Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-03-02801/USCOURTS-ca8-03-02801-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Mike Fahey
Appellee
Amy Klobuchar
Appellee
Republican Party of Minnesota
Appellant

Document Text:

1The Honorable Clyde H. Hamilton, United States Circuit Judge for the United

States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sitting by designation.

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

No. 03-2801

*

Republican Party of Minnesota, * Appeal from the United 

Third Congressional District, an * States District Court for

association, * the District of Minnesota

* 

Plaintiff - Appellant, *

* 

v. *

*

Amy Klobuchar, in her official *

capacity as Hennepin County *

Attorney; Mike Fahey, in his *

official capacity as Carver County *

Attorney, *

*

Defendants - Appellees. *

*

 Submitted: May 13, 2004

 Filed: August 26, 2004 

Before WOLLMAN, HAMILTON1

, and BYE, Circuit Judges.

HAMILTON, Circuit Judge

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2The Honorable Donovan W. Frank, United States District Judge for the

District of Minnesota.

3The Party’s territory totally encompasses Hennepin County Commissioner,

District 6. “Membership” in the Party is defined as “all voters of the Third

Congressional District who desire to support the objectives of the Republican Party,”

which objectives include furthering the principles of the Republican Party within the

Third Congressional District and electing Republicans to federal, state and local

office. (A.A. 78). 

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The Republican Party of Minnesota, Third Congressional District (the Party),

brought this action alleging three as-applied challenges and one First Amendment

facial overbreadth challenge to Minnesota Statute § 211B.06, subdivision 1. Minn.

Stat. Ann. § 211B.06, subd. 1 (West Supp. 2004) (hereinafter referred to in text as

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1). The action follows and stems from the criminal

prosecution of John Knight (Knight), a Party-endorsed candidate for Hennepin

County, Minnesota Commissioner, District 6, who was charged under § 211B.06,

subdivision 1 with four counts of making a false campaign statement about a political

opponent in the fall of 2002.

The district court2

 held the Party lacked standing with respect to each of its

claims, and therefore, dismissed the entire action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil

Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Alternatively, the district

court dismissed the entire action pursuant to the Younger abstention doctrine. See

Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971).

For reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. 

In September 2002, Knight, Linda Koblick (Koblick), and other individuals ran

for the non-partisan position of Hennepin County Commissioner, District 6. The

Party endorsed Knight over Koblick in the race.3

 Five days before the primary

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4Notably, according to the Party’s first amended complaint, neither the

Republican Party of Minnesota nor the Party maintains membership rolls, and the

Party’s constitution does not have a member removal mechanism except with respect

to members who are on the Party’s executive committee, a mechanism never used

against Koblick.

5In State v. Jude, 554 N.W.2d 750 (Minn. Ct. App. 1996), Minnesota’s

intermediate appellate court held a prior version of this statute, not at issue here,

unconstitutionally overbroad. Instead of the words “the person knows is false or

communicates to others with reckless disregard of whether it is false,” as contained

in the current version, the unamended version contained the words “the person knows

or has reason to believe is false,” Minn. Stat. Ann. § 211B.06, subd. 1 (West 1992).

The Jude court’s overbreadth analysis focused on the unamended version’s “reason

to believe” language. Jude, 554 N.W.2d at 753. The Jude court concluded that this

language potentially allowed punishment for some defamatory speech that was not

published with actual malice, and therefore, the statute was unconstitutionally

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election, Koblick complained to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) that

Knight’s campaign had placed scripted telephone calls to potential voters falsely

identifying Knight as the only Republican candidate in the race. According to

Koblick, Knight knew she was a member of the Republican Party of Minnesota and

the Party. She also claimed to have served in Party leadership positions, including

being Party chair when he was elected vice chair. Koblick complained that Knight

violated Minnesota Statute § 211B.06, subdivision 1 by claiming to be the only

Republican candidate in the race.4

 In relevant part, § 211B.06, subdivision 1

provides: 

A person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor who intentionally participates

in the preparation, dissemination, or broadcast of paid political

advertising or campaign material with respect to the personal or political

character or acts of a candidate . . . that is designed or tends to elect,

injure, promote, or defeat a candidate for nomination or election to a

public office . . . that is false, and that the person knows is false or

communicates to others with reckless disregard of whether it is false. 

Minn. Stat. Ann. § 211B.06, subd. 1 (West Supp. 2004).5

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overbroad. Id. at 754. The current version of § 211B.06, subdivision 1 was enacted

in response to Jude.

6On February 7, 2003, Carver County Attorney Fahey dismissed the indictment

and substituted a criminal complaint.

