Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/82/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:40:24+00:00

Document:
Appellees, who had been arrested and charged with violating a Louisiana statute and a parish ordinance by displaying for sale allegedly obscene material (which was seized by the arresting officers), brought this suit in the Federal District Court for a declaration that the statute and ordinance were unconstitutional, and for an injunction against their enforcement. A three-judge court which was convened upheld the statute and declined to issue an injunction, but, finding that the arrests and seizure were invalid, entered a suppression order prohibiting the use in state criminal proceedings of the illegally seized material and requiring its return to appellees. The three-judge court recognized that it had no jurisdiction to pass on the constitutionality of the ordinance, but expressed the view that the ordinance was invalid. The single-judge court then declared the ordinance unconstitutional. Appellants appealed directly to this Court from the suppression order and the declaratory judgment invalidating the ordinance.
1. The three-judge court erred in issuing the suppression order, and thereby stifling the then-pending good faith state criminal proceeding during which the defense should first raise its constitutional claims. Younger v. Harris, ante, p. 401 U. S. 37. Pp. 401 U. S. 84-85.
2. This Court has no jurisdiction to review on direct appeal the validity of the order declaring the ordinance invalid, since it was a decision of a single federal judge, and, as such, was appealable only to the Court of Appeals. Pp. 401 U. S. 86-88.
304 F.Supp. 662, reversed in part, and vacated and remanded in part.
BLACK, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and HARLAN, STEWART, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. STEWART, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which BLACKMUN, J., joined, post, p. 401 U. S. 89. DOUGLAS, J., filed an opinion dissenting in part, post, p. 401 U. S. 90. BRENNAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which WHITE and MARSHALL, JJ., joined, post, p. 401 U. S. 93.
Given our decisions today in No. 2, Younger v. Harris, ante, p. 401 U. S. 37; No. 7, Samuels v. Mackell, and No. 9, Fernandez v. Mackell, ante, p. 66; No. 4, Boyle v. Landry, ante, p. 77; No. 83, Byrne v. Karalexis, post, p. 401 U. S. 216; and No. 41, Dyson v. Stein, post, p. 401 U. S. 200, in which we have determined when it is appropriate for a federal court to intervene in the administration of a State's criminal laws, the disposition of this case should not be difficult.
"In view of our holding that the arrests and seizures in these cases are invalid for want of a prior adversary judicial determination of obscenity, which holding requires suppression and return of the seized materials, the prosecutions should be effectively terminated."
U.S. 117 (1951), subject, of course, to review by certiorari or appeal in this Court or, in a proper case, on federal habeas corpus. Here Ledesma was free to present his federal constitutional claims concerning arrest and seizure of materials or other matters to the Louisiana courts in the manner permitted in that State. Only in cases of proven harassment or prosecutions undertaken by state officials in bad faith without hope of obtaining a valid conviction, and perhaps in other extraordinary circumstances where irreparable injury can be shown, is federal injunctive relief against pending state prosecutions appropriate. See Younger v. Harris, supra; Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908). There is nothing in the record before us to suggest that Louisiana officials undertook these prosecutions other than in a good faith attempt to enforce the State's criminal laws. We therefore hold that the three-judge court improperly intruded into the State's own criminal process, and reverse its orders suppressing evidence in the pending state prosecution and directing the return of all seized materials.
We are, however, unable to review the decision concerning the local ordinance, because this Court has no jurisdiction to review on direct appeal the validity of a declaratory judgment against a local ordinance, such as St. Bernard Parish Ordinance 21-60. Even if an order granting a declaratory judgment against the ordinance had been entered by the three-judge court below (which it had not), that court would have been acting in the capacity of a single-judge court. We held in Moody v. Flowers, 387 U. S. 97 (1967), that a three-judge court was not properly convened to consider the constitutionality of a statute of only local application, similar to a local ordinance. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1253, we have jurisdiction to consider on direct appeal only those civil actions "required . . . to be heard and determined" by a three-judge court. Since the constitutionality of this parish ordinance was not "required . . . to be heard and determined" by a three-judge panel, there is no jurisdiction in this Court to review that question.
base. Even where a three-judge court is properly convened to consider one controversy between two parties, the parties are not necessarily entitled to a three-judge court and a direct appeal on other controversies that may exist between them. [Footnote 3] See Public Service Comm'n v. Brashear Freight Lines, 306 U. S. 204 (1939).
"The view expressed by this court concerning the constitutionality of the ordinance is shared by the initiating federal district judge, and is adopted by reference in his opinion issued contemporaneously herewith."
304 F.Supp. at 670 n. 31. (Emphasis added.) The last clause of the quoted sentence indicates what, under Moody v. Flowers, must be the case: the decision granting declaratory relief against the Parish of St. Bernard Ordinance 21-60 was the decision of a single federal judge. This fact is confirmed by the orders entered by the two courts. The three-judge court entered the following order at the end of its opinion.
