Jordan v. Hutcheson

• Decision Date: 17 September 1963
• Docket Number: No. 8834.,8834.
• Citation: 323 F.2d 597
• Parties: Joseph A. JORDAN, Jr., E. A. Dawley, Jr., and L. W. Holt, Appellants, v. J. C. HUTCHESON, Chairman, Virginia's Legislative Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, William King, counsel for the Committee, Honorable Charles Leavitt, City Sergeant, and Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

323 F.2d 597 (1963)

Joseph A. JORDAN, Jr., E. A. Dawley, Jr., and L. W. Holt, Appellants, v. J. C. HUTCHESON, Chairman, Virginia's Legislative Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, William King, counsel for the Committee, Honorable Charles Leavitt, City Sergeant, and Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, Appellees.

No. 8834.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 1, 1963.

Decided September 17, 1963.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Shirley Fingerhood, New York City (Melvin L. Wulf and Sanford M. Katz, New York City, and Jordan, Dawley & Holt, Norfolk, Va., on brief), for appellants.

William H. King, Richmond, Va. (Robert Y. Button, Atty. Gen., of Virginia, on brief), for appellees.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and BOREMAN and J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judges.

J. SPENCER BELL, Circuit Judge.

This is a class action brought by three Negro attorneys of Norfolk, Virginia, against a Committee of the Virginia State Legislature, its Chairman, its counsel, and a process agent of the City of Norfolk for equitable relief under the provisions of the Civil Rights Acts, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. Federal jurisdiction is asserted under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3). The complaint prays for temporary and permanent injunctions from "any further unlawful action to harass and intimidate" the three plaintiff lawyers and those of their clients¹ who were served with subpoenas and writs by the defendants on September 17, 1961; for nominal damages and costs; for an order requiring the prosecution of the defendants Hutcheson and King for violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242, and for general relief.

The complaint alleges that the defendants are acting as part of a conspiracy engaged in by the elected officials of Virginia to intimidate, discourage and impede the plaintiffs and all Negro citizens of Virginia from using the courts as a means of ending the practices of racial segregation in that state. It further alleges that the Legislature created the defendant committee for the sole purpose of harassing and intimidating the plaintiffs in their efforts as lawyers to serve the cause of desegregation. Specifically, it alleges that in furtherance of this unlawful objective, the Committee and its agents have: investigated the friends and clients of the plaintiffs; urged and asked their clients to abandon them; raided the offices of plaintiffs and their clients seeking to gather confidential papers and notes; published statements naming the plaintiffs as violators of the law, and that defendants threaten to continue such practices.

The District Court dismissed the complaint on the grounds both that it lacked jurisdiction and that the complaint failed to state a cause of action. It noted that the defendants had agreed to refrain from any further action against the plaintiffs until this appeal is decided. In its supporting opinion, Jordan v. Hutcheson, 208 F.Supp. 131 (E.D.Va.1962), the Court stated that the controlling question was "whether a federal court has the authority to enjoin a state legislative committee from performing its duties under a statute which has been declared constitutional by the highest court of the state,² on the grounds that (1) the purpose or "function" for which the committee was created is unconstitutional, and (2) the committee has acted or is authorized to act beyond the scope of the legislative function in assuming powers properly reserved to the executive or judicial branches of the government."

We think this statement of the issues begs the question. The extent to which the state through its legislative power may intrude upon a citizen's rights becomes a matter for the consideration of the federal courts when such conduct invades the citizen's constitutional privileges. Whereupon the federal courts are commanded to act under the selfexecuting provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. We submit it would be impracticable to test the constitutionality of the state's conduct without considering its purpose.³ With all due respect, since this is a federal question, the opinion of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia would not be binding on the federal courts. N.A.A.C.P. v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed.2d 405 (1963). When the court does act under the Fourteenth Amendment it must weigh the state's interest in the product of this effort against the interest of the citizen in his constitutional rights.⁴ Only if the state's interest is overriding and compelling will the courts condone an invasion of those rights for which the plaintiffs here seek protection. Whether or not the Committee has invaded the executive or judicial functions of the state's government is no concern of the federal courts, as we shall attempt to show later. Whether the Committee has acted beyond the scope of its authority is of interest to the court, for any conduct which is not authorized by state law would not have the cloak of legislative immunity and thus would not call for the deference which the principles of federalism grant to state action. Such unauthorized conduct would, however, if done under color of state law, custom or usage come within the prohibition of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The real question at issue on this appeal is whether the complaint alleges facts which if true constitute a violation of the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights, and if so whether a federal court has the power to enjoin such conduct as state action under the Fourteenth Amendment or the provisions of 42 U.S. C.A. § 1983. We think the court must consider this question in the light of the Supreme Court's decision in N.A.A.C.P. v. Button, supra, which has determined that Virginia has no overriding and compelling interest in forcing the disclosure of information which the complaint alleges the defendants seek.

