So. Christian Leadership Conference v. Supreme Court of Louisiana

• Decision Date: 29 May 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-30895,99-30895
• Citation: 252 F.3d 781
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2001) SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, LOUISIANA CHAPTER; ST. JAMES CITIZENS FOR JOBS & THE ENVIRONMENT; CALCASIEU LEAGUE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NOW; HOLY CROSS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION; FISHERMEN & CONCERNED CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION OF PLAQUEMINES PARISH; ST. THOMAS RESIDENTS COUNCIL; LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NETWORK; LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW; NORTH BATON ROUGE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION; LOUISIANA COMMUNITIES UNITED; ROBERT KUEHN; CHRISTOPHER GOBERT; ELIZABETH E. TEEL; JANE JOHNSON; WILLIAM P. QUIGLEY; TULANE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SOCIETY; TULANE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION; INGA HAAGENSON CAUSEY; CAROLYN DELIZIA; DANA HANAMAN, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 781

252 F.3d 781 (5th Cir. 2001)

SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, LOUISIANA CHAPTER; ST. JAMES CITIZENS FOR JOBS & THE ENVIRONMENT; CALCASIEU LEAGUE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NOW; HOLY CROSS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION; FISHERMEN & CONCERNED CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION OF PLAQUEMINES PARISH; ST. THOMAS RESIDENTS COUNCIL; LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NETWORK; LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW; NORTH BATON ROUGE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION; LOUISIANA COMMUNITIES UNITED; ROBERT KUEHN; CHRISTOPHER GOBERT; ELIZABETH E. TEEL; JANE JOHNSON; WILLIAM P. QUIGLEY; TULANE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SOCIETY; TULANE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION; INGA HAAGENSON CAUSEY; CAROLYN DELIZIA; DANA HANAMAN, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-30895

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, FIFTH CIRCUIT

May 29, 2001

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before GOODWIN,^* GARWOOD and JONES, Circuit Judges.

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

On April 16, 1999, the Plaintiffs¹ filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, alleging that Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XX impermissibly suppresses Plaintiffs' freedoms of speech and association as protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The complaint seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, costs and attorneys' fees. Defendant, the Louisiana Supreme Court (LSC),² filed two motions, asking the district court to dismiss the action under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, and, in the alternative, to dismiss for lack of standing. Oral argument was held on July 21, 1999, and on July 27, 1999, the district court granted the LSC's motions. This appeal by Plaintiffs followed. We affirm.

Facts and Proceedings Below

In 1971, the LSC adopted the precursor to what is now Rule XX, which for the first time allowed the limited practice of law by students as part of supervised clinical education programs in Louisiana law schools. The rule allowed eligible law students in certain circumstances to appear in court or before administrative tribunals in a representative capacity on behalf of the state, its subdivisions, or any indigent person. In 1988, the LSC amended Rule XX to clarify that the rule also allowed students to represent indigent community organizations. See Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XX (1988). It is the LSC's most recent set of amendments to Rule XX that prompted the current suit. The rule as it exists now, and as it has always existed, operates only to set forth the limited circumstances under which unlicensed law students may engage in the practice of law in Louisiana; it has no other reach.

Over the years, several Louisiana law school clinics, including the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic (TELC), have supplied legal advice and representation to numerous individuals and various community organizations. In 1996, TELC agreed to represent St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment (St. James Citizens), a group of approximately one hundred low-income and working-class residents of St. James Parish. St. James Citizens was formed in response to a proposal by Shintech, a chemical manufacturer, to build a chemical plant in Convent, a small town in St. James Parish. The group was dedicated to resisting the construction of the Shintech plant in their community and to raising public awareness of community environmental and health concerns related to the proposed plant. TELC represented St. James Citizens in a variety of ways: at hearings before the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, in state court, and by filing objections to the proposed plant with the EPA. Eventually the resistence of the local community to the new plant drove Shintech to reject Convent as its site, and the plant was located elsewhere in Louisiana.