"Accordingly, for the reasons assigned, it is ordered that judgment in both cases be entered decreeing: "
"1. That all seized materials be returned, instanter, to those from whom they were seized, "
"2. That said materials be suppressed as evidence in any pending or future prosecutions of the plaintiffs,"
"3. That the preliminary and permanent injunctions prayed for be denied, and"
"For the reasons assigned in the foregoing 3-Judge Court opinion, it is ordered that judgment be entered herein decreeing: "
"1. That St. Bernard Parish Ordinance No. 21-60 is unconstitutional."
"2. That jurisdiction be retained herein for the issuance of such further orders as may be necessary and proper."
The fact that the clerk of the District Court merged these orders into one judgment does not confer jurisdiction upon this Court. In the first place, our jurisdiction cannot be made to turn on an inadvertent error of a court clerk. Second, the jurisdictional statute, by its own terms, grants a direct appeal from "an order granting or denying" an injunction. 28 U.S.C. § 1253. (Emphasis added.) Since the order entered by the three-judge court omits any reference to declaratory relief, the discussion of such relief in the court's opinion is dictum.
The judgment of the court below is reversed insofar as it grants injunctive relief. In all other respects, the judgment is vacated and the case remanded to the United States District Court with instructions to enter a fresh decree from which the parties may take an appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit if they so desire.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1253, an aggrieved party in any civil action required to be heard and determined by a district court of three judges "may appeal to the Supreme Court from an order granting or denying . . . an interlocutory or permanent injunction." The order directing the suppression of evidence and the return of the seized material were injunctive orders against the appellants. Thus, we have jurisdiction to review those orders.
At the time the instant federal court suit was filed, there was pending in Louisiana state court a criminal prosecution under the parish ordinance. In Samuels v. Mackell, supra, we held that interference with pending state criminal prosecutions by declaratory judgments is subject to the same restrictions curbing federal interference by injunction. Id. at 401 U. S. 73. As indicated above, there are no facts present in this record to show that appellees would suffer irreparable injury of the kind necessary to justify federal injunctive interference with the state criminal processes.
Aside from the limited local application of the ordinance, which bars a direct appeal under Moody v. Flowers, 387 U. S. 97 (1967), there is a question whether a successful party can properly maintain an appeal. The statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1253, permits a direct appeal only from an order granting or denying an injunction. The State successfully opposed an injunction against the enforcement of the parish ordinance in the court below, and now cannot appeal from it victory. See Gunn v. University Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, 399 U. S. 383, 399 U. S. 391 (1970) (WHITE, J., concurring).
"We hold that the federal courts should refuse to intervene in State criminal proceedings to suppress the use of evidence even when claimed to have been secured by unlawful search and seizure."
342 U.S. at 342 U. S. 120. See also Cleary v. Bolger, 371 U. S. 392 400.
I also agree that the appeal from the declaratory judgment holding the parish ordinance unconstitutional is not properly before us. This Court has no power to consider the merits of that appeal for two quite distinct reasons, each sufficient to defeat our jurisdiction. First, the ordinance is neither a state statute nor of state-wide application. The case thus presents a fortiori the situation in which the Court found no jurisdiction in Moody v. Flowers, 387 U. S. 97, 387 U. S. 101. Second, the appeal is from the grant of declaratory relief, not from the grant or denial of an injunction, and jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1253 is therefore lacking. Gunn v. University Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, 399 U. S. 383; id. at 399 U. S. 391 (WHITE, J., concurring).
This is not a case in which the District Court's action on the prayer for declaratory relief was so bound up with its action on the request for an injunction that this Court might, on direct appeal, consider the propriety of declaratory relief on pendency grounds. Cf. Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U. S. 241; Samuels v. Mackell, ante, p. 401 U. S. 66. Indeed, the District Court itself recognized that the request for a declaratory judgment regarding the local ordinance was so unrelated to the prayer for injunctive relief against the state statute that the single District Judge entered a separate order declaring the ordinance unconstitutional.
The three-judge panel was properly convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2281 to consider the validity of a Louisiana statute of general application. That court was also asked, however, to pass on an ordinance of St. Bernard Parish. But I agree with 401 U. S. JUSTICE BLACK that we have no jurisdiction over that phase of the litigation.
"its views . . . in the interest of judicial economy, [since it was] shared by the initiating federal district judge and is adopted by reference in his opinion issued contemporaneously herewith."
304 F.Supp. 662, 670 n. 31. It then stated that "[W]e have examined the ordinance, and find it to be unconstitutional and unenforceable." Id. at 670.
The single District Judge then ordered that a judgment be entered holding that the ordinance was unconstitutional.
