Schneider v. Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico

• Decision Date: 16 June 1983
• Docket Number: 82-1513,Civ. No. 82-1459,82-1514 and 82-1532.
• Citation: 565 F. Supp. 963
• Parties: Robert E. SCHNEIDER, Jr. et al., Plaintiffs, v. COLEGIO DE ABOGADOS DE PUERTO RICO et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

565 F. Supp. 963

Robert E. SCHNEIDER, Jr. et al., Plaintiffs, v. COLEGIO DE ABOGADOS DE PUERTO RICO et al., Defendants.

Civ. Nos. 82-1459, 82-1513, 82-1514 and 82-1532.

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

June 16, 1983.

Robert E. Schneider, Jr., Santurce, P.R., pro se and for plaintiffs.

Salvador Antonetti, Jay Garcia-Gregory, San Juan, P.R., Miriam Naveira de Rodón, Santurce, P.R., José Julián Alvarez González, University of Puerto Rico, Rió Piedras, P.R., for Justices of Supreme Court P.R. Pedro A. del Valle Ferrer, Federal Litigation Div., Dept. of Justice, San Juan, P.R., for Secretaries of Justice & Treasury.

Harry Anduze Montanõ, Santurce, P.R., for Colegio & Fundación de Abogados.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

TORRUELLA, Chief Judge.

The issues presented by these cases go to the very heart of the speech and associational freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. More accurately stated, these cases involve Plaintiffs' constitutional "right not to speak or associate at all — that is, a right to be free from governmental compulsion to engage in speech or associational activities."¹ In these actions, all filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Plaintiffs challenge the prospective² validity of various Puerto Rican statutes which create,³ and financially support,⁴ Puerto Rico's integrated bar association, the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, hereinafter called the "Colegio". It is claimed that these laws are invalid because they force Plaintiffs to belong to, and financially support, an organization which promotes ideological and/or political causes which are contrary to Plaintiffs' personal beliefs.

The procedural and non-central issues raised by Defendants' responsive pleadings have been previously decided by the Court. See Schneider v. Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, 546 F.Supp. 1251 (D.P.R.1982) aff'd in part, reversed in part sub nom., In Re Justices of Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 695 F.2d 17 (CA 1, 1982). The issues remaining to be decided are thus reduced to, (1) a factual determination as to whether or not the Colegio engages in ideological and/or political activism, (2) if so, whether it is the result of or is supported by governmental action, and finally, assuming that the previous questions are answered in the affirmative, (3) a determination of the legal consequences resulting therefrom. Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977); Arrow v. Dow, 636 F.2d 287 (CA 10, 1980), on remand 544 F.Supp. 458 (D.N.M.1982).

The Colegio's Ideological and/or Political Actions

There is no question but that the Colegio engages in ideological and/or political activism of a pervasive and continuous nature, totally unrelated to the stated legislative purposes for which it was created.⁵ Among the activities which may be classified as ideological and/or political in nature^5a are the following:

(1) At least since 1973,⁶ the President⁷ of the Colegio has made annual appearances before the United Nations to present the "official" position of the Colegio with regard to the political status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the effect that the Commonwealth is a colony of the United States, and to request that the "case" for its decolonization be submitted for action to the United Nations General Assembly. This position is espoused as representing the views of all the members of the Colegio.⁸

The appearances by the Colegio before the United Nations' Decolonization Committee, as well as the substance of the Colegio's position therein, have received wide-spread publicity in Puerto Rico and in the international news media.

