League of Women Voters of California v. F.C.C.

• Decision Date: 02 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 83-6299,83-6299
• Citation: 798 F.2d 1255
• Parties: LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Pacifica Foundation, and Henry Waxman, Plaintiffs, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1255

798 F.2d 1255

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants and Pacifica Foundation, and Henry Waxman, Plaintiffs, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 83-6299.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Jan. 7, 1986.

Decided Sept. 2, 1986.

Fredric D. Woocher, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Michael Jay Singer, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before KENNEDY and SCHROEDER, Circuit Judges, and ORRICK, ^* Senior District Judge.

OPINION

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge.

Appellants in this attorneys' fees appeal are the successful litigants in a federal court action challenging the constitutionality of 47 U.S.C. Sec. 399(a), later styled 47 U.S.C. Sec. 399, which regulated certain activities of noncommercial broadcasting stations. The plaintiffs filed the underlying action in federal court in 1979, and the Supreme Court in Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women Voters of California, 468 U.S. 364, 104 S.Ct. 3106, 82 L.Ed.2d 278 (1984), held that the provision violated the first amendment.

The plaintiffs sought attorneys' fees following the district court's original ruling in their favor. League of Women Voters of California v. Federal Communications Commission, 547 F.Supp. 379 (C.D.Cal.1982). The district court denied the request, holding that the government's position was "substantially justified" so as to preclude the award of fees under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(1)(A). League of Women Voters of California v. Federal Communications Commission, 568 F.Supp. 295 (C.D.Cal.1983). The appeal to this court from that denial was stayed pending completion of the Supreme Court proceedings. We now review the district court's order denying fees.

Although the district court's order was of necessity entered before the Supreme Court had the final say on the merits of the case and before this court had established the test for determining whether the government's position is substantially justified, see Rawlings v. Heckler, 725 F.2d 1192 (9th Cir.1984), we conclude that the district court's analysis was basically sound.

There is a preliminary issue of our jurisdiction. The case was before this court previously on the government's motion to dismiss. That motion asserted that jurisdiction to consider the attorneys' fees issue was in the Supreme Court and not in this court. We rejected that contention. League of Women Voters of California v. Federal Communications Commission, 751 F.2d 986 (9th Cir.1985). The government renews that contention now but has made no showing which would compel us to reconsider the original decision. See, e.g., Moore v. Jas. H. Matthews & Co., 682 F.2d 830, 834 (9th Cir.1982) (law of the case will be departed from only if " 'the evidence on a subsequent trial was substantially different, controlling authority has since made a contrary decision of the law applicable to such issues, or the decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice' ") (quoting White v. Murtha, 377 F.2d 428, 432 (5th Cir.1967) ).

The availability of attorneys' fees in this case is governed by the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), which provides that in an action against the United States a prevailing party, other than the United States, is entitled to recover attorney's fees "unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(1)(A). "The test of whether or not a Government action is substantially justified is essentially one of reasonableness. Where the Government can show that its case had a reasonable basis both in law and fact, no award will be made." H.R.Rep. No. 1418, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 10, reprinted in 1980 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 4984, 4989. Our circuit has adopted this test of reasonableness. See, e.g., Edwards v. Heckler, 789 F.2d 659, 665 (9th Cir.1986).

Following the passage of the EAJA, there has been some division of authority concerning whether reasonableness should be measured solely by looking to the government's position asserted in the litigation, see, e.g., Spencer v. NLRB, 712 F.2d 539 (D.C.Cir.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 936, 104 S.Ct. 1908, 80 L.Ed.2d 457 (1984), or whether the underlying action being challenged and prelitigation conduct also should be considered, see, e.g., National Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 703 F.2d 700, 707 (3d Cir.1983). The rule in this circuit was clarified when we decided that "the remedial purpose of the EAJA is best served by considering the totality of the circumstances prelitigation and during trial." Rawlings v. Heckler, 725 F.2d 1192, 1196 (9th Cir.1984).

