Wayfield v. Town of Tisbury

• Decision Date: 21 May 1996
• Docket Number: Civil A. No. 92-11461-RCL.
• Citation: 925 F. Supp. 880
• Parties: David WAYFIELD, Plaintiff, v. TOWN OF TISBURY, et al., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

925 F. Supp. 880

David WAYFIELD, Plaintiff, v. TOWN OF TISBURY, et al., Defendant.

Civil A. No. 92-11461-RCL.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

May 21, 1996.

David Wayfield, Vineyard Haven, MA, pro se.

Regina M. Gilgun, Douglas I. Louison, Merrick and Louison, Boston, MA, for Defendant.

OPINION

LINDSAY, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on the defendants' motion for summary judgment. The plaintiff, David Wayfield, has one remaining claim, others having been disposed of by the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Wayfield v. Tisbury, No. 93-1535, slip op., 1993 WL 487830 (1st Cir. Nov. 29, 1993)) or by an order of this court (Wayfield v. Tisbury, No. 92-11461, slip op. (D.Mass. Sept. 8, 1995)). Wayfield claims that officials of the Vineyard Haven Public Library in Tisbury, Massachusetts failed to afford him constitutionally-required due process when they suspended his library privileges without a hearing. The defendants, Marjorie Convery, director of the library, and the library trustees, assert that Wayfield has no liberty or property interest in access to the Vineyard Haven Public Library and that, for that reason, his due process claim must fail.

For the following reasons, the defendants' summary judgment motion on this claim is DENIED.

I. Standard for Summary Judgment

Summary judgment is appropriate as to a claim or defense "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party has the burden of establishing the lack of a genuine, material factual issue. Snow v. Harnischfeger Corp., 12 F.3d 1154, 1157 (1st Cir.1993), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 56, 130 L.Ed.2d 15 (1994) (citing Finn v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 782 F.2d 13, 15 (1st Cir.1986)). It appears that there are no disputed material facts in this case. The question to be decided therefore is whether the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court concludes that they are not.

II. Facts

Except where otherwise noted, the following facts are not disputed in this case, and where there are disputes about the facts, those disputed facts are not material to the disposition of the present motion.

Wayfield is an adherent of a movement called "historical revisionism." He believes that the Vineyard Haven Public Library "discriminates against white Christians in the use of its facilities and resources and plays down the holocaust of some 50 million Christians in the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe under Judeo-Communism and plays up the Jewish holocaust under the Third Reich." Amended Complaint, pars. 81, 82. For some time he has waged a campaign to expose "his neighbors and especially the children of Tisbury" to writers who espouse the doctrines of historical revisionism. Amended Complaint, par. 13.

On December 14, 1990, Wayfield went to the Vineyard Haven Public Library where he spoke to Convery in an attempt to persuade her to add to the library's collection several books and periodicals on historical revisionism. Wayfield says that sometime later that day — Convery says the next day — he was approached by Convery about a menorah that Convery thought was missing from the library. Convery questioned Wayfield insistently about the apparently missing menorah¹ and asked to inspect a shoulder bag Wayfield was carrying. Wayfield refused to permit his bag to be inspected. Wayfield's version of what happened is that Convery screamed at him, assaulted him, and tried to grab the shoulder bag. In any event, after the encounter with Convery, Wayfield left the library.

On December 18, 1990, Wayfield received a certified letter from Convery informing him that "as a result of the disruptive incident that occurred on Saturday, December 15, 1990, in the Vineyard Haven Public Library and the disappearance of the menorah, your presence on the property or in the building will no longer be permitted." On December 20, 1990, Wayfield received another letter, this time from the library trustees, advising him that because of the "disruptive incident which occurred on Saturday afternoon, December 15, 1990," his library privileges were suspended until April 2, 1991. When Wayfield returned to the library in January, 1991, he was charged with trespassing. The trespassing charges were eventually dropped.

It does not appear from the record that in December, 1990 or January, 1991 the library had an established a policy for suspension of library privileges under circumstances like those presented in Wayfield's case.

