Robinson v. Stovall
| Decision Date | 05 June 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-2588,79-2588 |
| Citation | 646 F.2d 1087 |
| Parties | Alfred "Skip" ROBINSON, President of the United League of Mississippi, and Donald Pack, President of the United League of Chickasaw County, the United League of Mississippi, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Richard STOVALL, Mayor of Okolona, Mississippi, et al., Defendants-Appellees. . Unit A |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Alvin O. Chambliss, Leonard McClellan, Oxford, Miss., for plaintiffs-appellants.
John Sibley, Kenneth M. Burns, Okolona, Miss., George C. Cochran, for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before WISDOM, POLITZ and SAM D. JOHNSON, Circuit Judges.
The issue in this case is whether the district court erred in dismissing this civil rights suit under the doctrine of equitable restraint announced in Younger v. Harris, 1971, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669, and developed by its progeny. We hold that the dismissal was improper. We remand the case to allow the plaintiffs to pursue their suit. We affirm certain holdings of the district court.
This suit arises out of racial unrest in Okolona, Mississippi. Okolona is a town of approximately 3,000 persons. Its police department consists of a chief and five patrolmen, three blacks and two whites. During the summer of 1978, the members and supporters of the United League of Mississippi, a black civil rights organization, began a series of marches and rallies in Okolona, protesting alleged local racial discrimination and unfair law enforcement by the Okolona police. Hostile white groups, including robed members of the Ku Klux Klan and members of the White Citizens Council, staged marches of their own. Activists from both groups made inflammatory speeches and committed acts of violence; shots were fired into homes and cars. The citizens of Okolona had reason to fear the possibility of a confrontation that could not be controlled. To avoid the risk of riotous demonstrations, the Okolona Board of Aldermen adopted an ordinance on September 19, 1978, regulating public marches in the city. The ordinance requires that persons wishing to march must first obtain a permit from the city marshal, specifying a particular route and time. It establishes rules for marchers' conduct, including a mandatory interval of one yard between participants. The plaintiffs object to this provision on the ground that marching hand in hand is a traditional symbol of unity. More importantly, the ordinance requires that the marchers assemble and commence the march within thirty minutes of the scheduled starting time. The plaintiffs contend that this provision operates as a prior restraint, making marches impossible; a march cannot be marshalled in thirty minutes. The ordinance sets out criminal penalties for any violation of its provisions.
After the ordinance was adopted there were no further marches by white groups. The United League obtained permits and staged several marches without incident. The League did not comply with the thirty-minute time rule, but the police overlooked this infraction. On April 13, 1979, however, city authorities notified the League's leaders that thenceforth the entire ordinance would be enforced strictly. On April 14, while League members and supporters were assembling for a scheduled march, police informed them that their permit was invalid because the march had not started within thirty minutes. Nevertheless, the march proceeded. The police arrested 114 participants for marching without a valid permit.
On April 20, 1979, the plaintiffs filed this suit against several city officials as a class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976). The complaint alleged that the Okolona ordinance is an unconstitutional restriction on the plaintiffs' first amendment rights and that the police and other city officials conspired to deprive the plaintiffs of their right to march by means of arrests, physical assaults, and other acts of harassment and intimidation. The prayer requested a declaration that the parade ordinance is unconstitutional; an injunction against any further arrests, harassment, or other interference with the plaintiffs' exercise of their first amendment rights; preliminary relief; and damages, fees, and costs.
On April 27, the district court entered a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the thirty-minute provision, in favor of "members of the plaintiff class who have not been arrested nor face criminal prosecution" (emphasis added). The League applied for a marching permit for the following day, April 28. The city marshal testified that he offered the League a permit, but the League refused it because it did not grant permission to halt the parade on Main Street. This street is three blocks long and 80 feet wide, has the City Hall and the Library fronting on is, and is the principal commercial street. The march was held; 176 persons were arrested.
On April 30, the district court ordered the plaintiffs to file a substitute complaint, (emphasis added). The order also required the plaintiffs to "redefine the class as all members of the black race residing in Okolona who are members of the United League of Mississippi and who were not arrested on said occasion for violation of the Okolona parade ordinance". The court stated: "Said substitution is required in order to remove any question of standing of black citizens aggrieved by the constitutionality of the Okolona parade ordinance who have not been arrested on charges of violating the Okolona parade ordinance and are not confronted with criminal proceedings in the Okolona City Court as a result thereof, on the authority of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669) (1971); Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592 (95 S.Ct. 1200, 43 L.Ed.2d 482) (1975); Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332 (95 S.Ct. 2281, 45 L.Ed.2d 223) (1975); and Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U.S. 922 (95 S.Ct. 2561, 45 L.Ed.2d 648) (1975)."
The substitute complaint, filed four days later, repleaded the original complaint's allegations and added new allegations concerning the events of April 28. It also added a third cause of action, asserting alleged acts of police brutality on April 14 and 28 as independent constitutional violations. The new complaint separated the plaintiff class into four subclasses:
Subclass IA, class members who have never been arrested under the Okolona parade ordinance;
Subclass IB, class members arrested on April 28 (including some also arrested on April 14);
Subclass IC, class members arrested on April 14; and
Subclass II, class members (whether members of any of the other subclasses or not) who suffered physical brutality or whose property was illegally seized in connection with either of the April marches.
The district court was quick to notice that the substitute complaint violated the order of April 30 in not redefining the class as those members and supporters of the United League who had not been arrested. Subclass IB and IC included those who were, respectively, arrested on April 28 and April 14 (with some overlap). By order dated May 4, 1979, the court dismissed from the suit members of subclass IC "for lack of standing". The court ruled that the "joinder" of subclass b (IB) was "not within the purview of our prior temporary restraining order and no relief is presently grantable to persons in subclass b". The court reiterated that the persons entitled to continuing injunctive relief are the members and supporters of the United League who had not been arrested for violations of the ordinance.
The plaintiffs did not appeal from that order.
Evidentiary hearings on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction were conducted on June 1 and June 12, 1979. By agreement of the parties, the hearing was treated as a final hearing under Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2). On June 20 the district court held that the Younger doctrine barred the plaintiffs' suit and dismissed the action without prejudice. 473 F.Supp. 135 (N.D.Miss.1979). It found that "federal relief of any kind to the plaintiff arrestees would be an unwarranted intrusion into the prerogatives and authority of Mississippi's state judicial system " 473 F.Supp. at 147. The rationale of the decision was that the interests of the plaintiffs who were not arrested were so "intertwined" with those of the plaintiffs who were arrested that Younger bars relief as to any of the alleged plaintiff subclasses.
We tarry for a moment to dispose of the plaintiffs-appellants' contention that the Okolona police used excessive force in making the arrests. The plaintiffs' objective in making these allegations is unclear. It could have been the basis for an independent cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Or, as the trial judge thought, it could have been an effort to show a pattern or practice of police brutality constituting "bad faith harassment on the part of the defendants, (that is,) extraordinary circumstances sufficient to remove the Younger barrier". The trial judge weighed the conflicting evidence and found "as a fact that no such excessive use of force was utilized by law enforcement officers". He "resolve(d) this disputed issue against plaintiffs". On the record, we cannot say that this finding was clearly erroneous, and that holding must be affirmed.
The district court concluded that Younger and its progeny bar "federal relief of any kind to the plaintiff arrestees". But not all the plaintiffs in this suit are arrestees; there is an entire class, including named plaintiffs, who have never been arrested for marching in Okolona. We hold that the district...
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