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiffs, which included the League of Women Voters, Congressman Henry Waxman, and Pacifica Foundation, a nonprofit organization that owns and operates several noncommercial educational broadcasting stations, filed this action seeking a judgment declaring unconstitutional section 399(a) of the Public Broadcasting Act, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 399(a), and an injunction against FCC enforcement of that provision. At the time the action was filed, the provision prohibited noncommercial educational broadcasting stations from editorializing and supporting or opposing candidates for political office. The Department of Justice, after answering the complaint, declined to defend the constitutionality of the statute, and a number of procedural maneuvers took place both on and off the litigation stage.

One of the key events was the decision of Congress in 1981 to amend and narrow the statute. The amendment had the effect of limiting the ban on editorializing to stations receiving grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The ban on supporting or opposing political candidates was left essentially unchanged. The entire amended provision was redesignated as 47 U.S.C. Sec. 399.

Shortly before the enactment of the amendments, the Justice Department, now part of a new administration, reversed its earlier position and decided to defend the statute's constitutionality. It was the amended statute which it eventually actively defended, however, and it was that version which the Supreme Court struck down in a five-to-four decision. Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women Voters of California, 468 U.S. 364, 104 S.Ct. 3106, 82 L.Ed.2d 278 (1984).

The procedural history of this case is significant to our analysis of the reasonableness of the government's position, because during the course of the litigation's pendency in the district court, both the statute at issue and the position of the government with respect to defending it changed. The precise procedural history of the case is therefore set out in the margin. ¹

DISCUSSION

We review the district court's conclusion that an award of attorney's fees is inappropriate in this case under the abuse of discretion standard. See, e.g., Edwards v. Heckler, 789 F.2d 659, 665 (9th Cir.1985); Rawlings v. Heckler, 725 F.2d 1192, 1194 (9th Cir.1984).

In analyzing the reasonableness of the government's position under the "totality of the circumstances" test, we must look both to the position asserted by the government in the trial court as well as the nature of the underlying government action at issue. See, e.g., Underwood v. Pierce, 761 F.2d 1342, 1345 (9th Cir.1985) (per curiam); Rawlings v. Heckler, 725 F.2d 1192, 1196 (9th Cir.1984); accord Iowa Express Distribution, Inc. v. NLRB, 739 F.2d 1305, 1309 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 595, 83 L.Ed.2d 704 (1984); National Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 703 F.2d 700, 707 (3d Cir.1983). ² Applying this test, we have held that the failure of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to change his position and disburse funds for a congressionally mandated operating subsidy, despite having lost several cases involving nearly identical facts, was unreasonable. Underwood, 761 F.2d at 1346. The Eighth Circuit has also adopted this approach, remanding for a district court to consider the reasonableness of pretrial offers of just compensation in an eminent domain case. United States v. 341.45 Acres of Land, 751 F.2d 924, 940 (8th Cir.1984).

This case is unusual in many respects, not the least of which is that the underlying government conduct is not an administrative action of the Executive branch, but rather is a statute enacted by Congress. We therefore consider initially the government's contention that that fact alone is dispositive and that, regardless of the nature of the legislation or the rationality of the defense interposed on its behalf by the Justice Department, the government's position must be held "reasonable" whenever the underlying dispute is over the constitutionality of a statute.

The district court correctly observed that although the defense of a congressional statute from constitutional challenge will usually be substantially justified, see Grace v. Burger, 763 F.2d 457, 458 n. 5 (D.C.Cir.1985) (situations in which the government's defense of the constitutionality of a federal statute is not substantially justified should be exceptional), neither the language of the EAJA nor its legislative history support the argument that this is true as a matter of law. League of Women Voters of California v. Federal Communications Commission, 568 F.Supp. at 297. The EAJA applies to "any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort)." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(1)(A). There are no exceptions for constitutional attacks on statutes.

Rather, the legislative history supports the availability of fees when constitutional rights are vindicated. An important purpose of the EAJA was to eliminate the economic deterrent faced by individuals who wish to...