Evergreen Review, Inc. v. Cahn

• Decision Date: 11 June 1964
• Docket Number: No. 64-C-441.,64-C-441.
• Citation: 230 F. Supp. 498
• Parties: EVERGREEN REVIEW, INC., Plaintiff, v. William CAHN, District Attorney, County of Nassau, State of New York, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

230 F. Supp. 498

EVERGREEN REVIEW, INC., Plaintiff, v. William CAHN, District Attorney, County of Nassau, State of New York, Defendant.

No. 64-C-441.

United States District Court E. D. New York.

June 11, 1964.

Rembar & Zolotar, New York City, for plaintiff; Charles Rembar, New York City, of counsel.

Jack B. Weinstein, County Atty., County of Nassau, for defendant; Stephen W. Schlissel, Deputy County Atty., William D. Siegel, Asst. County Atty., Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., of the State of New York, Philip Kahaner, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel, for defendant.

Before HAYS, Circuit Judge, and ROSLING and BARTELS, District Judges.

PER CURIAM.

The complaint in this action, brought under the Federal Civil Rights Law (42 U.S.C. § 1983), attacks as unconstitutional the seizure by the District Attorney of Nassau County under Sections 1141 and 1144 of the New York State Penal Law, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 40, of approximately 21,000 copies of the magazine "Evergreen Review" claimed to be obscene and pornographic. It seeks injunctive relief, damages and a declaratory judgment of unconstitutionality, and states that the action is to be tried and determined by a three-judge court pursuant to Sections 2281 and 2284, 28 U.S.C. Upon plaintiff's application the District Judge ordered defendant to show cause why he should not be directed to return the seized copies of plaintiff's magazine and be enjoined during the pendency of this action from interfering with the manufacture, distribution or sale thereof, and pending the determination of this application, temporarily restrained defendant from disposing of the copies of the magazine. During the argument before the three-judge court defendant filed a comprehensive motion to dismiss the complaint, dissolve the three-judge court and stay the proceedings until the outcome of certain criminal actions now pending in the State courts. The Attorney General of the State of New York also appeared and joined in defendant's motion. Subsequently, the defendant and the Attorney General filed briefs in support of this motion, which were duly considered.

Facts

On April 24, 1964, Albert C. Anderson, a detective in the Nassau County Police Department assigned to the District Attorney's Squad, submitted an affidavit¹ to a Nassau County Judge predicated upon information furnished him by "a confidential informant" employed on the premises of Corydon M. Johnson Co. Inc., where the magazine "Evergreen Review" was being bound, to the effect that she had informed Anderson that while working in the bindery she observed black and white photographs in the magazine "Evergreen Review" "which showed nude human forms, possibly male and female, but reputed by fellow workers to be two females, and that the forms portrayed various poses and positions indicating sexual relations", and that the printed material accompanying the photographs consisted of four lettered obscene language. "Based upon the foregoing reliable information", Anderson concludes, "there is probable cause to believe that obscene, indecent and pornographic magazines" are being used or possessed with intent to be used for the purpose of committing a crime in violation of Section 1141 of the Penal Law. Upon this affidavit the County Judge issued a warrant pursuant to Section 1144 of the Penal Law² that there was "probable cause for believing that certain property has been used or is possessed with intent to be used as the means of committing a crime, to wit: Violation of Section 1141 of the Penal Law of the State of New York", authorizing a search of the bindery and a seizure of such property which "may have been delivered for indecent, obscene and pornographic magazines using the name `Evergreen'" and to bring such property before the court. Pursuant thereto, seizure of approximately 21,000 copies of the magazine was made on the same day by three County detectives. According to the affidavit of the managing editor, said 21,000 copies together with 4,000 copies previously mailed to subscribers, comprised the entire print run of the April-May 1964 issue.

