Clark v. Prichard

• Decision Date: 23 March 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-4505,86-4505
• Citation: 812 F.2d 991
• Parties: Barbara Ann CLARK, Individually and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated and Their Dependants, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Honorable R.I. PRICHARD, III, Officially and in His Capacity as Circuit Court Judge of the 15th Circuit District, Lamar County, MS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 991

812 F.2d 991

Barbara Ann CLARK, Individually and on Behalf of All Others

Similarly Situated and Their Dependants, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Honorable R.I. PRICHARD, III, Officially and in His Capacity

as Circuit Court Judge of the 15th Circuit

District, Lamar County, MS, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 86-4505.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 23, 1987.

Jeremy David Eisler, Martha Bergmark, Southeast Miss. Legal Services, Hattiesburg, Miss., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Robert L. Gibbs, Asst. Atty. Gen., Edwin L. Pittman, Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants and appellees.

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

Before GARWOOD, JOLLY and HILL, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

We confront the contention by Barbara Clark that her constitutional rights were violated by a condition of her probation that required her to stay off welfare by getting and keeping a job. Because we agree with the district court that Clark has failed to show a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of her claim, we affirm the district court's denial of her motion for a preliminary injunction.

I

A.

On June 14, 1984, the appellant, Barbara Clark, pleaded guilty in state court to a charge of aggravated assault. She was given a suspended ten-year prison sentence and five years probation. Before her plea and sentence, she expressed a desire for probation and a willingness to become gainfully employed. Clark said she would place her children with her mother during her period of probation. This representation, in an attempt to persuade the trial judge to award probation instead of confinement, was made voluntarily without coercion by the state court. Immediately before her sentencing, Clark arranged for her mother to assume custody of her six children. ¹ While they were in Clark's mother's care the children remained eligible for public assistance. The presiding state judge, Judge R.I. Prichard, took these arrangements, together with other factors ² into consideration at the sentencing hearing, and sentenced Clark to supervised probation. One of the conditions of probation was that Clark work to support her dependants.

Judge Prichard, in accordance with his custom of explaining to probationers each provision of their probation agreement, advised Clark that she was required to work, and to make the "maximum effort" to find employment in order to provide for herself and for her dependants. Judge Prichard denies that this statement reflects a policy that probationers could not apply for and receive public assistance; rather, he asserts that any probationer could apply to him for a modification of probation conditions, with each case reviewed according to its particular facts. He provided case examples in which other probationers sought and obtained permission to apply for public assistance benefits without a threat of revocation of probation. The judge's testimony was supported by other witnesses.

In December 1985, Clark reassumed custody of her children, and in January 1986 applied for Aid for Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits. She did not advise the court of her application for benefits nor that the children had returned to her custody. Upon learning of these developments, her probation officer, the defendant Bilbo, advised Clark of the possible consequences of acting without court approval, and Clark voluntarily stopped receiving the benefits.

At this point Clark filed this class action suit in federal district court against Judge Prichard, probation officer Bilbo, and prison commissioner Morris Thigpen, seeking to enjoin enforcement of the defendant's alleged policy of prohibiting probationers from applying for welfare benefits. She also sought to enjoin revocation of her probation.

B.

The district court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction, holding that Clark's chances of prevailing on the merits were not substantial because, as a factual matter, Clark had failed to convince the court of a policy of denying public benefits to probationers. Rather, the district court perceived the real issue to be whether it was constitutional to require a probationer to request a hearing for the modification of probation when the probationer suffers hardship after expressly agreeing to the condition. Relying on Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 103 S.Ct. 2064, 76 L.Ed.2d 221 (1983), the court concluded that the state's provision of a hearing for modification of the terms of probation satisfied constitutional requirements.