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Due to a conflict of interest, the County Attorney for HCAO, Amy Klobuchar

(Hennepin County Attorney Klobuchar), referred Koblick’s complaint to Michael

Fahey, the County Attorney for neighboring Carver County (Carver County Attorney

Fahey). Following an investigation conducted by the Carver County Attorney’s

Office, on January 9, 2003, a Carver County grand jury indicted Knight on four

counts of violating Minnesota Statute § 211B.06, subdivision 1 by using knowingly

false and misleading claims in his paid political advertising material.6

On January 30, 2003, the Party filed the present civil action on behalf of Knight

and its other members, in the United States District Court for the District of

Minnesota, against Hennepin County Attorney Klobuchar and Carver County

Attorney Fahey (the Defendants), in their official capacities only. In Count I, the

Party alleged that by prosecuting Knight the Defendants: (1) “are violating the

Party’s freedom of association rights to determine membership requirements and

define what a Republican is”; and (2) “are chilling candidate-members and members

of the Party from discussions regarding re-defining membership and what a

Republican is for the 2004 and 2006 elections.” (A.A. 69-70). In Count II, the Party

alleged that by prosecuting Knight the Defendants, in violation of the First

Amendment, are chilling its and Party members’ free speech rights to declare who is

or is not “a Republican.” (A.A. 71). In Count III, the Party brought a First

Amendment facial overbreadth challenge to § 211B.06, subdivision 1. Finally, in

Count IV, added via an amended complaint, the Party alleged that certain statements

made by counsel for Carver County Attorney Fahey after this case was filed have

resulted in continued intimidation by the Defendants that has further chilled Party

members’ free speech and left them in fear of prosecution. The challenged statements

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were to the effect that, in prosecuting Knight, the Defendants only did what the law

required them to do. As relief, the Party’s first amended complaint seeks: (1) a

permanent injunction against the prosecution of Knight and its other members under

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1 for establishing Party membership requirements; (2) a

declaration that § 211B.06, subdivision 1 is facially and as applied to the facts of this

case unconstitutional; and (3) reimbursement for all litigation costs, expenses, and

expert witness fees as allowed by law. Notably, the Party expressly alleged in its first

amended complaint that it “did not and has not taken a position on whether John

Knight was the only Republican candidate [in the race for Hennepin County

Commissioner, District Number 6] . . . .” (A.A. 71).

The Defendants filed motions to dismiss the Party’s first amended complaint

on numerous grounds, including lack of standing and Younger abstention. Without

addressing the other grounds raised by the Defendants, the district court dismissed the

Party’s first amended complaint on the ground that the Party lacked standing, see Fed.

R. Civ. Proc. 12(b)(1), and, alternatively, on the ground of Younger abstention. The

Party noted a timely appeal.

On September 5, 2003, during the pendency of this appeal, the state court

dismissed with prejudice the four criminal charges against Knight for violating

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1. The dismissal with prejudice came as the result of Knight’s

fulfillment of an agreement to read a scripted apology into the court record and to

make a total donation of $500 to nonpolitical charities.

II.

The gravamen of the Party’s three as-applied First Amendment challenges is

that Knight’s § 211B.06, subdivision 1 prosecution for use of the telephone script

claiming to be the lone Republican candidate in the race for Hennepin County

Commissioner, District 6, is chilling it and its members from defining and expressing

membership policies as well as making membership determinations. The district

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court dismissed these three claims on the alternative grounds of lack of standing, see

Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 12(b)(1), and Younger abstention. See Younger, 401 U.S. at 37.

The Party challenges the district court’s action as erroneous.

As previously set forth, while this case was pending on appeal, all criminal

charges against John Knight for his alleged violations of § 211B.06, subdivision 1

have been dismissed with prejudice. This undisputed factual development raises the

threshold jurisdictional issue of whether the Party’s three claims alleging “as-applied”

First Amendment challenges to § 211B.06, subdivision 1 (Counts I, II, and IV) should

be dismissed as moot.

“In order to invoke the jurisdiction of the federal courts, the parties must

demonstrate an actual, ongoing case or controversy within the meaning of Article III

of the Constitution.” Iron Cloud v. Sullivan, 984 F.2d 241, 242 (8th Cir. 1993)

(internal quotation marks omitted). Federal courts are not empowered “to give

opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or

rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.” Church of

Scientology v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12 (1992) (internal quotation marks

omitted); see also Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401 (1975) (“The rule in federal

cases is that an actual controversy must be extant at all stages of review, not merely

at the time the complaint is filed.”) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

“A case becomes moot if it can be said with assurance that there is no

reasonable expectation that the violation will recur or if interim relief or events have

completely and irrevocably eradicated the effects of the alleged violation.” Kennedy

Building Assocs. v. Viacom, Inc., 375 F.3d 731, 745 (8th Cir. 2004). A narrow

exception to the mootness doctrine exists when a dispute is capable of repetition yet

evades review. Webster Groves Sch. Dist. v. Pulitzer Publ’g. Co., 898 F.2d 1371,

1373-74 (8th Cir. 1990). A dispute is capable of repetition yet evades review when

the challenged action is too short in duration for timely review and a reasonable

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7We note that Knight made an apology and a five hundred dollar charitable

donation in connection with the case. The record suggests nothing other than he

acted voluntarily in agreeing to these terms.