After the seizure and the initiation of this action, Anderson in a subsequent affidavit, sworn to May 16, 1964 and filed in support of the defendant's motion, stated that after reading his affidavit the County Judge questioned him "with respect to the source and nature of my information" and then decided the affidavit was sufficient for a search warrant. He further explains therein how the seizure occurred and states that on April 24th he proceeded to the bindery with two other detectives and a search warrant and then seized two copies of the magazine and returned to the District Attorney's office with said copies but leaving the other detectives on the premises of the bindery. He adds that the District Attorney then read the magazine³ and ordered Anderson to draw up an information alleging violation of Section 1141 of the Penal Law and to present the same to a District Judge; that upon such presentation the same Nassau County Judge on the same day read the magazine and decided that it was pornographic and thereupon authorized the information against the plaintiff, its officers, Barney Rosset and Richard Seaver, and against Pegasus Press, Inc., the company printing the magazine, and its president, George Haralampoudis, and that warrants of arrest (not of seizure) were then issued by another judge against the alleged offenders. Upon execution of the arrest warrants, copies of the magazine were loaded upon vehicles and delivered to the Property Clerk of the Police Department. Anderson's affidavit of April 28th, filed before this action, states that upon execution of the April 24th warrant "Approximately Twenty One Thousand (21,000) bound and unbound copies of magazines known by the name `EVERGREEN'" were seized "under and pursuant to the warrant". Criminal actions are now pending in the District Court of Nassau County against George Haralampoudis and Pegasus Press, Inc.

In support of the defendant's motion to dismiss and for other relief, Henry P. Devine, Chief of the Law and Appeals Department of the Nassau County District Attorney's office, filed an affidavit, sworn to May 15, 1964, stating that he had read Anderson's affidavit of May 15th and that "The procedure he Anderson describes was the procedure used by the District Attorney's office of the County of Nassau in this case" and "conforms, generally, to the practice of the District Attorney's office when complaints are received by the members of the District Attorney's staff, or by members of the Police Department where notice is given to the District Attorney's office".

The issues before this Court are (1) whether plaintiff's demand for an injunction to restrain the enforcement by the defendant of Sections 1141 and 1144 of the New York Penal Law by seizure of 21,000 copies of plaintiff's magazine, falls within the jurisdiction of a three-judge court as provided by Section 2281 of Title 28 of the United States Code and (2) if so, whether such application of said sections based upon a judge's warrant prior to the determination of the issue of obscenity, violates plaintiff's constitutional rights under the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

I

The threshold question to be decided is whether the three-judge court was properly invoked. Since Section 2281 procedure dislocates the normal operations of the Federal courts, the statute must be strictly construed according to its terms. It is not to be invoked to restrain the lawless exercise of authority by a state official in a unique or particular case, Phillips v. United States, 1941, 312 U.S. 246, 61 S.Ct. 480, 85 L.Ed. 800; Penagaricano v. Allen Corporation, 1 Cir. 1959, 267 F.2d 550; nor when the controversy involves merely the construction of a state law, see Kesler v. Department of Public Safety, etc., 1962, 369 U.S. 153, 82 S.Ct. 807, 7 L.Ed.2d 641; nor when the constitutional question is no longer open, Bailey v. Patterson, 1962, 369 U.S. 31, 82 S.Ct. 549, 7 L.Ed.2d 512. As remarked in Ex parte Bransford, 1940, 310 U.S. 354, 60 S.Ct. 947, 84 L.Ed. 1249, it is necessary to distinguish between a petition which seeks an injunction on the ground of unconstitutionality of the result obtained by use of a statute not attacked as unconstitutional and a petition for an injunction on the ground of unconstitutionality of a statute as applied. Only the latter requires a three-judge court. Accordingly, if the complaint alleges a basis for equitable relief based upon unconstitutionality of a statute as applied, a single judge may not grant or withhold relief but must invoke the statutory court. Idlewild Bon Voyage Liquor Corp. v. Epstein, 1962, 370 U.S. 713, 82 S.Ct. 1294, 8 L.Ed.2d 794. These criteria have certainly been satisfied here and the three-judge court was properly invoked.

II

In the interest of clarity, it should be stated that the plaintiff does not, in effect, assail the legislation insofar as it outlaws obscene and pornographic material and this issue is really not before this Court. In fact, the statute on its face is not unconstitutional. The attack in this case is against the power of New York State to adopt a scheme of enforcing the prohibitions of Section 1141 by the methods set forth in Section 1144 as applied by the District Attorney.

The protection of freedom of press and speech provided by the First Amendment has by many classic decisions of the Supreme Court been made applicable to the States by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Near v. State of Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 1931, 283 U.S. 697, 51 S.Ct. 625, 75 L.Ed. 1357; Smith v. People of State of California, 1959, 361 U.S. 147, 80 S. Ct. 215, 4 L.Ed.2d 205, rehearing denied, 1960, 361 U.S. 950, 80 S.Ct. 399, 4 L.Ed. 2d 383. In a similar manner the search and seizure prohibition of the Fourth Amendment has been applied to the States. Mapp v. Ohio, 1961, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684...