304 F.Supp. at 671. That order is obviously the judgment which is the basis of an appeal. Later on, the clerk also entered a judgment to that effect for the three-judge court.
over this claim. Zemel v. Rusk, 381 U. S. 1, allowed a challenge to an administrative action, as not authorized by statute, to be joined with a constitutional attack on the statutes which purportedly authorized the action. Milky Way Productions v. Leary (together with New York Feed Co. v. Leary), 305 F.Supp. 288, was a per curiam affirmance, without opinion. 397 U. S. 98. The issues presented to this Court were conceded by all parties to be constitutional attacks on the obscenity statutes and the arrest warrant statutes of New York. Because the three-judge court had jurisdiction over the attack on the arrest warrant statutes, independent of any other claim, the issue of pendent jurisdiction was not involved, and was not raised. * Therefore, that problem was not considered in our per curiam, and our affirmance was not a holding on pendent jurisdiction. We cannot decide Perez on the basis of Milky Way, but only on the basis of applicable precedent and reason. And no precedent or reason is advanced for any enlargement of pendent jurisdiction.
If a rewriting of the law on pendent jurisdiction is to be done, the Congress should do it. The present judgment should be reviewed in the Court of Appeals, not here. Rorick v. Comm'rs, 307 U. S. 208.
As to the orders of the three-judge court suppressing evidence in the prosecution under the Louisiana statute, which the Court sets aside, I dissent. My views, which are not congenial to the majority, are set forth at some length in Younger v. Harris, ante, p. 401 U. S. 58, and Dyson v. Stein, post, p. 401 U. S. 204, decided this day.
* None of the parties raised any question concerning pendent jurisdiction in this Court.
Milky Way attacked the arrest warrant statutes as unconstitutional "as applied in law," alleging they were overbroad, an illegal prior restraint, and vague.
The Attorney General of New York, in both cases, treated the claim as an attack on the constitutionality of the arrest warrant statutes, and argued that they were constitutional.
In reply, both petitioners argued that the arrest warrant statute were "unconstitutional as applied in law."
17, 1969, appellees filed the instant action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division. Their complaint sought a judgment under the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201, declaring the state statute and parish ordinance unconstitutional; an injunction against pending and future prosecutions under either enactment; and an injunction directing the return of the seized magazines, books, and playing cards and suppressing their use as evidence in any pending or future criminal prosecution against the appellees. A three-judge court was convened. Prior to the federal court hearing, the appellant entered a nolle prosequi in the state court on the two informations charging violation of the parish ordinance.
"1. That all seized materials be returned, instanter, by the [appellants] to those [appellees] from whom they were seized,"
"2. That said materials be suppressed as evidence in any pending or future prosecutions of the [appellees], "
"3. That the preliminary and permanent injunctions prayed for be denied,"
"4. That St. Bernard Parish Ordinance No. 21-60 is unconstitutional."
"(1) Was it an appropriate exercise of discretion for the three-judge court to grant the relief in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment of August 14, 1969, in view of the pendency of the state prosecution charging violation of Louisiana Revised Statutes § 14:106?"
I agree with the Court (1) that this is a proper appeal to this Court, and (2) that it was not an appropriate exercise of discretion for the three-judge court to grant the relief in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment of August 14, 1969. I dissent, however, from the holding of the Court that the declaratory judgment which is paragraph 4 of the judgment of the three-judge court is not properly before us for review. I think that it is, and, on the merits, would hold that it was an appropriate exercise of discretion for the court in paragraph 4 to declare St. Bernard Parish Ordinance No. 21-60 unconstitutional. I would, therefore, reverse and set aside paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment of August 14, 1969, but, in all other respects, would affirm that judgment.
Appellants' assertion of a right of direct appeal to this Court relies upon 28 U.S.C. § 1253. That section permits an appeal in any civil action required to be heard and determined by a district court of three judges "from an order granting or denying . . . an interlocutory or permanent injunction." [Footnote 2/1] Paragraph 3 of the order of August 14, 1969, decrees: "That the preliminary and permanent injunctions [against pending and future prosecutions] prayed for be denied." But § 1253 does not permit these appellants to appeal this portion of the judgment, since they prevailed to the extent of this denial of appellees' prayers for injunctive relief. Gunn v. University Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, 399 U. S. 383, 399 U. S. 391 (1970) (WHITE, J., concurring). However, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment are injunctive orders against appellants directing them not to use the seized materials as evidence against appellees in any pending or future prosecutions, and directing the return of those materials. These provisions clearly qualified the judgment as an order "granting . . . an . . . injunction," from which appellants could appeal directly to this Court.
"[i]t is generally to be assumed that state courts and prosecutors will observe [in the pending prosecution] constitutional limitations as expounded by this Court."