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expectation exists that the complaining party will be subject to the same action again.

Id.

For analytical purposes, Counts I, II, and IV are “as-applied” challenges under

the First Amendment. An as-applied challenge consists of a challenge to the statute’s

application only as-applied to the party before the court. See generally City of

Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publ’g Co., 486 U.S. 750, 758-59 (1988). If an as-applied

challenge is successful, the statute may not be applied to the challenger, but is

otherwise enforceable. See id.

Here, each of the Party’s as-applied challenges to § 211B.06, subdivision 1

(Counts I, II, and IV) hinges on Knight being prosecuted for allegedly violating

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1 by claiming to be the only Republican candidate in the race

for Hennepin County Commissioner, District 6. Because all of the § 211B.06,

subdivision 1 charges against Knight have been dismissed with prejudice, the chance

of Knight being prosecuted again for such conduct is nil. Moreover, there is no

evidence that the Party, or even one of its members, is under imminent threat of

prosecution for violation of § 211B.06, subdivision 1 based upon the use of the

telephone script. In short, we can say with fair assurance that there is no reasonable

expectation that the alleged violation will recur. Accordingly, we hold that Counts

I, II, and IV are moot.7

 Renne v. Geary, 501 U.S. 312, 320 (1991) (holding that

respondents have “failed to demonstrate a live dispute involving the actual or

threatened application of [state statute] to bar particular speech”). 

Finally, we reject any notion that Counts I, II, and IV fall within the mootness

doctrine’s narrow exception for claims capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review.

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8Given our affirmance of the district court’s dismissal of the Party’s as-applied

First Amendment claims on mootness grounds, we express no opinion on the district

court’s alternative grounds for dismissal of these claims--i.e., lack of standing and

Younger abstention.

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First, the charges against Knight were dismissed with prejudice. Second, the facts

here suggest nothing more than rank speculation that any other member of the Party

will be subjected to criminal prosecution under § 211B.06, subdivision 1 for

participating in the telephone script operation.

In sum, we affirm, on mootness grounds, the district court’s dismissal of

Counts I, II, and IV.8

III.

We next address the district court’s dismissal of, for lack of standing, the

Party’s First Amendment facial overbreadth claim (Count III). The gravamen of the

Party’s First Amendment facial overbreadth claim is that § 211B.06, subdivision 1

chills it from engaging in party discussions regarding membership determinations and

chills its members from repeating those determinations. We review a district court’s

dismissal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) de novo. Hansen v.

United States, 248 F.3d 761, 763 (8th Cir. 2001).

 “The aim of facial overbreadth analysis is to eliminate the deterrent or chilling

effect an overbroad law may have on those contemplating conduct protected by the

First Amendment.” Turchick v. United States, 561 F.2d 719, 721 (8th Cir. 1977)

(footnote and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, “the overbreadth doctrine

permits the facial invalidation of laws that inhibit the exercise of First Amendment

rights if the impermissible applications of the law are substantial when judged in

relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.” City of Chicago v. Morales, 527

U.S. 41, 52 (1999) (internal quotation marks omitted). We note, however, the

Supreme Court’s recent statement that facial challenges to criminal statutes on First

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Amendment overbreadth grounds “are especially to be discouraged.” Sabri v. United

States, 124 S. Ct. 1941, 1948 (2004). According to the Court:

Not only do they invite judgments on fact-poor records, but they entail

a further departure from the norms of adjudication in federal courts:

overbreadth challenges call for relaxing familiar requirements of

standing, to allow a determination that the law would be

unconstitutionally applied to different parties and different

circumstances from those at hand.

Id.

As we have previously stated, federal courts only have jurisdiction to hear

actual cases and controversies. U.S. Const. art. III, § 2, cl. 1. “Standing is the

threshold question in determining whether a federal court may hear a case.” Eckles

v. City of Corydon, 341 F.3d 762, 767 (8th Cir. 2003) (internal quotation marks

omitted). Thus, a party invoking federal jurisdiction, here the Party, has the burden

of establishing standing to bring its First Amendment facial overbreadth claim.

