Lynch v. Snepp
| Decision Date | 20 November 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. C-C-72-252.,C-C-72-252. |
| Citation | 350 F. Supp. 1134 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of North Carolina |
| Parties | Phyllis LYNCH et al., Plaintiffs, v. Frank W. SNEPP et al., Defendants. |
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George S. Daly, Jr., Charlotte, N. C., for plaintiffs.
Charles A. Lloyd, Asst. Atty. Gen., N. C. Dept. of Justice, Raleigh, N. C., for defendants.
On October 27, 1972, the defendant Judge Frank W. Snepp, resident North Carolina Superior Court Judge, ex parte and without notice, and based solely upon a one and one-fourth-page petition signed by the district prosecuting attorney, entered an injunction against "John Doe, Richard Roe and all others of like situation." It forbade disorders and various crimes and misdemeanors on or near any of the public school properties of Mecklenburg County, and it forbade the John Doe defendants, pending further orders of court:
The order notified the "defendants" to appear on October 30, 1972, and show cause, if any, why the order should not be continued in effect until final determination of the action.
No action was pending when the injunction was issued; no summons had been issued to anyone and none had been issued when this matter was heard by this court on November 3, 1972.
There is no evidence that school authorities sought, encouraged or advised the injunction.
Phyllis Lynch, Kelly M. Alexander, Jr., Robert Steele and Fledora Grier, plaintiffs in this case, appeared before Judge Snepp on October 30, 1972, and became parties and sought to obtain a reversal of the October 27 order. They were successful in some particulars. The seventy-three elementary schools in the county were eliminated, leaving ten high schools and about twenty junior high schools scattered over a twelve-mile radius still subject to the order. In certain further though minor particulars the order was changed. The prohibition against being in the streets adjacent to the schools was eliminated. However, the prohibition against being on school property without "permission" was kept in effect and the persons authorized to give permission were limited to "administrative officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education or from school principals."
Plaintiffs on October 31, 1972, the day the amended order was filed, brought this action seeking injunctive relief against enforcement of the order and a declaration of its unconstitutionality as an illegal prior restraint upon freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and as violating the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bad faith in the solicitor's petition and in the injunction and the order was alleged. A hearing after due notice was conducted on November 3, 1972. None of the defendants appeared, but they were represented by Mr. Charles A. Lloyd, Assistant Attorney General of North Carolina.
All the schools involved are in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, whose operations have been and are the subject of continuing litigation in this court.
The only oral testimony at the hearing in this court was the testimony of Kelly Alexander, Jr., age 24, and Robert Steele, two of the plaintiffs. Alexander and Steele are black citizens who are interested in organizing and coordinating activities of the NAACP, both having official positions as coordinators of youth affairs. These coordinators have arrangements with student monitors in the schools who provide information on instances of violation of due process, racial discrimination and other student rights violations. Because of reports that black students were being discriminated against in the realm of suspensions from bus privileges and other school activities, Alexander and Steele started a "dialogue" with some of the principals. As illustration of this dialogue Alexander on October 13, 1972, wrote a letter to the principal of East High School. In that letter Alexander sought a conference with the principal to discuss among other things the school's alleged action in denying a student the opportunity to distribute literature at school and in refusing to allow a black students' club to be formed without advance accumulation of over two hundred signatures and approval by the student congress.
The principal had a conference with Alexander and Steele on October 26, 1972, at 4:00 P.M. It produced no change in the official attitude. It produced, plaintiffs say, comments comparing the plaintiffs' activities with those of the Ku Klux Klan. Plaintiffs say they were advised that none of their literature could be distributed except through a student club; that literature for the purpose of organizing the club could not be distributed because it was not being distributed by a club; and that NAACP literature could not be distributed unless ordered by the school superintendent or by a court. The principal had, however, allowed a student to circulate an organization petition, and more than the required two hundred signatures had been accumulated.
The meeting ended in an apparent stalemate; no agreement was reached.
The principal reportedly indicated that there had been some disorder at the school that day (October 26), but "no major disruption"; and there was no disorder while Steele and Alexander were at the school.
Plaintiffs say that they have not visited many schools, but that they would like to be free to talk with students at lunch periods and before and after school and at other free times. They indicated that they desire to inform students about the new due process rules of discipline and about student rights on other matters.
Following the October 31, 1972, injunction, Robert Steele wrote to the high school monitors a memorandum summarizing the efforts that had been made in September and October and the problems that had been encountered, specifically, denial of permission to circulate literature at East, South and West High Schools, expulsion of students from school busses for long periods without hearing and with detrimental effect upon ability to do school work, and the other matters mentioned above. The memorandum warned the monitors against any demonstrations or violence, warned them to comply with the injunction, and advised that student complaints be channelled through parents while the injunction was in effect.
Because of the injunction plaintiffs have been forced to discontinue their work with the schools and the administrative staff. They have not sought permission under the order to visit the schools, but, apprehensive that any visit might be made the occasion for misunderstanding and possible punitive action, have stayed away. They appeared and contested the order at their earliest opportunity —on October 30, 1972.
This evidence concerning the persons who filed this particular suit is of relevance primarily on the question of "standing"—whether these plaintiffs stand to gain or lose because of the injunction and therefore whether they have the right to bring the suit.
The Fourteenth Amendment provides, in pertinent part:
". . . nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Civil Rights Act of 1871 (42 U. S.C. § 1983) provides:
"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities...
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Lynch v. Snepp
...officers of the State of North Carolina from the granting of a preliminary injunction against them by the United States District Judge, 350 F. Supp. 1134. The federal preliminary injunction has the effect of restraining in part the enforcement of a state injunction that undertook to control......
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...(S.E. 1983); Carolina Freight Car Corp. v. Local Union # 61, 11 N.C. App. 159, 180 S.E.2d 461, 463 (1971); see also, Lynch v. Snepp, 350 F. Supp. 1134, 1140 (W.D.N.C. 1972). Since no underlying action had been filed the Superior Court was without jurisdiction to hear the motion and the case......
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Anderson v. Dean
...in failing to enjoin the state court proceedings to the extent they violated plaintiffs' First Amendment rights. Accord, Lynch v. Snepp, 350 F. Supp. 1134 (W.D.N.C.1972). For all of the above reasons the ex parte restraining order issued by Judge Hubert against plaintiff in the Superior Cou......
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...Judge. Reserving only my continuing view that Lynch v. Snepp was correctly analyzed and decided at the district court level, 350 F.Supp. 1134 (W.D.N.C. 1972), rather than at the Circuit Court level, 472 F.2d 769 (4th Cir. 1973), cert. pending, United States Supreme Court, I concur in the we......