"the conclusion is irresistible in logic and in law that none of these may be constitutionally undertaken prior to an adversary judicial determination of obscenity."
"no special circumstances to warrant cutting short the normal adjudication of constitutional defenses in the course of a [state] criminal prosecution."
"It is difficult to think of a case in which an accused could properly bring a state prosecution to a halt while a federal court decides his claim that certain evidence is rendered inadmissible by the Fourteenth Amendment."
Id. at 380 U. S. 485 n. 3. While there may be circumstances in which a federal court could properly adjudicate such a claim, this record discloses none which justified this three-judge court in doing so. I therefore join the Court in concluding that paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment should be reversed and set aside.
as distinguished from statutes of state-wide application, Moody v. Flowers, 387 U. S. 97 (1967), the court takes this opportunity to express its views on the constitutionality of the ordinance in the interest of judicial economy. The view expressed by this court concerning the constitutionality of the ordinance is shared by the initiating federal district judge, and is adopted by reference in his opinion issued contemporaneously herewith."
"For the reasons assigned in the foregoing 3-Judge Court opinion, it is ordered that judgment be entered herein decreeing: 1. That St. Bernard Parish Ordinance No. 21-60 is unconstitutional. 2. That jurisdiction be retained herein for the issuance of such further orders as may be necessary and proper."
The Court holds that we have no jurisdiction to review the declaratory judgment on the premise that the declaratory judgment against the local ordinance was not issued by the three-judge court, but rather by Judge Boyle acting as a single judge. With all respect, this is not the case. Both the Court and my Brothers DOUGLAS and STEWART insist that Judge Boyle's separate statement was, in fact, a judgment. I would suppose Judge Boyle himself is the best authority as to that, and he expressly referred to the statement as "his opinion." Appeals are, of course, taken from judgments, and not from opinions. No judgment was entered by Judge Boyle pursuant to his separate opinion, and therefore there existed no judgment pursuant to the order of the single judge to go to the Court of Appeals for review. The only judgment entered in the case was that entered by the three-judge court on August 14, 1969. Since the injunctions in paragraphs 1 and 2 rendered that judgment appealable directly to this Court, paragraph 4 of that judgment, the declaratory judgment, is necessarily before us.
Appellants rely upon Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U. S. 103 (1969). In that case, a New York criminal statute prohibited the distribution of anonymous handbills in election campaigns. A distributor of anonymous handbills opposing the reelection of a Congressman sought in federal court a judgment declaring the statute unconstitutional. The federal action was brought after reversal by the New York courts of the appellee's conviction for distributing handbills during an earlier campaign of the Congressman. See Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U. S. 241 (1967). Appellee desired to distribute handbills during a forthcoming campaign of that Congressman, but the Congressman had retired from Congress to become a justice of the New York Supreme Court. In those circumstances, the Court held that no "controversy" requisite to declaratory relief existed, since Zwickler's only target was a particular Congressman and "the prospect was neither real nor immediate of a campaign involving the Congressman." 394 U.S. at 394 U. S. 109.
The situation here is quite different, however.
"Basically, the question in each case is whether the facts alleged, under all the circumstances, show that there is a substantial controversy, between parties having adverse legal interests, of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment."
it cannot be said that the three-judge court erred in finding that there existed the "controversy" requisite under the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act.
court plaintiff may be relegated for the assertion of his constitutional defenses, the primary reason for refusing intervention is absent. Here, there was no other forum for the adjudication of appellees' constitutional objections to the ordinance.
"[I]n cases where the state criminal prosecution was begun prior to the federal suit, the same equitable principles relevant to the propriety of an injunction must be taken into consideration by federal district courts in determining whether to issue a declaratory judgment, and . . . , where an injunction would be impermissible under these principles, declaratory relief should ordinarily be denied as well."
Id. at 401 U. S. 73. But considerations of federalism are not controlling when no state prosecution is pending and the only question is whether declaratory relief is appropriate. In such case, the congressional scheme that makes the federal courts the primary guardians of constitutional rights, and the express congressional authorization of declaratory relief, afforded because it is a less harsh and abrasive remedy than the injunction, become the factors of primary significance.
The controversy over the power of federal courts to declare state statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin their enforcement has roots that reach back at least to Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419 (1793), where, in a contract action, this Court held that a State could be sued by a citizen of another State.
first meeting of Congress thereafter, the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution was almost unanimously proposed, and was in due course adopted by the legislatures of the States."
"The eleventh amendment . . . has exempted a State from the suits of citizens of other States . . . ; and the very difficult question is to be decided, whether, in such a case, the Court may act upon the agents employed by the State, and on the property in their hands."
"Before we try this question by the constitution, it may not be time misapplied if we pause for a moment and reflect on the relative situation of the Union with its members, should the objection prevail."
