Trucke v. Erlemeier

• Decision Date: 04 March 1987
• Docket Number: No. C 86-4181.,C 86-4181.
• Citation: 657 F. Supp. 1382
• Parties: Greg TRUCKE, Karen Trucke, Shawn Trucke and Wendy Trucke, Plaintiffs, v. Roger ERLEMEIER, Gary Brouilette, Brady Hanson, James Jensen, Ervin Thies, in their official capacities as members of the School Board of the Maple Valley Community School District; Dennis L. Webner, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the Maple Valley Community School District; and Michael P. Jensen, in his official capacity as Monona County Attorney, Defendants, State of Iowa, Intervenor.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

657 F. Supp. 1382

Greg TRUCKE, Karen Trucke, Shawn Trucke and Wendy Trucke, Plaintiffs, v. Roger ERLEMEIER, Gary Brouilette, Brady Hanson, James Jensen, Ervin Thies, in their official capacities as members of the School Board of the Maple Valley Community School District; Dennis L. Webner, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the Maple Valley Community School District; and Michael P. Jensen, in his official capacity as Monona County Attorney, Defendants, State of Iowa, Intervenor.

No. C 86-4181.

United States District Court, N.D. Iowa W.D.

March 4, 1987.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael D. Farris, Washington, D.C., Myron Toering, Sioux Center, Iowa, for plaintiffs.

Michael Jensen, Monona Co. Atty., Onawa, Iowa, pro se.

Derrick Franck, Denison, Iowa, for defendants.

Merle Fleming, Iowa Atty. Gen. Office, Des Moines, Iowa, for the State.

ORDER

DONALD E. O'BRIEN, Chief Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on the plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order. A motion to dismiss for want of subject matter jurisdiction has been filed on behalf of the State, which was permitted to intervene under 28 U.S.C. § 2403(b) because the constitutionality of a state statute was drawn into question. Motions to abstain have been filed on behalf of the State and Defendant Erlemeier, Brouilette, Hanson, James Jensen, Thies and Webner (hereinafter "the School Board defendants"). Defendant Michael Jensen has also filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. A hearing was held and three sets of briefs have been submitted. Although the plaintiffs' motion was labeled as a motion for a temporary restraining order, the Court has followed procedures for granting a preliminary injunction because it was clear that the plaintiffs sought relief which would last longer than ten days. After careful consideration of the many issues involved, the Court denies each motion to dismiss, denies in part and grants in part the motions to abstain, and denies the plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.

UNDISPUTED FACTS

Greg and Karen Trucke are the parents of two school-age children, Shawn and Wendy. According to their complaint, Mr. and Mrs. Trucke (hereinafter referred to simply as "the Truckes") are teaching their children at home. On October 14, 1985, the Truckes were prosecuted¹ for violating Iowa's compulsory attendance law, which states in relevant part:

A person having control of a child over seven and under sixteen years of age, in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, shall cause the child to attend some public school for at least one hundred twenty days in each school year, commencing with the first week of school after the first day of September, unless the board of school directors establishes a later date, which date shall not be later than the first Monday in December.

The board may, by resolution, require attendance for the entire time when the schools are in session in any school year.

In lieu of such attendance such child may attend upon equivalent instruction by a certified teacher elsewhere.

Iowa Code § 299.1 (1985). The Iowa District Court for Monona County found that at the beginning of the 1985-86 school year, Greg and Karen Trucke provided most of the instruction in the home school, but neither was a certified teacher. The Truckes stated to that court that the children also received instruction on one day each week for three or four hours from Susan Goodenow, who they said was a certified teacher. Because the Truckes failed to have their children attend a school which provides instruction by a certified teacher for at least 120 days during the school year, the District Court affirmed the magistrate's ruling that the Truckes violated 299.1. State v. Trucke, Nos. 7-189 through 7-192 (March 3, 1986). Their appeal of that decision is presently awaiting oral argument before the Iowa Supreme Court.

On September 11, 1986, the Secretary of the Maple Valley Community School Board, which is obligated by law to take action if truancy is suspected,² wrote to the Truckes to request information from them concerning their children's education during the current school year. Enclosed with the letter and information forms were the State Department of Public Instruction's August 15, 1985 policy on equivalent instruction and regulations promulgated December 12, 1985 by the Board of Public Instruction to "give guidance to parents, guardians, local school boards and teachers providing private instruction outside of the traditional school setting with respect to equivalent instruction for children of compulsory attendance age." Iowa Administrative Code 671 Ch. 63.1(299) (1986) (Exhibit C to Affidavit of Dennis Webner).