According to the Plaintiffs' complaint,³ TELC's representation of St. James Citizens induced significant criticism of the clinic from political and business leaders in Louisiana. The complaint alleges that various Louisiana business and political leaders, including Governor Foster, tried to convince Tulane University to curtail the endeavors of TELC. Tulane University proved unresponsive to this pressure, and so, according to the complaint, the "powerful political and business interests" opposed to the clinic turned their attention to the LSC. The complaint alleges that these political and business interests urged the LSC to prevent TELC and other clinics from continuing to aid community groups in giving voice to environmental and health concerns. The Plaintiffs allege several specific incidents that they claim document the political pressure exerted on both Tulane and the LSC, including phone calls from Governor Foster to the President of Tulane University, statements of Governor Foster at a meeting of the New Orleans Business Council requesting assistance in curtailing the efforts of TELC, various public criticisms of TELC by Governor Foster, a letter from a chamber of commerce organization urging the LSC to eliminate the TELC because the faculty and students involved were "in direct conflict with business positions," and letters from various business organizations, including the Business Council, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, and The Chamber/Southwest Louisiana, urging the LSC to eliminate TELC.

Allegedly in response to the concerns of the Governor and business groups, in the fall of 1997 the LSC launched an official investigation into the activities of TELC and Louisiana's other law school clinics. The results of this investigation have not been made public, but the Plaintiffs allege in their complaint that two Justices of the LSC have disclosed that the investigation did not reveal any inappropriate or unethical behavior by any person associated with any Louisiana law school clinic.

The LSC did in fact alter its rule concerning student practitioners, and on March 22, 1999, the Court announced the amendments that established the current form of Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XX. The amendments became effective April 15, 1999, and by their terms "shall not impact or apply to any cases, and/or the representation of any clients, in which the representation commenced prior to the effective date of the amendments." The amendments to Rule XX altered the existing rule in two ways that are relevant to the present case. First, the rule's indigence requirements were tightened. The new rule allows representation of individuals or families only if their annual income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The rule also now requires that any indigent community organization that wishes to obtain representation from a clinic must certify in writing its inability to pay for legal services, and at least fifty-one percent of the members of the organization must meet the income guidelines. The second major change to Rule XX involves the community outreach efforts of the law school clinics. Under the new rule, clinical student practitioners are prohibited from representing in the role of attorneys an otherwise qualified individual or organization if any person associated with the clinic initiated contact with that individual or organization for purposes of that representation.⁴ In response to the LSC's new Rule XX, the Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit on April 16, 1999.

In an opinion dated July 27, 1999, the district court dismissed the case for lack of standing and for failure to state a claim. The district court held that the complaint failed to establish the deprivation of any cognizable federal right. The court found that the indigence requirements did not implicate any freedom of association or speech, and that the limitation of clinical services to the poor was rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Southern Christian Leadership Conference v. Supreme Court, 61 F.Supp.2d 499, 511 (E.D. La. 1999). The court noted that the LSC has broad power to regulate student practice, and held that in this context, the solicitation restrictions of Rule XX did not violate the First Amendment. The court reasoned: "While free speech rights do exist in this area, they are precariously perched when balanced against the imperatives of protecting the public and monitoring professional ethics. Particularly where student solicitation of potential clients is involved, concern for protecting the public grows considerably." Id. at 512. Applying rational basis review, the court held that the solicitation restrictions were justified because the restrictions were rationally related to the state's legitimate interest in protecting the public and monitoring professional ethics. Id. The court also dismissed the Plaintiffs' claims of viewpoint discrimination, holding that the political motivations of the LSC could not transform an otherwise permissible action into a constitutional violation. Id. at 513. Accordingly, the district court dismissed the Plaintiffs' claims in their entirety. This appeal followed.

Discussion

We review de novo a district court's dismissal for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). Leffall v. Dallas Independent School Dist., 28 F.3d 521, 524 (5th Cir. 1994). In considering a motion to dismiss, the complaint should be construed in favor of the plaintiff, and all facts pleaded should be taken as true. Brown v. Nationsbank Corp., 188 F.3d 579, 585-86 (5th Cir. 1999). Motions "to dismiss for failure to state a claim [are] 'viewed with disfavor, and [are] rarely granted.'" Tanglewood East Homeowners v. Charles-Thomas, Inc., 849 F.2d 1568, 1572 (5th Cir. 1988) (quoting Sosa v. Coleman, 646 F.2d 991, 993 (5th Cir. 1981)). A Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal will not be affirmed "unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in...