"A denial of jurisdiction forbids all inquiry into the nature of the case. It applies to cases perfectly clear in themselves; to cases where the government is in the exercise of its best established and most essential powers, as well as to those which may be deemed questionable. It asserts that the agents of a State, alleging the authority of a law void in itself, because repugnant to the constitution, may arrest the execution of any law in the United States."
9 Wheat. at 22 U. S. 847-848.
Though recognizing the sensitivity of granting injunction in this context, the Court held that neither the Eleventh Amendment nor any principle of federalism prevented the lower federal court from giving such relief where necessary to vindicate paramount federal law in a case where a State was not itself a party of record. The broad reach of the reasoning in Osborn has since been qualified, see generally L. Jaffe, Judicial Control of Administrative Action 213-222 (1965), but the basic principle that, in appropriate circumstances, federal courts will exercise their equity power against state officials to protect rights secured and activities authorized by paramount federal law remains firmly embedded in our jurisprudence. Pennoyer v. McConnaughy, 140 U. S. 1, 140 U. S. 9-18 (1891); Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908); Truax v. Raich, 239 U. S. 33, 239 U. S. 37-38 (1915); Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U. S. 197, 263 U. S. 214-215 (1923). See also Leiter Minerals v. United States, 352 U. S. 220, 352 U. S. 225-226 (1957) (Frankfurter, J.).
jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. § 1331. These two statutes, together, after 1908, with the decision in Ex parte Young, established the modern framework for federal protection of constitutional rights from state interference. That framework has been strengthened and expanded by subsequent acts of Congress and subsequent decisions of this Court.
"individuals, who, as officers of the State, are clothed with some duty in regard to the enforcement of the laws of the State, and who threaten and are about to commence proceedings, either of a civil or criminal nature, to enforce against parties affected an unconstitutional act, violating the Federal Constitution, may be enjoined by a Federal court of equity from such action,"
of all other courts, until its duty is fully performed."
209 U.S. at 209 U. S. 161-162.
"that the necessary result of upholding this suit in the Circuit Court will be to draw to the lower Federal courts a great flood of litigation of this character, where one Federal judge would have it in his power to enjoin proceedings by state officials to enforce the legislative acts of the State, either by criminal or civil actions."
During the period leading up to and following Ex parte Young, the federal injunction suit became the classic method for testing the constitutionality of state statutes. [Footnote 2/8] The injunctive remedy was strong medicine, and the Three-Judge Court Act did not eliminate the defects in and the widespread hostility to the injunction procedure. The procedure was unsatisfactory for both private plaintiffs and state defendants: a plaintiff had the burden of proving the traditional equity requirements for an injunction, and, if the plaintiff prevailed in court, an injunction issued against the defendant state official, paralyzing enforcement of the state statute pending further review. Consequently, in 1934, without expanding or reducing the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts or in any way diminishing the continuing vitality of Ex parte Young with respect to federal injunctions, Congress empowered the federal courts to grant a new remedy, the declaratory judgment. See Act of June 14, 1934, c. 512, 48 Stat. 955, now 28 U.S.C. § 2201.
preventive relief, a function now performed rather clumsily by our equitable proceedings and inadequately by the law courts."
"The declaratory judgment differs in no essential respect from any other judgment except that it is not followed by a decree for damages, injunction, specific performance, or other immediately coercive decree. It declares conclusively and finally the rights of parties in litigations over a contested issue, a form of relief which often suffices to settle controversies and fully administer justice. . . . It has been employed in State courts . . . for the declaration of rights contested under a statute or municipal ordinance, where it was not possible or necessary to obtain an injunction."
"The procedure has been especially useful in avoiding the necessity, now so often present, of having to act at one's peril or to act on one's own interpretation of his rights, or abandon one's rights because of a fear of incurring damages. So now it is often necessary, in the absence of the declaratory judgment procedure, to violate or purport to violate a statute in order to obtain a judicial determination of it meaning or validity. Compare Shredded Wheat Co. v. City of Elgin (284 Ill. 389, 120 N.E. 248, 1918), where the parties were denied an injunction against the enforcement of a municipal ordinance carrying a penalty, and were advised to purport to violate the statute and then their rights could be determined, with Erwin Billiard Parlor v.
Buckner (156 Tenn. 278, 300 S.W. 565 (1927)), where a declaratory judgment under such circumstances was issued and settled the controversy. . . ."
"The fact is that the declaratory judgment has often proved so necessary that it has been employed under other names for years, and that, in many cases, the injunction procedure is abused in order to render what is in effect a declaratory judgment. For example, in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters (268 U.S. 510, 525 [argument of counsel omitted from electronic version] . . . (1925)), the court issued an injunction against the enforcement of an Oregon statute which was not to come into force until 2 years later; in rendering a judgment declaring the statute void, the court, in effect, issued a declaratory judgment by what was, in effect, apparently, an abuse of the injunction. See also Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (272 U.S. 365 . . . (1926)). Much of the hostility to the extensive use of the injunction power by the Federal courts will be obviated by enabling the courts to render declaratory judgments."
