De Jesus Mangual v. Fuentes Agostini
| Decision Date | 28 March 2002 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL NO. 99-2049 (JAG). |
| Citation | 203 F.Supp.2d 78 |
| Parties | Tomas DE JESUS MANGUAL, Plaintiff, v. Jose FUENTES AGOSTINI, et al., Defendant(s). |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Juan R. Marchand-Quintero, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiffs.
Marie L. Cortes-Cortes, Dept. of Justice of PR, Fed. Lit. Div., San Juan, PR, Luis F. Del-Valle-Emmanuelli, Garcia & Fernandez, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.
Tomás de Jesús Mangual ("Mangual"), as plaintiff, and Obed Betancourt ("Betancourt"), Manny Suarez ("Suarez"), The Overseas Press Club ("OPC"), Jorge Medina ("Medina"), and Caribbean International News Corporation ("El Vocero") as interveners2, brought suit against the Secretary of Justice of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Honorable José Fuentes Agostini ("the Secretary")3 challenging the constitutionality of the Puerto Rico libel statutes, Articles 118-121 of the Puerto Rico Penal Code, 33 L.P.R.A. § 4101-4104. Jurisdiction is premised on the general federal question, and civil rights jurisdictional grants, 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(a)(3), respectively. Relief is sought under The Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 19834 to prevent a deprivation of First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 22015, and Rule 57 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Secretary filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on grounds of standing, ripeness and mootness. Having reviewed the record, briefs, and after oral argument, the Court grants the motion and holds that plaintiff as well as interveners lack standing to sue, and the claims are unripe and moot.
Mangual is a full time journalist for El Vocero de Puerto Rico, a newspaper published by Caribbean International News Corp., a Puerto Rico corporation with principal offices in San Juan. (Docket 1, Verified Complaint, p. 2). In March 1999, Mangual investigated a criminal libel complaint pursued by State Police Officer Elsa Rivera Colón ("Officer Rivera") against El Vocero reporter, Betancourt, based on a news story published by Betancourt. Mangual published four articles on the subject on March 1999 (the "March, 1999 articles"). (Docket 1, at 4). These articles state that the criminal charges against Betancourt were part of a conspiracy by Officer Rivera and other corrupt police officers to silence Betancourt. The articles linked Officer Rivera to drug traffickers and accused her of having a child out of wedlock with supervisor Commander Jovito Miró. (Id.) On April 12, 1999 Officer Rivera wrote a letter to the Secretary in relation to these articles and stated that they were defamatory and that she was going to file criminal charges against Mangual. (Id. at 5). Mangual was never summoned or otherwise informed of any criminal charges or proceedings against him. (Id. at 5)
Mangual then brought the present civil rights action against the Secretary, seeking a declaration that Puerto Rico's Libel Statutes are facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment. In support of his claims, he filed a motion for summary judgment. (Docket 2, Motion for Summary Judgment and Memorandum of Law in its Support).
On May 10, 2000, the OPC, a non-profit association of journalists, media people and publicists; Suarez, a reporter for the San Juan Star and member of the OPC; and Betancourt, also member of the OPC and reporter from El Vocero de Puerto Rico, requested intervention as plaintiffs in the case. (Docket 17, Applicant's Motion to Intervene as Plaintiffs and for time to present Complaint and Memorandum of Law). Pursuant to Court order, (Docket 24), by District Judge Daniel R. Domínguez6, interveners filed an amicus curiae brief arguing that the Puerto Rico criminal libel statute chills their enjoyment of First Amendment rights and asked the Court to declare the statute unconstitutional. (Docket 25, Applicants for Intervention as Plaintiffs Brief as Amicus Curiae). On October 31, 2000, Medina, a journalist for El Vocero de Puerto Rico, and El Vocero filed an urgent motion requesting intervention. (Docket 30, Urgent Application to Intervene as Plaintiff Pursuant to F.R.C.P. 24(b) and Urgent Request for Injunctive Relief.) They alleged that the public expressions of then candidate for Governor Sila María Calderón's campaign director Irving Faccio, constituted a prosecutorial threat in retaliation for Medina's and El Vocero's publication of an article regarding Mrs. Calderón's mistreatment of her Dominican housekeeper. The article described how the housekeeper had witnessed Mrs. Calderón's xenophobic behavior. (Id. at 1, 3-4). Medina and El Vocero raised the same claims as Mangual and asked to be heard on the matter which was set for oral argument on November 2, 2000.