Schanou v. Lancaster County Sch. Dist., 62 F.3d 1040, 1045 (8th Cir. 1995). The

following is the “‘irreducible minimum,’” United Food and Commercial Workers

Union Local 751 v. Brown Group, Inc., 517 U.S. 544, 551 (1996), of the

constitutional standing requirements:

First, the plaintiff must have suffered an “injury in fact”--an invasion of

a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and

(b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical. Second, there

must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct

complained of--the injury has to be fairly traceable to the challenged

action of the defendant, and not the result of the independent action of

some third party not before the court. Third, it must be likely, as

opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a

favorable decision.

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Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 559-61 (1992) (internal quotation and

citation marks omitted) (alteration marks omitted). See also Friends of the Earth,

Inc., v. Laidlaw Envtl. Serv. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-81 (2000). 

With regard to a First Amendment facial overbreadth claim, actual injury can

exist for standing purposes even if the plaintiff has not engaged in the prohibited

expression as long as the plaintiff is objectively reasonably chilled from exercising

his First Amendment right to free expression in order to avoid enforcement

consequences. See Meese v. Keene, 481 U.S. 465, 473-75 (1987); Pittman v. Cole,

267 F.3d 1269, 1283 (11th Cir. 2001). A plaintiff suffers from an objectively

reasonable chilling of his First Amendment right to free expression by a criminal

statute only if there exists a credible threat of prosecution under that statute if the

plaintiff actually engages in the prohibited expression. Babbitt v. United Farm

Workers Nat’l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 298-99, 301-03 (1979).

Additionally, of particular relevance in the present case, the facial overbreadth

doctrine “is a departure from traditional rules of standing,” Alexander v. United

States, 509 U.S. 544, 555 (1993), such that a party whose own expressive conduct

may be unprotected is allowed to assert the First Amendment rights of others not

before the court because “broadly written statutes may have such a deterrent effect

on free expression that they should be subject to challenge even by a party whose own

conduct may be unprotected,” Members of City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers

for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 798 (1984). See also SOB, Inc. v. County of Benton, 317

F.3d 856, 864 (8th Cir. 2003) (“To prevent the chilling of protected First Amendment

interests, [the overbreadth] doctrine permits an individual whose own speech or

conduct may be prohibited to challenge a statute on its face because it also threatens

others not before the court--those who desire to engage in legally protected

expression but who may refrain from doing so.” (internal quotation marks and ellipses

omitted)). 

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9Given our affirmance of the district court’s dismissal of the Party’s First

Amendment facial overbreadth claim for lack of standing, we express no opinion on

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The district court dismissed the Party’s First Amendment facial overbreadth

claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of standing, and

therefore lack of subject matter jurisdiction, on the basis that the Party failed the

injury-in-fact requirement of constitutional standing. We agree.

As stated previously, the gravamen of the Party’s First Amendment facial

overbreadth claim is that § 211B.06, subdivision 1 chills it from engaging in party

discussions regarding membership determinations and chills its members from

repeating those determinations. Assuming arguendo the Party can validly assert the

First Amendment rights of its members, the Party lacks standing to bring its First

Amendment facial overbreadth claim because although the Party has alleged an

intention on behalf of itself and its members to engage in a course of conduct

arguably affected with a constitutional interest, such course of conduct (i.e.,

determining party membership and publishing party membership determinations) is

not proscribed by § 211B.06, subdivision 1. There is nothing in the statute which

prevents a political party from deciding who is and is not one of its members.

Moreover, there is nothing in the statute which prevents a member of a political party

from repeating a membership determination of that party. Finally, § 211B.06,

subdivision 1 contains no language which can even arguably be construed to prohibit

a political party from endorsing a particular political candidate. Therefore, neither

the Party nor its members are subject to “a credible threat of prosecution” under

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1 for engaging in the conduct for which the Party invokes

First Amendment protection. Babbitt, 442 U.S. at 298.

In sum, we hold the district court did not err in dismissing the Party’s First

Amendment facial overbreadth claim for lack of standing. Accordingly, we affirm

the district court’s dismissal of that claim (Count III).9

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the district court’s alternative ground for dismissal of such claim, i.e., Younger

abstention.

10The Party has moved to supplement the record with a copy of the official

court transcript of the state court hearing at which the state court dismissed Knight’s

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1 prosecution. We grant this motion. The Party has also

moved to supplement the record with a copy of an order and memorandum of law in

an unrelated Minnesota state court case the Party believed we would have a difficult

time obtaining. We deny this motion.

The Defendants have moved to strike a September 1, 2003 newspaper article

from the Addendum to the Party’s opening brief regarding dismissal of Knight’s

§ 211B.06, subdivision 1 prosecution and to strike the portions of the Party’s brief

which rely on the article. We deny this motion as moot.

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IV.

In conclusion, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of Counts I, II, III, and

IV. We affirm the dismissal of Counts I, II, and IV as moot and affirm the dismissal

of Count III for lack of standing.10

 

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