"Finally, it may be said that the declaratory judgment procedure has been molded and settled by thousands of precedents, so that the administration of the law has been definitely clarified. The Supreme Court mentioned one of its principal purposes in Terrace v. Thompson (263 U.S. 197, 263 U. S. 216 . . . (1923)), by Butler, J., when it said: "
" They are not obliged to take the risk of prosecutions, fines, and imprisonment and loss of property in order to secure an adjudication of their rights."
"Most courts are unwilling to grant injunctions . . . on the ground that it is a criminal statute, but you can get a declaratory judgment in States that have it."
"when Federal courts do get power to render declaratory judgments, instead of rendering an injunction, as is now done, that requires three judges, plaintiff will get a declaratory judgment. You would not be able to get an injunction, in such cases, from one judge, but you could get a declaratory judgment as to your rights."
compelling a violation of the statute as a condition precedent to challenging its constitutionality."
Hearings on H.R. 5623, supra, at 75-76. The legislative history of the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act is overwhelming that declaratory judgments were to be fully available to test the constitutionality of state and federal criminal statutes. Much of the hostility to federal injunctions referred to in the Senate report was hostility to their use against state officials seeking to enforce state regulatory statutes carrying criminal sanctions; this was the strong feeling that produced the Three-Judge Court Act in 1910, the Johnson Act of 1934, 28 U.S.C. § 1342, and the Tax Injunction Act of 1937, 28 U.S.C. § 1341. The Federal Declaratory Judgment Act was intended to provide an alternative to injunctions against state officials, except where there was a federal policy against federal adjudication of the class of litigation altogether. See discussion, infra at 401 U. S. 126-128, of Great Lakes Co. v. Huffman, 319 U. S. 293 (1943). Moreover, the Senate report's clear implication that declaratory relief would have been appropriate in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510 (1925), and Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U. S. 365 (1926), both cases involving federal adjudication of the constitutionality of a state statute carrying criminal penalties, and the report's quotation from Terrace v. Thompson, which also involved anticipatory federal adjudication of the constitutionality of a state criminal statute, make it plain that Congress anticipated that the declaratory judgment procedure would be used by the federal courts to test the constitutionality of state criminal statutes.
justify federal injunctive interference with the state criminal processes."
Congress expressly rejected that limitation and to engraft it upon the availability of the congressionally provided declaratory remedy is simply judicial defiance of the congressional mandate. It is nothing short of judicial repeal of the statute. If the statute is to be repealed or rewritten, it must be done by Congress, not this Court.
state prosecution has commenced and while it is pending, the interests protected by federal intervention must be weighed against the broad countervailing principles of federalism. The pending state proceeding ordinarily provides an existent, concrete opportunity to secure vindication of constitutional claims in the state courts, with ultimate review by this Court. In this situation, collateral resort to a federal court will not speed up the resolution of the controversy, since that will not come to an end, in any event, until the state litigation is concluded. Moreover, federal intervention may disrupt the state proceeding through the issuance of necessary stays or the burdensome necessity for the parties to proceed in two courts simultaneously. Federal adjudication of the matters at issue in the state proceeding may otherwise be an unwarranted and unseemly duplication of the State's own adjudicative process. For these reasons, federal courts should not ordinarily intervene by way of either declaratory or injunctive relief in cases where a state court prosecution exists that began before the federal suit was filed, and the federal court plaintiff alleges only that the state statute being applied to him is unconstitutional. Cf. Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co., 316 U. S. 491, 316 U. S. 494-495 (1942); Wright, supra, at 205. The interests served by federal intervention in that context are plainly outweighed by the principles of comity essential to our federal system.
federal abstention are absent, and if the declaration will serve a useful purpose in resolving the dispute. See generally Zwickler v. Koota, supra; Golden v. Zwickler, supra. This general rule carries out the unambiguous intention of Congress expressed in the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act and reflected in the committee reports, supra. The propriety of an injunction should be considered separately and in light of the traditional requirements of equity jurisprudence as applied to the protection of constitutional rights. See, e.g., Douglas v. City of Jeannette, supra; Ex parte Young, supra; Dombrowski v. Pfister, supra; Cameron v. Johnson, supra; Zwickler v. Koota, supra; see also Hart & Wechsler, supra, at 862-864.