We are remanding the case in order that the District Court may reconsider its opinion in the light of the opinion of this court and the decision of the Supreme Court in N.A.A.C.P. v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed. 405, which was decided subsequent to the District Court's opinion and is pertinent to the issues herein. It is obvious, of course, that in reviewing the case at this stage the plaintiffs are entitled to a liberal construction of their pleadings, the truth of which we must presume to be conceded. Clark, Attorney General v. Uebersee Finanz-Korporation, 332 U.S. 480, 68 S.Ct. 174, 92 L.Ed. 88 (1947).

There can be no question that the District Court had jurisdiction to entertain this suit. The plaintiffs have asserted rights, the correct decision of which depends upon the construction and application of the Constitution and laws of the United States. Miller v. Long, 152 F.2d 196 (4 Cir., 1946); Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 63 S.Ct. 877, 87 L.Ed. 1324 (1943); Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946); Bock v. Perkins, 139 U.S. 628, 630, 11 S.Ct. 677, 35 L.Ed. 314 (1891). Freedom of speech and of assembly are among the rights secured by the Constitution and the terms of statutes giving federal district courts original jurisdiction of suits to redress the deprivation of such rights. Hatfield v. Bailleaux, 290 F.2d 632, 636 (9 Cir., 1961), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 862, 82 S.Ct. 105, 7 L.Ed.2d 59. Freedom from race discrimination is clearly within the rights so protected. Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 188 F.Supp. 916 (D.C.E.D.La.1960), aff'd, 365 U.S. 569, 81 S.Ct. 754, 5 L.Ed.2d 806; 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343(3), (4). The amount in controversy is immaterial, Douglas v. City of Jeannette, supra, as such rights are inherently incapable of pecuniary valuation. Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization, 307 U.S. 496, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939).

The concept of federalism: i. e., federal respect for state institutions, will not be permitted to shield an invasion of the citizen's constitutional rights. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). Certainly this principle has not shielded the activities of the executive and judicial branches of the state from interdiction when constitutional rights are involved. Bell v. Hood, supra. In Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, supra, the court enjoined a long list of state executive officers beginning with the Governor. In United States v. Wood, 295 F.2d 772 (5 Cir., 1961), cert. denied, 369 U.S. 850, 82 S.Ct. 933, 8 L.Ed.2d 9, the court enjoined criminal prosecution. Cf. Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197, 44 S.Ct. 15, 68 L.Ed. 255 (1923); Packard v. Banton, 264 U.S. 140, 44 S.Ct. 257, 68 L.Ed. 596 (1924); Evers v. Dwyer, 358 U.S. 202, 79 S.Ct. 178, 3 L.Ed.2d 222 (1958). And in the following cases, state and municipal boards were enjoined: Williams v. Kansas City, Mo., 104 F.Supp. 848 (D.C. Mo.1952); Gonzales v. Sheely, 96 F. Supp. 1004 (D.C.Ariz.1951); City of Greensboro v. Simkins, 246 F.2d 425 (4 Cir., 1957); Holmes v. Danner, 191 F. Supp. 394 (D.C.Ga.1961). Although the federal courts will recognize and respect the state's right to exercise through its legislature broad investigatory powers, nevertheless these powers are not unlimited and it remains the duty of the federal courts to protect the individual's constitutional rights from invasion either by state action or under color thereof. Especially is this true in the sensitive areas of First Amendment rights and racial discrimination. Where there exists the clear possibility of an immediate and irreparable injury to such rights by state legislative action the federal courts have exercised their equitable powers including the declaratory judgment and the injunction. See the long series of injunctions and orders issued in Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 138 F.Supp. 337 (D.C.E.D.La.1956), aff'd, 242 F.2d 156 (5 Cir., 1957), cert. denied, 354 U.S. 921, 77 S.Ct. 1380, 1 L.Ed.2d 1436 (1957); 163 F.Supp. 701 (D.C.E.D.La. 1958), aff'd, 268 F.2d 78 (5 Cir., 1959); 187 F.Supp. 42 (D.C.E.D.La.1960); 188 F.Supp....