Winstanley v. Port Auth. Of N.Y.
| Decision Date | 30 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | Docket Nos. 08-1768-cv, 08-1895-cv. |
| Citation | 615 F.3d 129 |
| Parties | John TORRACO, William Winstanley, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, Port Authority of NY & NJ Board of Commissioners, Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., Executive Director, Port Authority of NY & NJ, Port Authority Police Department, Samuel J. Plumeri Jr., Director of Public Safety/Superintendent of Police, Port Authority Police Department, Christopher Trucillo, Chief, Port Authority Police Department, Sergeant Goldberg, Port Authority Police, Anthony Espinal, Port Authority Police Officer, Paulsen, Port Authority Police Officer, Port Authority Police Officer, Lieutenant, Port Authority Police, unknown at present, Port Authority Police Sergeant, unknown at present, John Doe I, Port Authority Police Officer, unknown at present, John Doe II, Port Authority Police Officer, unknown at present, Defendants-Appellees, Matthew R. Weasner, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anthony Passalaqua (# 174), Long Island MacArthur Airport Police Officer, Town of Islip, New York, Pete McGowan, Town of Islip Supervisor, Long Island MacArthur Airport Police Department, and Greg Decanio, Chief of Patrol, Long Island MacArthur Airport Police Department, Defendants-Appellees, Suffolk County, New York, Steve Levy, Suffolk County Executive, Suffolk County Police Department, Richard Dormer, Suffolk County Police Department Commissioner, Kevin M. Henry (# 5105), Suffolk County Police Officer, Suffolk County Police Officer, unknown at present (John Doe), Peter Quinn, Inspector, 5th Precinct, Suffolk County Police Department, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
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Stephen P. Halbrook, Fairfax, VA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Kathleen Gill Miller (Milton H. Pachter, Joan F. Bennett, on the brief), New York, N.Y., for Defendants-Appellees.
Richard E. Gardiner, Fairfax, VA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Richard Carl Imbrogno, New York, N.Y., for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: POOLER, PARKER, WESLEY, Circuit Judges.
In these cases, which we heard in tandem and now consolidate for disposition, plaintiffs-appellants John Torraco and William Winstanley appeal from a March 24, 2008 judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Cogan, J.) dismissing their claims against Sergeant Lawrence Goldberg, police officers Anthony Espinal and Paulsen, and other appellees. Plaintiff-appellant Matthew Weasner appeals from an April 17, 2008 judgment, also of the Eastern District of New York, dismissing his claims against police officer Anthony Passalaqua and other appellees. The district court resolved both cases through summary judgment.
All three appellants complain of the actions taken by appellee police officers when appellants attempted to transport unloaded firearms in checked baggage through various New York airports. Appellants followed Transportation Safety Administration (“TSA”) regulations, see 49 C.F.R. § 1540.111(c)(2), 1 and relied upon 18 U.S.C. § 926A (“ Section 926A”), a statute' which allows individuals to transport firearms from one state in which they are legal, through another state in which they are illegal, to a third state in which they are legal, provided that several conditions are met, without incurring criminal liability under local gun laws. All three appellants were interviewed and delayed from traveling, and two-Torraco and Weasner-were arrested by officers seeking to enforce New York gun laws criminalizing the possession of a firearm without a New York firearm license. See N.Y. Penal Law §§ 265.01(1), 265.20(3); see also Bach v. Pataki, 408 F.3d 75, 78-82 (2d Cir.2005) (). 2 Torraco and Weasner do not possess New York firearm licenses, and are precluded from acquiring such licenses because they neither reside nor work in New York State. See N.Y. Penal Law § 400.00(3)(a).
In this suit, all appellants seek to enforce Section 926A through 42 U.S.C. § 1983, all appellants allege infringements of their constitutional rights to travel, and Torraco and Weasner complain of false arrest. The district court rejected these claims, and upon review, we affirm. Before explaining our reasons for doing so, however, we first describe the relevant individual circumstances of each case, stating them, as we must, in the light most favorable to appellants. See Pyke v. Cuomo, 567 F.3d 74, 76 (2d Cir.2009).