On October 8, 1986, after the Truckes wrote back that they would not return the forms, the School Board passed the following resolution:

Based on the fact that Greg and Karen Trucke refused to supply any information concerning the home schooling of the children, Shawn and Wendy, the Board has cause to believe that Shawn and Wendy Trucke may not be receiving equivalent instruction by a certified teacher as required by Chapter 299 of the Code of Iowa and the regulations of the Department of Education. The Superintendent is directed to refer the matter to the County Attorney for his opinion and determination of appropriate action in this matter.

(Exhibit A).

On October 14, 1986, the Trucke family initiated this action in this court seeking damages, declaratory judgments, an injunction and attorney's fees. The claim is predicated on 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and alleges that the Truckes' past prosecution and any future prosecution would violate their rights under each clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. On October 20, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a "temporary restraining order prohibiting the defendants herein from taking any new action to enforce the provisions of Iowa Code § 299.1 or any related statutes against the plaintiffs in a criminal case or otherwise." They did not seek to restrain proceedings on the case pending before the Iowa Supreme Court. Moreover, they did not seek a TRO on First Amendment grounds; instead, they have argued that § 299.1 is unenforceable because the terms "equivalent instruction" have been declared unconstitutionally vague in Fellowship Baptist Church v. Benton, 620 F.Supp. 308 (S.D.Iowa 1985), and that as a consequence, § 299.1's entire compulsory education requirement, as well as new administrative rules interpreting the vague terms, are unenforceable. The plaintiffs also argue that the enforcement scheme set out in the new regulations is unconstitutional because it vests responsibility for determining whether the Truckes' education is "equivalent" in the local School Board, which they believe cannot be impartial because its state funding varies by the number of pupils in the public school system.³

PRIOR LITIGATION CONCERNING § 299.1

The meaning and constitutionality of § 299.1's last sentence have already been the subjects of three major decisions. In State v. Moorhead, 308 N.W.2d 60 (Iowa 1981), the Iowa Supreme Court rejected a vagueness challenge to both the certified teacher and equivalent instruction requirements. In Johnson v. Charles City Community Schools Board of Education, 368 N.W.2d 74 (Iowa 1985), the same court rejected each part of a broader attack on 299.1. It specifically reaffirmed its statement in Moorhead that equivalent instruction means "instruction which is equal in kind and amount to that provided in public schools," Moorhead at 64, but added that the Moorhead decision "did not suggest that private religious schools can be made to submit to the sort of state regulation condemned in State v. Whisner, 47 Ohio St.2d 181, 351 N.E.2d 750 (1976)." Johnson, 368 N.W.2d at 79.

In Fellowship Baptist Church v. Benton, 620 F.Supp. 308 (S.D.Iowa 1985), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Judge William Stuart presiding, rejected a nearly identical request for relief from two churches which operated schools as part of their educational ministry. Although the court denied the plaintiff's request for declaratory and injunctive relief in full, it held that "the term equivalent instruction is unconstitutionally vague under the Due Process Clause ... and may not be used as a compulsory education requirement without further definition." Id. at 318. Like the Iowa Supreme Court in Moorhead and Johnson, Judge Stuart held that 299.1's certified teacher requirement was constitutional.

Administrative rules designed to interpret the term "equivalent instruction" became effective on February 6, 1986, although the rule-making process began in July 1985, prior to the Fellowship Baptist decision. (Brief of Intervenor State of Iowa at 4). Under Iowa's Constitution, either the governor or the legislature could have vetoed the rules prior to their effective date. Iowa Const. Art. III, § 40.

DISCUSSION

The relief which the plaintiffs seek is perhaps the most difficult kind to obtain in a federal court — an order restraining the enforcement of a state law on the basis of facial unconstitutionality. The plaintiffs must overcome three hurdles before this Court can reach the heart of this claim. Their claim must present a "case or controversy" within the Article III jurisdiction of the federal courts, Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, 31 S.Ct. 250, 55 L.Ed. 246 (1911); the Court must find that it should not abstain in order to avoid a "premature federal decision of a substantial constitutional issue ...", Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941); and the plaintiffs must satisfy the traditional requirements of equitable relief, including the requirement that a great, immediate, and irreparable injury will result if no TRO or...