Free Speech Coal., Inc. v. Holder

• Decision Date: 18 July 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 09–4607.
• Citation: 957 F.Supp.2d 564
• Parties: FREE SPEECH COALITION, INC. et al., Plaintiffs, v. The Honorable Eric H. HOLDER, Jr., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

957 F.Supp.2d 564

FREE SPEECH COALITION, INC. et al., Plaintiffs,

v.The Honorable Eric H. HOLDER, Jr., Defendant.

Civil Action No. 09–4607.

United States District Court,

E.D. Pennsylvania.

July 18, 2013.

J. Michael Murray, Lorraine R. Baumgardner, Berkman, Gordon, Murray & Devan, Cleveland, OH, Kevin E. Raphael, J. Peter Shindel, Jr., Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiffs.

Hector G. Bladuell, Kathryn Wyer, James J. Schwartz, Nathan Michael Swinton, U.S. Dept of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM: FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

BAYLSON, District Judge.

The extent to which the adult porn industry utilizes young-looking performers is the central fact issue in the trial of this case. The attraction of males to younger women is not a new story. Mozart focused on this theme in several of his operas. In The Magic Flute, Papageno, the lonely bird-catcher, wonders how he is ever going to meet someone who will become his wife. When a woman dressed as an old hag expresses some interest in him, in a raspy, elderly voice, Papageno expresses revulsion; but when this woman later sheds her outer garments, revealing a very youthful and pretty soprano, they fall in love and prance off to the famous tunes of “Pap, Pap ... Pap, Pap ... Pap, Pap, Pap ...” Mozart used the same theme in Don Giovanni, where the nobleman seduces a naïve young lady, Zerlina, and in the Marriage of Figaro, where the Count is attracted to the young chamber-maid, Susannah. In literature, Faust was enamored of Margaret; Dante celebrated the youthful Francesca Da Rimini; and Hawthorne created Hester Prynne, heroine of The Scarlet Letter. But we need not go back several hundred years for these metaphors. In Lolita, Vladmir Nabakov used the same theme to great notoriety, but also to great acclaim. His hero, Humbert Humbert's opening line, “the fire in my loins,” set the tone for his enchantment with a nymphet.

Plaintiffs are a group of adult pornography producers, photographers, artists, and educators, who devote substantial time and energies to the creation of erotic and sexually explicit works. They seek a declaratory judgment and an injunction against the enforcement of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 and 2257A (“the Statutes”) and their corresponding regulations, which impose recordkeeping, labeling, and inspection requirements on producers of sexually explicit media. Plaintiffs contend the Statutes and their corresponding regulations run afoul of the First and Fourth Amendment because they burden an excessive amount of speech and allow for unreasonable, warrantless inspections.

In June 2012, the Court held an 8–day bench trial during which 21 witnesses presented live testimony and over 300 exhibits were entered into evidence. (ECF 197–206, 208, 210, 212, 214). The Court made detailed findings of fact (ECF 212), and the parties submitted lengthy post-trial briefs. (ECF 216–219). For the reasons that follow, the Court has concluded the government largely succeeded in defending the constitutionality of the Statutes. Namely, the Court finds Sections 2257 and 2257A and their corresponding regulations to be constitutional under the First Amendment, both as-applied and facially. It also finds the Statutes and regulations to be constitutional under the Fourth Amendment, except for in one regard—the allowance of inspections at the residences of producers, without prior notice, cannot be justified on this record. Nonetheless, the Court declines to issue an injunction under the Fourth Amendment, either as-applied or facially, because it finds the prospect of future inspections too remote to justify such relief.

I. Procedural History

Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit in 2009, seeking both a declaratory judgment and an injunction. They alleged Sections 2257 and 2257A, and their corresponding regulations, violated their rights under First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and were also unconstitutionally vague. The Government moved to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), and this Court granted the motion, dismissing the Complaint in its entirety. Free Speech Coal., Inc. v. Holder, 729 F.Supp.2d 691, 746 (E.D.Pa.2010). Regarding Plaintiffs' First Amendment claim, the Court held the statutes and regulations were content-neutral and survived intermediate scrutiny, because they are a narrowly tailored means for Congress to effectuate its goal of combating child pornography. Regarding the Fourth Amendment claim, the Court held Plaintiffs have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the records they are required to maintain under the Statutes, and that the inspections amount to constitutionally valid administrative searches. The Court also dismissed Plaintiffs' Fifth Amendment and vagueness challenges.