I. Factual BackgroundA. John Torraco
On October 15, 2004, Torraco, who is a citizen and resident of the state of Florida, and his wife, who is not a party to this action, flew from Florida into LaGuardia Airport (“LaGuardia”), New York, from which they went to Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, to stay with Torraco's mother. Two days later, the couple set out for LaGuardia to return to Florida. Torraco's mother first drove them to a friend's house in Queens, New York. 3 Following a brief visit, the friend drove the couple to the airport. During this time, Torraco's unloaded, disassembled gun was in a carrying case kept in the car trunk.
Upon arrival at LaGuardia, Torraco informed the airline ticket agent that he had a gun in a carrying case, which he wanted to check through. The agent tagged the firearm with an orange firearms declaration tag, and advised Torraco that it was standard operating procedure to notify the Port Authority Police when a passenger declares a weapon, which she did. Appellee Officer Espinal responded and asked Torraco whether he had a New York license for the firearm. Torraco, who, as noted above, does not, informed Officer Espinal that he was traveling from New Jersey to Florida, and that Section 926A preempted local licensing requirements. Being unfamiliar with Section 926A, Officer Espinal called his superior, appellee Sergeant Goldberg. Upon joining the group, Sergeant Goldberg was informed that Torraco had voluntarily declared his gun at the ticket counter, was coming from New Jersey where he had a residence, and was going to Florida where, in Torraco's view, he was legally authorized to carry the gun without a license. Sergeant Goldberg asked Torraco for paperwork that would establish that he was lawfully in possession of the gun. A TSA supervisor arrived and took the position that Torraco was permitted to transport the weapon without regard to local law. Sergeant Goldberg took the position that Torraco needed to first establish that his possession of the gun was lawful, before the question of whether he could legally possess the gun in New Jersey or Florida became relevant. He and Officer Espinal arrested Torraco for violating New York Penal Law § 265.01(1), which provides that “[a] person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree when ... [h]e possesses any firearm” without a license. 4 Torraco was held for twenty-eight hours, when he was arraigned in Queens County Criminal Court on that charge, and subsequently released on recognizance. His attorney moved to dismiss on the ground of federal preemption, and though the district attorney did not respond to the motion, he cross-moved to dismiss in the interests of justice. The court denied the district attorney's motion and granted Torraco's motion, finding that the State's failure to respond to Torraco's motion was a concession on the merits.
Torraco subsequently brought this suit in federal court alleging that appellees violated: (a) his right to carry firearms under Section 926A, and (b) his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. He sought to enforce both of these claimed rights under Section 1983.
B. William Winstanley
Approximately six months later, on April 1, 2005, Winstanley, a citizen and resident of the State of New York, and who, unlike Torraco, has a New York firearm license, underwent a somewhat similar experience at John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”), New York, from where Winstanley was scheduled to fly to Phoenix, Arizona. Winstanley was traveling with more than one unloaded firearm, packed in accordance with TSA regulations. Upon arrival, Winstanley declared his firearms to the ticket agent who, in accordance with protocol, contacted the Port Authority Police. Appellee Officer Paulsen arrived, asked Winstanley for his New York firearm license, which Winstanley presented, asked Winstanley where he was going, to which Winstanley responded-Tucson, Arizona, and asked Winstanley for his concealed weapons permit for Arizona, to which Winstanley responded that he did not have one, nor did he need one because he had a Florida concealed weapons permit, which allowed him to carry a concealed weapon in Arizona. Officer Paulsen disagreed, stating that Winstanley needed a concealed weapons permit for Arizona and when Winstanley asked for a supervisor, threatened to place him under arrest and informed him that he could not board the aircraft. 5 As the airline with which he was traveling apparently only had one flight a day to Tucson, Winstanley changed his flight to the next day, anticipating that the delay would cause him to miss his flight. He then proceeded to the Port Authority Police headquarters at JFK and spoke to a lieutenant who agreed that Winstanley did not need a permit to openly carry a weapon in Arizona. When the lieutenant left the room, Winstanley also spoke to a sergeant, who, he testified, showed him, but would not let him examine, a matrix in a folder entitled “Gun Laws of the United States.” The next day, Winstanley returned to JFK, and again declared his firearms at the ticket counter. As with the previous day, the agent gave him a declaration tag and contacted the Port Authority Police. An unidentified officer asked him for his New York gun license, which Winstanley produced. The officer then inspected the gun case and told Winstanley that he had the wrong type of carrying case. When...
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