The district court ruled that Clark had failed to demonstrate irreparable injury because she had yet to request a hearing to obtain modification of her probation and there was no evidence that she would not be accorded a fair hearing. The district court also concluded, on the basis of the state court's record of handling similar cases, that Clark's probation would probably not be revoked. Finally, the district court held that the balance of harms and the public interest worked in favor of the state, which had a keen interest in enforcing its probation contracts. The district court therefore denied Clark's motion, and this appeal followed.

II

The prerequisites for granting injunctive relief were set out by this court in Canal Authority of the State of Florida v. Callaway, 489 F.2d 567 (5th Cir.1974), which held that such extraordinary relief would issue only where (1) there is a substantial likelihood that the movant will prevail on the merits; (2) there is a substantial threat that irreparable harm will result if the injunction is not granted; (3) the threatened injury outweighs the threatened harm to the defendant; and (4) the granting of the preliminary injunction will not disserve the public interest. Id. at 572-73. The party seeking such relief must satisfy a cumulative burden of proving each of the four elements enumerated before a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction can be granted. Mississippi Power and Light Co. v. United Gas Pipeline, 760 F.2d 618, 621 (5th Cir.1985).

Clark argues that the district court erred when it concluded that she had not shown a likelihood of prevailing on the merits. According to Clark, the conditions placed on her probation were illegal because: (1) they denied probationers due process; (2) they denied probationers and their children equal protection of the laws; and (3) they constituted unduly intrusive and constitutionally impermissible conditions of probation. Clark also argues that the district court was in clear error when it found that she had not shown that she would suffer irreparable injury if the injunction were not granted, and that granting the preliminary injunction would not be in the public interest. We consider Clark's arguments in turn.

III

Clark maintains that the defendants' policy ³ of requiring probationers to seek modification of the conditions of probation in order to receive public assistance violates the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. The district court, however concluded that under Bearden v. Georgia 461 U.S. 660, 103 S.Ct. 2064, 76 L.Ed.2d 221 (1983), the defendants' policy satisfied due process. We agree.

In Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 103 S.Ct. 2064, 76 L.Ed.2d 221, the Supreme Court held that the State of Georgia violated the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment ⁴ when it revoked the petitioner's probation for failure to pay a fine, without inquiring into the reasons for the failure to pay. Id. at 672, 103 S.Ct. at 2072. The Court further noted that if the probationer could not pay despite sufficient good faith efforts, the sentencing court would be obligated to consider alternative measures of punishment, other than imprisonment; indeed, the sentencing court would be justified in imposing imprisonment only if the alternatives were not adequate to meet the state's interest in punishment and deterrence. Id. at 672, 103 S.Ct. at 2072.

The district court found that Judge Prichard's requirement of a hearing for modification of the terms of probation did not violate Clark's constitutional rights under Bearden, but rather such a hearing served to protect against intrusion on those rights. The district court was correct. Unlike Bearden, this is a case where the sentencing court provides an opportunity for the probationer to seek modification of probation conditions, as opposed to automatic revocation of probation for failure to comply with a condition. The hearing provides the sentencing court the opportunity referred to in Bearden to consider whether the probationer should receive public assistance because she has been unable to find work despite good faith efforts to do so. We believe that such procedures safeguard Clark's due process rights. It is therefore apparent that Clark has not shown a likelihood of prevailing on her due process claim.

IV

Clark argues that the defendants' policy of denying, albeit subject to modification, public assistance to probationers violated the equal protection rights of probationers and their dependant children. ⁵ Clark's equal protection claims lack merit.

Whether a claim made under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment will be successful depends critically on the standard of review that is applied to the state action complained of by the plaintiff. Classifications created by state action which disadvantage a "suspect class" or impinge upon the exercise of a "fundamental right" are subject to strict scrutiny, and will be upheld only when they are precisely tailored to serve a compelling state interest. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 216-17, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 72 L.Ed.2d 786 (1982). Classifications that disadvantage certain other groups, such as women, are subject to an intermediate level of scrutiny, and will be upheld only when they are shown to further a substantial interest of the state. Id. at 217, 102 S.Ct. at 2394. Outside these categories, equal...