a. Third Circuit Decision

The Third Circuit affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part. Free Speech Coal., Inc. v. Attorney Gen. of the U.S., 677 F.3d 519, 543 (3d Cir.2012). It affirmed this Court's dismissal of the portions of Plaintiffs' claim under the First Amendment (Count I) alleging the Statutes unconstitutionally suppress anonymous speech, impose a prior restraint on protected expression, and unconstitutionally impose strict liability for failing to maintain the requisite records. Id. at 533–36. None of those issues are before the Court on remand. The Third Circuit also affirmed several of this Court's judgments regarding Plaintiffs' as-applied First Amendment challenge (Count I)—namely, that Sections 2257 and 2257A are content neutral laws, that intermediate scrutiny is the appropriate standard of review, and that under intermediate scrutiny, the Statutes pass the first and third prongs of the test because they further a compelling government interest and leave open ample alternative channels of communication. Id. Only the second prong of the intermediate scrutiny test, which speaks to narrow tailoring, is before the Court presently. Id. Finally, the Third Circuit affirmed this Court's dismissal of Plaintiffs' allegations that the Statutes violate equal protection of the laws (Count II), are unconstitutionally vague (Count III), and violate the privilege against self-incrimination (Count V). Id. at 545.

The Third Circuit vacated this Court's dismissal of Plaintiffs' First and Fourth Amendment claims in their entirety, because it held Plaintiffs should be afforded the opportunity to conduct discovery and further develop the record on the issues of whether the Statutes burden more of Plaintiffs' speech than necessary to further the government's interest, whether they burden a significant amount of speech beyond the Statutes' “plainly legitimate sweep,” whether they intrude on a reasonable expectation of privacy, and whether they authorize a valid administrative search program. The Third Circuit also held Plaintiffs should be afforded leave to amend their Complaint and add allegations about inspections brought against them in the past.

Accordingly, the effect of the Third Circuit's decision is that the following issues are to be explored on remand:

(1) for Plaintiffs' as-applied claim under the First Amendment (Count I), whether the Statutes are narrowly tailored as to Plaintiffs;

(2) for Plaintiffs' facial over-breadth claim under the First Amendment (Count I), whether the Statutes unreasonably burden a substantial amount of protected speech; and

(3) for Plaintiffs' facial and as-applied claims under the Fourth Amendment (Count IV), whether the inspections amount to “searches” either because they intrude on areas in which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy or because they involve “common-law trespass”; and if so, whether the inspections fall under the administrative search exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.

b. District Court on Remand

Following the Third Circuit's remand, Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint on June 29, 2012, adding a new Paragraph 20. (Amended Complaint) (ECF 84). Paragraph 20 now stated that “[s]everal of Free Speech Coalition's members have been subject to inspections pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2257”; that “[i]n each instance, a team of FBI agents came to the member's private business premises, without a warrant or prior notice ... [and] entered areas of the business premises not open to the public”; and that “[i]nspections have also been made by FBI agents of producers who are not members of Plaintiff Free Speech Coalition, and in two instances, upon information and belief, inspections were conducted at private residences of the producers because that is where their records were maintained.” ( Id. ¶ 20).

After the Amended Complaint was filed, the government moved to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims under the Fourth Amendment for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. (ECF 28). It contended Plaintiffs did not have the requisite standing to request an injunction under the Fourth Amendment because they could not show they faced a real and immediate threat of constitutionally unreasonable inspections. Additionally, the government argued, Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment claims were not ripe. (ECF 92).

The Court denied the government's motion. (ECF 113 & 117). With respect to standing, the Court held Plaintiffs faced a sufficient enough possibility of future injury as a result of the plain operation of the Statutes that the Court's subject matter jurisdiction was satisfied. Sections 2257 and 2257A impose record-keeping requirements on producers and authorize the Attorney General to undertake “inspection [of such records] at all reasonable times.” See18 U.S.C. §§ 2257(c) & 2257A(c). This created the possibility for inspections in the imminent future. Consistent with the Third Circuit's holding, the fact that no inspections had been conducted since 2007 did not wash away Plaintiffs' standing, the Court held, “because as long as Section 2257 is in force, the searches could be resumed at any moment.” (Memorandum at 6) ...