(2) The Board of Governors has adopted many resolutions dealing with diverse topics of an ideological and/or political nature. These include among others: condemning the Federal Bureau of Investigation for "intervention" with the Puerto Rican independence movement and its leaders (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 44); opposing an increase in the number of Federal Judges in Puerto Rico as an "attempt to fortify Federal Control over the island contrary to the duty of Congress to recognize the right of Puerto Rico to assume full sovereignty" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 46); requiring that the President of the United States order the Navy to cease target practice in the island of Vieques and withdraw therefrom," and that this resolution be sent to the Puerto Rican Legislature, to Congress, to the President, to the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations and to the media for massive promulgation" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 49);⁹ resolving to "orient and inform" the people of Puerto Rico regarding the resolution of the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations regarding Puerto Rico (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 14. Resolution No. 6); condemning the Legislature of Puerto Rico for its "distortion of the historical truth" in condemning the previously referred to resolutions of the Decolonization Committee (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 29, Resolution No. 14); requesting the President of the United States that he release four Puerto Rican Nationalists convicted of participating in the shootings in Congress in 1952 (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 61); opposing a new voter identification system proposed by the Puerto Rico Electoral Committee (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 62); repudiating the Somoza regime in Nicaragua, supporting the Sandinista Front of National Liberation, and asking the United States to recognize the "Provisional Government of National Reconstruction "(Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 66, Resolution No. 32); condemning the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 91, Resolution No. 43); expressing support for Olympic sports and that the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee be the one to decide whether or not to boycott the Moscow Olympic Games (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 92, Resolution No. 44); stating the Colegio's concern "in the name of all qualified voters" as to the state of the electoral process and authorizing the president of the Colegio to name a committee "to watch and guarantee the purity of the electoral process" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 102, Resolution No. 51); expressing the Colegio's solidarity with the people of El Salvador and condemning the governing Military Junta (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 p. 114, Resolution No. 2); endorsing and supporting a march to be held favoring the movement to get the Navy to leave Vieques (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 236 at 129, Resolution No. 10); asserting the "defense" of Puerto Rican culture and rejecting "the efforts of the Commonwealth with relation to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture as attempts to destroy the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 135, Resolution No. 13); criticizing the United States for transferring Haitian refugees to Puerto Rico and demanding their immediate release to the mainland (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 149, Resolution No. 21); condemning the United States "for imposing a concentration camp on Puerto Rico in complicity with the Government of Haiti" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 167, Resolution No. 30); opposing the use of the Federal Grand Jury system in Puerto Rico (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235, at p. 137, 151, 162, Resolutions Nos. 14, 22, 28); blaming the police and the University Administration for the use of force in a strike by students at the University of Puerto Rico (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 201, Resolution No. 42); condemning the draft as a "blood tax paid by Puerto Ricans in the four wars fought in the Armed Forces of the United States" (Plaintiffs' Exhibit 235 at p. 203, Resolution No. 43);

All of the above have been widely disseminated by the Colegio throughout the news media, as a matter of practice and routine.

(3) The physical facilities of the Colegio have been routinely used for ideological and/or political activities unrelated to the purposes of the Colegio. These activities have included among others:¹⁰ a concert to raise funds for the accused in the armed robbery of a Wells Fargo truck; a press conference by the "Committee for the Defense of Our Dignity"; a press conference by the "Committee for the Defense of Democracy in Haiti"; numerous press conferences by labor unions; assembly of the "National Committee for the Defense of Vieques"; meetings of the "Committee for the Selection of Celeste as Mayor"; a press conference of the "Pastors' Association"; a seminar about the "organizational and political aspects of the Grand Jury"; press conferences of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party; press conference of the "United Committee Against Repression"; public hearing of the Central Committee of the Popular Democratic Party; meetings to organize a defense committee by the Puerto Rican Socialist League; a meeting of the leadership of the Popular Democratic Party in San Juan; a meeting of the San Juan Zone of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party; an organizational meeting of "Citizens interested in the improvement of TV"; meetings of the "Crusade for the Rescue of Vieques"; a press conference of the "Artists in Favor of Artistic Freedom"; commemoration of the anniversary of the death of Dr. Pedro J. Chamorro;¹¹ a press conference of the "Committee for the Defense of Puerto Rican Culture"; a press conference and meetings of the "Committee for the Defense of Nicaragua"; meetings of the "Law Students' Council" in connection with the strike at the University of Puerto Rico; a concert by the "Committee for the Defense in Support of the Puerto Rican Prisoners of War;¹² a press conference of the "Committee for the Rescue of Villa Sin Miedo",¹³ as well as various meetings and conferences related thereto; a movie-showing by "Claridad", the official newspaper of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, dealing with education in Cuba; a press conference by the Federation of University Students for Independence in connection with the "situation" at the University of Puerto Rico; an activity of the Puerto Rican...