Tate v. Akers, 76-1418
| Decision Date | 23 November 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-1418,76-1418 |
| Citation | 565 F.2d 1166 |
| Parties | Bob TATE and Jerry Higgs, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Lola AKERS, Dorothy Dietz, Dick Foster, Roger Gonzales, Patsy McGinley, Frank H. Moore, Norman E. "Skip" Roberts, and Richard W. Weeks, Members of the City Council of the City of Laramie, Wyoming, Ted C. Gertsch, Member of the City Council of the City of Laramie, Wyoming and Mayor of the City of Laramie, Wyoming, and Ted Kersting, Chief of Police of the City of Laramie, Wyoming, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Hugh B. McFadden, Jr., Laramie, Wyo. (Corthell, King, McFadden, Nicholas & Prehoda, Laramie, Wyo., Warren L. Johns, Walter E. Carson, Johns & Carson, Washington, D. C., and Boardman Noland, Takoma Park, Md., on the brief), for plaintiffs-appellees.
Thomas S. Smith, Laramie, Wyo. (Smith, Stanfield & Scott, Laramie, Wyo., on the brief), for defendants-appellants.
Before McWILLIAMS and BARRETT, Circuit Judges, and BOHANON, Senior District Judge. *
The precise question in this appeal is whether a Seventh Day Adventist "literature evangelist," sometimes referred to as a "colporteur," is a "solicitor," "peddler," "hawker," or "itinerant merchant," as those terms are used in the City of Laramie's version of the so-called Green River Ordinance. The trial court, after trial of the matter and after having heard testimony as to the nature of a colporteur's work, found, and concluded, that a colporteur was neither a solicitor, a peddler, a hawker, nor an itinerant merchant, and accordingly held that the Laramie ordinance did not apply to colporteurs. The trial court's memorandum opinion appears as Tate v. Akers, 409 F.Supp. 978 (D.Wyo.1976). Our study of the matter convinces us that the trial court's disposition of the matter finds support in the record, and we therefore affirm.
The ordinance with which we are here concerned, Laramie, Wyo. City Code § 28-3, provides as follows:
The practice of going in and upon private residences, in the city, by solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, itinerant merchants, not having been requested or invited to do so by the owner or occupant of such private residences for the purpose of soliciting orders for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, or for the purpose of disposing of or peddling or hawking the same, is hereby declared to be unlawful and a nuisance. The chief of police and police force of the city shall suppress the same and abate any such nuisance. (Emphasis added.)
The record before us does not disclose the date when the foregoing ordinance was enacted. The record does disclose that in 1974 an amendment to exempt bona fide religious organizations from the ordinance was defeated by the City Council for Laramie, Wyoming. Thereafter, the Mayor and City Council of Laramie announced their intention to enforce the ordinance against colporteurs of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and others. Apparently the ordinance had not been so enforced prior thereto. In any event, it was in this general setting that Bob Tate and Jerry Higgs, both members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and each responsible for carrying on, and supervising others carrying on, "a campaign of literature evangelism in Laramie, Wyoming," brought a class action against the Mayor, the members of the City Council, and the Chief of Police of Laramie, Wyoming. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, the plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment that the aforementioned ordinance by its own terms was inapplicable to them, and, alternatively, that if the ordinance were found to be applicable to them, a declaration that the ordinance is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Jurisdiction was based on 28 U.S.C. § 1343, the action being one in equity authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The defendants' position was that the ordinance in question was applicable to the plaintiffs and that such was a constitutional exercise of police power by the City of Laramie.
Trial was to the court, and the plaintiffs called two witnesses who testified as to the general nature of the Seventh Day Adventist religion, and more particularly as to the nature of a colporteur's religious work. The defendants called some three witnesses, the testimony of two relating to the unsuccessful attempt in 1974 to amend the ordinance so as to exempt bona fide religious organizations, and the intent of Laramie officials to enforce the ordinance against the plaintiffs. Defendants' third witness testified concerning the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Upon the conclusion of the trial, the judge held that the ordinance did not apply to the plaintiffs, and accordingly declined to reach the question as to whether the ordinance, if it did apply to the plaintiffs, was constitutional. By its judgment, the trial court enjoined the defendants from enforcing the ordinance against the plaintiffs. The Mayor, City Council, and the Chief of Police now appeal from that judgment.
There is nothing in the record to indicate the legislative intent of the City Council which enacted the ordinance. The fact that, in 1974, an amendment to exempt bona fide religious organizations from the ordinance was defeated is no evidence of the legislative intent behind the original enactment of the ordinance which presumably occurred prior to 1974. Thus, in determining the applicability of the ordinance to the plaintiffs, we, like the trial court, must look to the ordinance itself, and the language thereof.
The ordinance provides, in effect, that the acts of uninvited "solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, (and) itinerant merchants" in going to private residences for the purpose of soliciting orders or selling "goods, wares, and merchandise" constitute a nuisance and should be abated. Is a colporteur of the Seventh Day Adventist Church a solicitor, peddler, hawker, or itinerant merchant? Such determination depends on the nature of a colporteur's activities.
The trial judge in his memorandum opinion made detailed findings concerning the Seventh Day Adventist Church and its use of colporteurs to spread its version of the gospel. Such findings will be only summarized here. Plaintiffs are members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and they propose to engage in a campaign of literature evangelism in the City of Laramie, Wyoming. The Seventh Day Adventists comprise a religious denomination with more than 2,500,000 members. Two basic tenets of the religion are that the seventh day of the week, namely, Saturday, is the Sabbath and that there will be a second coming of Christ. Literature evangelism is a formal program of the Church and has been relied on for more than a hundred years as a primary means of spreading their gospel and gaining converts. A literature evangelist, or colporteur, is a credentialed representative of the Church and is considered to be engaged in a form of ministry. Prior to being selected as a colporteur, the applicant is subjected to rigorous investigation to determine that he is well-trained in church doctrine and that he is otherwise suited for this calling.
As concerns a colporteur's method of operation, the trial court found such to be as follows:
The literature evangelist goes from door-to-door attempting to engage residents in conversations about contemporary problems and proposing to offer a religious solution to them. If the householder shows no interest or does not invite them into the house, the literature evangelist politely leaves. If the householder invites the literature evangelist into his home, the evangelist discusses these world problems, offers his religious solution to them, and in the course of it, may offer to sell the individual any one or more of a series of publications produced by the church.
The publications which the literature evangelist offers for sale are magazines and handsomely illustrated, hard-bound books. These magazines and sets of books range in price from approximately $8 for the magazine subscriptions to in excess of $125.00 for one of the many sets of hard-bound books. Their subject matter ranges from purely religious matters such as stories from the Bible, designed for both children and adults, to treatises on health and home medicine. If the individual is not interested in purchasing any of the sets offered for sale, the literature evangelist offers to pray with the individual or the family and also offers to leave with them at no cost a 32-lesson home-study Bible course. The evangelist also endeavors to make an appointment for a return visit in order to continue the ministry which has begun with this first visit. 409 F.Supp. at 979-80.
It should be noted that another tenet or belief of the Seventh Day Adventists is that the physical body is itself a temple for the Holy Spirit, and hence the Church, by appropriate literature and otherwise, encourages good health and physical well being. This particular tenet accounts for the fact that some of the material sold by colporteurs...
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