1983, however, allows for the recovery of nominal damages where the plaintiff's constitutional rights were violated but the violation did not result in any injury giving rise to compensatory damages. Slicker v. Jackson, 215 F.3d 1225, 1227 (11th Cir.2000); see also Al-Amin v. Smith, 511 F.3d 1317, 1335 (11th Cir.2008) ("Our precedent ......