III. Discussion

Wayfield's claim is that, in depriving him of library access without affording him a hearing, the defendants deprived him of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The first step in determining whether a plaintiff has a due process claim is to identify a specific liberty or property interest affected by the alleged governmental action. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). The next step, if a liberty or property interest has been affected, is to evaluate what process was due the plaintiff, and whether he was afforded it. Id.; see also Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976).

In this case, Wayfield argues that he has a liberty or property interest in using the public library. He bases this argument on the library's public nature ("Public libraries are tax-supported institutions, municipal, public service corporations." Plaintiff's Brief on the Question of Due Process and Equal Protection "Plaintiff's Brief" at 1) and on his "liberty inherent in his classification of citizenship in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Plaintiff's Brief at 2. The defendants do not argue against this interpretation. They declare instead that "plaintiff's interest in attending the Vineyard Haven Public Library is neither recognized by state law nor is it a fundamental or natural right," Defendants' Supplemental Brief in Support of Their Motion for Summary Judgment ("Defendants' Supplemental Brief") at 3. They do not cite any cases to support that statement, and indeed they proceed upon the assumption arguendo that the court nevertheless has determined that a right to access to a public library exists.

A. "Rights" Protected by Due Process

1. Two Classes of "Rights"

"Rights" that merit due process protection under the Fourteenth Amendment may be either of two types. The first of these are those rights deemed "fundamental" or "natural." Medina v. Rudman, 545 F.2d 244, 249 (1st Cir.1976) (citing Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 77 S.Ct. 752, 1 L.Ed.2d 796 (1957)); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923). The second encompasses rights recognized by state law as being common to all citizens; being so recognized they achieve the status of "liberty" or "property" interests when they are altered or extinguished. Medina, 545 F.2d at 250 (citing Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 708, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1164, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976)).

Rights in the first class, that is, "fundamental rights," are "chiefly those having to do with marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships and child rearing and education," and "the rights created by other provisions of the Constitution." Medina, 545 F.2d at 250, n. 7 (citing Paul, 424 U.S. at 712-13, 96 S.Ct. at 1166). They also include "the right to earn a living and engage in one's chosen profession." Medina, 545 F.2d at 249 (citing Schware, 353 U.S. 232, 77 S.Ct. 752, 1 L.Ed.2d 796 (1957)); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923). Wayfield does not argue that his asserted liberty or property interest in using the library falls into these categories.

The second class of rights that merit due process protection comprises a much broader spectrum. Specifically, as noted above, it includes rights which have been recognized by state law and have thus become "liberty" or "property" for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court, in Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982), defined "property" as "an individual entitlement grounded in state law which cannot be removed except `for cause.'"² Id. at 430 (citing Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div. v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 11-12, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 1561-62, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978)); Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 573-74, 95 S.Ct. 729, 735-736, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975); Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 576-78, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2708-10, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). The Court went on to enunciate the breadth of possible "property" interests:

Once that characteristic is found, the types of interests protected as "property" are varied and, as often as not, intangible, relating "to the whole domain of social and economic fact." National Mutual Ins. Co. v. Tidewater Transfer Co., 337 U.S. 582, 646 69 S.Ct. 1173, 1195, 93 L.Ed. 1556 (1949) (parallel citations omitted) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting); Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U.S. 134, 207-208, 94 S.Ct. 1633, 1670-1671, 40 L.Ed.2d 15 (parallel citations omitted); Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 571-572, 576-577 92 S.Ct. at XXXX-XXXX, 2708-2709 (1972) (parallel citations omitted). See, e.g., Barry v. Barchi, 443 U.S. 55 99 S.Ct. 2642, 61 L.Ed.2d 365 (1979) (parallel citations omitted) (horse trainer's license protected); Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div. v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978) (utility service); Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976) (parallel citations omitted) (disability benefits); Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 95 S.Ct. 729, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975) (high school education); Connell v. Higginbotham, 403 U.S. 207, 91 S.Ct. 1772, 29 L.Ed.2d 418 (1971) (parallel citations omitted) (government employment); Bell v.

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