Bell v. City of Boise
| Decision Date | 27 January 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 1:09–cv–00540–REB. |
| Citation | 993 F.Supp.2d 1237 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Idaho |
| Parties | Janet F. BELL, Brian S. Carson, Robert Martin, Lawrence Lee Smith, Robert Anderson, Pamela S. Hawkes, James M. Godfrey, and Basil E. Humphrey, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF BOISE; Boise Police Department; and Michael Masterson, in his official capacity as Chief of Police, Defendants. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Aziz Ahmad, Rebecca Valentine, Marguerite Sullivan, Latham & Watkins LLP, Eric S. Tars, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Washington, DC, Howard A. Belodoff, Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc., Boise, ID, for Plaintiffs.
Brady James Hall, Michael W. Moore, Moore & Elia, LLP, Scott B. Muir, Boise City Attorney's Office, Kelley K. Fleming, City of Boise, Boise, ID, for Defendants.
Currently pending before the Court is Defendants' Second Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 141). The Court has carefully reviewed the record, considered oral arguments, and now enters the following Order granting, in part, and denying, in part, Defendants' Motion.
The Plaintiffs are individuals who either are or were homeless in Boise and they allege that Defendants (Boise City and its Police Department) have criminalized the status of being homeless by the manner in which Defendants enforce Boise City ordinances 1 prohibiting (as a practical matter) camping and sleeping in public. Defendants now seek summary judgment on Plaintiffs' claim that Defendants' enforcementactions violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
In ruling on Defendants' previous summary judgment motion, the Court dismissed Plaintiffs' claims on jurisdictional and mootness grounds. Order (Dkt. 115). On Plaintiffs' appeal from that decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed this Court's decision as to whether this federal court has jurisdiction to consider the claims, but did “not reach the merits of Plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment challenges” on appeal. Bell v. City of Boise, 709 F.3d 890, 892–96 (9th Cir.2013).
This Court on remand also does not reach the underlying merits of Plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claims. Those claims are largely barred by the so-called “favorable-termination” requirement of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). In Heck, the United States Supreme Court held that, “in order to recover damages for [an] allegedly unconstitutional conviction or imprisonment, or for other harm caused by actions whose unlawfulness would render a conviction or sentence invalid, a ... plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence has been reversed on direct appeal, expunged by executive order, declared invalid by a state tribunal authorized to make such determination, or called into question by a federal court's issuance of a writ of habeas corpus.” Id. at 486–87, 114 S.Ct. 2364.
Plaintiffs could have raised their argument of Eighth Amendment unconstitutionality as a defense to their criminal prosecutions and on direct appeal. A decision in their favor on such claims in this case would necessarily imply the invalidity of their prior convictions or sentences. As a consequence, such claims cannot be prosecuted in this case under the holding in Heck. Accordingly, the Court will dismiss all claims for relief that seek expungement from Plaintiffs' records of any camping and sleeping ordinance violations, reimbursement for any fines or incarceration costs, recovery of damages for the alleged civil rights violations, and any other claim or recovery that seeks relief for events that have already occurred and necessarily would imply the invalidity of Plaintiffs' convictions.
The dismissal does not, however, extend to Plaintiffs' request for a declaratory judgment under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202. That claim seeks prospective relief— i.e., a declaration stating that Defendants' present and threatened future actions in enforcing the Ordinances violate Plaintiffs' rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and the Idaho Constitution (Article I, § 6).2 Further, this claim is not precluded by the doctrine of res judicata, and it remains to be determined on the merits. The Court will require, however, that Plaintiffs file an Amended Complaint stating this claim more particularly and omitting any dismissed claims for relief.3
In this lawsuit, Plaintiffs claim that Defendants enforce Boise City ordinances 5 (the “Ordinances”) regarding camping and sleeping in public against the homeless in Boise in a manner that violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against status crimes. Plaintiffs are individuals who either are or were homeless in Boise. Each has been cited and convicted under Boise City's Camping Ordinance, or its Sleeping Ordinance, or both. 6 Defendants are the City of Boise, the Boise City Police Department, and Boise City Police Chief Michael Masterson.