At the November 2nd oral argument, Medina and El Vocero were allowed to intervene and argue. The Court heard argument on the issues of mootness and standing. The Secretary argued that Mangual's and Betancourt's case were moot and that plaintiff's and interveners' claims should be dismissed on grounds of standing. (Docket 31, Minutes of Proceedings). The Court raised possible certification of pending issues to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, but at the hearing and in subsequent briefs the parties agreed that certification should not be pursued. (Docket 34 at 9-11).
In a post argument motion filed on July 11, 2001 (Docket 44), in response to a motion filed by plaintiffs and interveners on June 12, 2001 (Docket 42) the actual Secretary (Mrs. Rodríguez) represented to the Court in no uncertain terms that "... the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico does not foster the filing of criminal charges by or against any of its citizens, especially journalists." (Undersigned ours.) (Docket 44 at 5).7
Mangual contends that Officer Rivera's threat of criminal prosecution stifles his freedom of speech and press and that Puerto Rico's criminal libel statute exerts a chilling effect on journalists because it is vague and confusing. (Docket 1, at 6,8.) Mangual also asserts that he remains under credible threat of prosecution by the Secretary who is the ranking officer of the Department of Justice, with supervisory power over district attorneys in the Commonwealth. (Docket 20, Opposition to Motion to Dismiss, pp. 15-16). The Secretary challenges the subject-matter jurisdiction of this Court based on Mangual's lack of standing, unripeness of his claims and unjusticiability of the case under Article III.8
Article III of the Constitution, directs federal courts to decide only "cases and controversies". Diamond v. Charles, 476 U.S. 54, 61, 106 S.Ct. 1697, 90 L.Ed.2d 48 (1986); Santiago Collazo v. Franqui Acosta, 721 F.Supp. 385, 388 (D.P.R.1989). The doctrine of standing rooted in this "case and controversy requirement" focuses on the party seeking federal court intervention and not on the issues that he or she asserts. Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 99, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). See also Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). To have standing a plaintiff must "show that: (1) he or she personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the challenged conduct; (2) the injury can fairly be traced to that conduct; and (3) the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision from the court". New Hampshire Right to Life Political Action Committee v. Gardner, 99 F.3d 8, 13 (1st Cir.1996). See Northeastern Fla. Chapter of Assoc. Gen. Contractors of America v. Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656, 663, 113 S.Ct. 2297, 124 L.Ed.2d 586 (1993); Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992); Vote Choice, Inc. v. DiStefano, 4 F.3d 26, 36 (1st Cir. 1993).
In addition to Article III's constraints, a plaintiff's case or controversy must also satisfy the prudential considerations underlying the standing doctrine. First, a plaintiff must assert his or her own legal rights and not the legal rights of third parties. See Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 474, 102 S.Ct. 752, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982)(quoting Warth, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. 2197); Schlesinger v. Reservists to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 217-28, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 41 L.Ed.2d 706, (1974). Second, the Court must refrain from adjudicating "abstract questions of wide public significance". Warth, 422 U.S. at 499-500, 95 S.Ct. 2197; O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 494, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). Third, the plaintiff's complaint must fall within "the zone of interest to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question". Association of Data Processing Service Orgs. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 153, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970). See also Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656, 663, 113 S.Ct. 2297, 124 L.Ed.2d 586; Lujan, 504 U.S. at 559, 112 S.Ct. 2130; Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984); El Día, 30 F.Supp.2d at 167. The party who invokes federal jurisdiction has the "[t]he burden of establishing [that] standing" exists. Rhode Island Association of Realtors, Inc. v. Whitehouse, 199 F.3d 26, 30 (1st Cir.1999). See Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 167-68, 117 S.Ct. 1154, 137 L.Ed.2d 281 (1997); Warth, 422 U.S. at 508, 95 S.Ct. 2197.
Mangual meets the "causation" and the "redressability" requirements of the standing test to the extent that: (a) the alleged injury "can be traced to the threatened enforcement of the challenged statutes", and (b) "when a plaintiff seeks a declaration that a particular statute is unconstitutional, the proper defendants are the government officials charged with administering and enforcing it". New Hampshire, 99 F.3d at 13. Diamond, 476...
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Mangual v. Rotger-Sabat
...plaintiff and intervenors all lacked standing to sue, and that the plaintiff's claims were both unripe and moot. Mangual v. Fuentes Agostini, 203 F.Supp.2d 78, 81 (D.P.R.2002). Mangual appeals the dismissal of his claim, and Medina and Caribbean appeal the denial of their motion to III. Leg......