Plaintiffs contend that the Defendants' policy, custom, and practice of issuing citations, arresting, and “harassing” homeless individuals, including Plaintiffs, under the Ordinances has the effect of criminalizing homelessness. Id. at ¶ 35. They seek declaratory, injunctive, and monetary damages relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201–02. More specifically, Plaintiffs ask for: (1) an order enjoining Defendants from enforcing the Ordinances against people sleeping or lying down in public; (2) an order compelling the City of Boise to expunge the criminal records of any homeless individuals cited or arrested and charged under the Ordinances; (3) an order requiring reimbursement of any fines paid or incarceration costs imposed upon homeless individuals for violation of the Ordinances; (4) and declaratory relief. See Amd. Compl., p. 25 (Dkt. 53).
Defendants previously moved for summary judgment on all claims raised by Plaintiffs in their Amended Complaint (Dkt. 53). The Court entered a Memorandum Decision and Order which held that the Rooker—Feldman doctrine 7 precluded subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' claims for retrospective relief and that Plaintiffs' claims for prospective injunctive and declaratory relief were largely moot because of changes in the Ordinances and the City's enforcement of the same stemming from an amendment made to one of the Ordinances, and an internal policy issued by the Chief of Police regarding the enforcement of both Ordinances. Order (Dkt. 115).
On Plaintiffs' appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims for retrospective relief “because those claims are not barred by the Rooker—Feldman doctrine” and reversed the dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims for prospective relief “because those claims have not been mooted by Defendants' voluntary conduct.” Bell v. City of Boise, 709 F.3d 890, 892 (9th Cir.2013). The Ninth Circuit did “not reach the merits of Plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment challenges” on appeal, but did rule that jurisdiction exists as to those claims.8Id. at 896. In a footnote, however, the Ninth Circuit made specific reference to Heck v. Humphrey's “favorable-termination” requirement and raised the question as to whether the holding in Heck bars Plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claims. Bell, 709 F.3d at 897 n. 11 (). Following the remand, Defendants filed their second motion for summary judgment, at issue now, arguing twofold that the holding in Heck and claim preclusion principles bar Plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claims.
Plaintiffs allege that “Defendants are punishing Plaintiffs and other homeless individuals based on their status as homeless person[s]” and that doing so “constitute[s] cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Plaintiffs' well established rights under the Eighth Amendment.” Amd. Compl., ¶¶ 57–58 (Dkt. 53). In response to Defendants' first summary judgment motion, Plaintiffs similarly argued that “it is unconstitutional to criminalize involuntary acts that are an unavoidable consequence of being homeless, i.e., acts that [a homeless person] is powerless [to] avoid.” Pls.' Resp., p. 1 (Dkt. 85) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In making such arguments, Plaintiffs largely rely on the case of Jones v. City of Los Angeles, 444 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir.2006), vacated by505 F.3d 1006 (9th Cir.2007).9
In Jones, a panel decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals focused upon a discrete Eighth Amendment claim, i.e., whether the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause limits not just the ways in which a state can punish criminal behavior, but also “what” behavior or conduct a state can criminalize. Jones, 444 F.3d at 1128–29. The Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause “circumscribes the criminal process in three ways: First, it limits the kinds of punishment that can be imposed on those convicted of crimes ...; second, it proscribes punishment grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime ...; and third, it imposes substantive limits on what can be made criminal and punished as such....” Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 667–68, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977). The third limitation, however—and the one at issue...
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...at hand.The Department of Justice has adopted this interpretation. See Statement of Interest of the United States at 7–12, Bell v. City of Boise , 993 F.Supp.2d 1237 (D. Idaho 2014). And so have some courts. See, e.g. , Jones v. City of Los Angeles , 444 F.3d 1118, 1135–36 (9th Cir. 2006), ......
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