"the same equitable principles relevant to the propriety of an injunction must be taken into consideration . . . in determining whether to issue a declaratory judgment, and that, where an injunction would be impermissible . . . declaratory relief should ordinarily be denied as well,"
"Congress could, of course, have routed all federal constitutional questions through the state court systems, saving to this Court the final say when it came to review of the state court judgments. But our First Congress [in the first Judiciary Act, 1 Stat. 73] resolved differently, and created the federal court system, and in time granted the federal courts various heads of jurisdiction which today involve most federal constitutional rights. . . ."
". . . We would negate the history of the enlargement of the jurisdiction of the federal district courts if we held the federal court should stay its hand and not decide the question before the state courts decided it."
400 U.S. at 400 U. S. 437-438, 439.
issues that judicial discretion in such actions is primarily directed. See Public Service Comm'n of Utah v. Wyco Co., 344 U. S. 237 (1952).
The effects of injunctive and declaratory relief in their impact on the administration of a State's criminal laws are very different. See generally Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U. S. 144, 372 U. S. 152-155 (1963). An injunction barring enforcement of a criminal statute against particular conduct immunizes that conduct from prosecution under the statute. A broad injunction against all enforcement of a statute paralyzes the State's enforcement machinery: the statute is rendered a nullity. A declaratory judgment, on the other hand, is merely a declaration of legal status and rights; it neither mandates nor prohibits state action. See Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603, 363 U. S. 607 (1960); Currie, The Three-Judge District Court in Constitutional Litigation, 32 U.Chi.L.Rev. 1, 15-16 (1964).
much milder form of relief than an injunction. Though it may be persuasive, it is not ultimately coercive; noncompliance with it may be inappropriate, but is not contempt.
"a request for a declaratory judgment that a state statute is overbroad on its face must be considered independently of any request for injunctive relief against the enforcement of that statute. We hold that a federal district court has the duty to decide the appropriateness and the merits of the declaratory request irrespective of its conclusion as to the propriety of the issuance of the injunction."
Id. at 254 (emphasis added). See also Malone v. Emmet, 278 F.Supp. 193 (MD Ala.1967).
"we held that declaratory relief that a state tax was unconstitutional should be denied by the federal court. The basis of our ruling was that, since Congress had prohibited the federal courts from enjoining state taxes where an adequate remedy was available in the state courts, declaratory relief should also be withheld."
guard and protect rights secured by the Constitution."
"Congress imposed the duty upon all levels of the federal judiciary to give due respect to a suitor's choice of a federal forum for the hearing and decision of his federal constitutional claims. Plainly, escape from that duty is not permissible merely because state courts also have the solemn responsibility, equally with the federal courts, ' . . . to guard, enforce, and protect every right granted or secured by the Constitution of the United States . . . ,' Robb v. Connolly, 111 U. S. 624, 111 U. S. 637. . . . The judge-made doctrine of abstention, first fashioned in 1941 . . . , sanctions such escape only in narrowly limited'special circumstances.' Propper v. Clark, 337 U. S. 472, 337 U. S. 492."
389 U.S. at 389 U. S. 248. Thus, where no criminal prosecution involving the federal court parties is pending when federal jurisdiction attaches, declaratory relief determining the disputed constitutional issue will ordinarily be appropriate to carry out the purposes of the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act and to vindicate the great protections of the Constitution.
I conclude that the three-judge court properly exercised its discretion in issuing a declaratory judgment upon the constitutionality of St. Bernard Parish Ordinance No. 21-60. I also agree with the District Court that the ordinance is unconstitutional on its face because "mortally infected with the vice of vagueness." 3 04 F.Supp. at 670. Appellants do not assert the contrary.
Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the judgment entered August 14, 1969, should be reversed, and the judgment in all other respects should be affirmed.
(6) Requirement by a person, as a condition to a sale, allocation, consignment or delivery for resale of any paper, magazine, book, periodical or publication to a purchaser or consignee, that such purchaser or consignee receive for resale any other article, book or publication reasonably believed by such purchaser or consignee to contain articles or material of any kind or description which are designed, intended or reasonably calculated to or which do in fact, appeal to the prurient interests of the average person in the community, as judged by contemporary community standards, or the denying or threatening to deny any franchise or to impose any penalty, financial or otherwise, by reason of the failure of any person to accept such articles or things or by reason of the return thereof.
Amended by Acts 1958, No. 388, § 1; Acts 1960, No.199, § 1; Acts 1962, No. 87, § 1; Acts 1968, No. 647, § 1, emerg. eff. July 20, 1968, at 1:30 P.M.
EXTRACT OF THE OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLICE JURY OF THE PARISH OF ST. BERNARD, STATE OF LOUISIANA, TAKEN AT THE REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE POLICE JURY ROOM OF THE COURTHOUSE ANNEX, AT CHALMETTE, LOUISIANA, ON NOVEMBER 2, 1960, AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK (11:00) A.M.
BE IT ORDAINED, by the Police Jury of the Parish of St. Bernard that obscenity is prohibited and is hereby defined as the intentional.
BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, that production, sale, exhibition, possession with intent to display, or distribution of any obscene, lewd, lascivious, prurient or sexually indecent print, advertisement, picture, photograph, written or printed composition, model, statue, instrument, motion picture, drawing, phonograph recording, tape or wire recording, or device or material of any kind.
female persons, wherein the female breast or any sexual organ is shown or exhibited, and where, because of the number or manner of portrayal in which such pictures are displayed in such literature, they are designed to appeal predominantly to the prurient interest.
For a contrary view to that of this three-judge court as to the necessity of a hearing prior to an arrest for obscenity, see Milky Way Productions v. Leary, 305 F.Supp. 288, 295-297 (SDNY 1969), aff'd, 397 U. S. 98 (1970).
Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83, 392 U. S. 88-91 (1968); Zemel v. Rusk, 381 U. S. 1, 381 U. S. 5-7 (1965); United States v. Georgia Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 371 U. S. 285, 371 U. S. 287-288 (1963); Florida Lime Growers v. Jacobsen, 362 U. S. 73, 362 U. S. 75-85 (1960); Milky Way Productions v. Leary, 305 F.Supp. at 295.
"Of course, [appellants] cannot be ordered to return the purchased materials, as in the instance of those seized, since title thereto has passed."
304 F.Supp. at 667 n. 22.
The Three-Judge Court Act of 1910 originally applied only to interlocutory injunctions against enforcement of state statutes. See § 17, 36 Stat. 557. A 1913 amendment extended the requirements to interlocutory injunctions against enforcement of state administrative orders. Act of March 4, 1913, c. 160, 37 Stat. 1013. The Judiciary Act of 1925 extended the three-judge requirement to permanent injunctions. 43 Stat. 938. However, in Smith v. Wilson, 273 U. S. 388 (1927), it was held that the three-judge requirement applied only where the application for a permanent injunction was coupled with an application for an interlocutory injunction. The 1948 revision of the statute made the three-judge requirement applicable to requests for either interlocutory or permanent relief, whether or not the other form of relief was sought. Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 968.
"A district court of three judges shall, before final hearing, stay any action pending therein to enjoin, suspend or restrain the enforcement or execution of a State statute or order thereunder, whenever it appears that a State court of competent jurisdiction has stayed proceedings under such statute or order pending the determination in such State court of an action to enforce the same. If the action in the State court is not prosecuted diligently and in good faith, the district court of three judges may vacate its stay after hearing upon ten days notice served upon the attorney general of the State."
The statute has proved largely ineffectual, principally because of the stay requirement, which protects the constitutional interests of the federal court plaintiffs. See Hart & Wechsler, supra, at 854-855; Hutcheson, supra, at 822-823; Lockwood, Maw, & Rosenberry, supra, at 452-453. However, in cases where construction of complex state regulatory law is critical to a constitutional decision, the federal courts have developed their own techniques for securing state court consideration of issues of state law. See, e.g., Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U. S. 210 (1908); Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pulman Co., 312 U. S. 496 (1941). The narrow scope of the doctrine of federal abstention was delineated in Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U. S. 241 (1967). See also ALI, Study of the Division of Jurisdiction Between State and Federal Courts § 1371, pp. 282-298 (1969); Note, Federal Question Abstention: Justice Frankfurter's Doctrine in an Activist Era, 80 Harv.L.Rev. 604 (1967).
"Suits in which it is claimed that state legislative or administrative action is invalid because contrary to controlling federal law present an especially appealing case for original federal jurisdiction. The danger of state court hostility to the federal claim is greatest in such suits. Jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear such cases has been established at least since Ex parte Young, and it has been rightly observed by a distinguished judge that 'the authority and finality of Ex parte Young can hardly be overestimated.' Hutcheson, A Case for Three Judges, 47 Harv.L.Rev. 795, 799 n. 9 (1934)."
(Citation omitted.) ALI, Study of the Division of Jurisdiction Between State and Federal Courts 282 (1969).
After Congress accepted the basic principles of Ex parte Young, this Court promulgated new Rules of Practice for federal equity, which removed many of the objections to equity procedure. See 226 U.S. 627 (1912), and, in particular, Rule 73 226 U.S. at 670.
Declaratory relief should be available whether the conduct inhibited is expressive or other conduct alleged to be protected by the Constitution. Of course, the special sensitivity and importance of First Amendment rights (their sensitivity to "chilling") is a necessary consideration in evaluating the claim of inhibition. The deterrence emanating from the existence of a statute purporting to prohibit constitutionally protected expression is itself plainly inconsistent with the First Amendment, Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U. S. 241, 389 U. S. 252 (1967); Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U. S. 360 (1964), which was intended to protect vigorous, robust, and unpopular speech without a threat of punishment under state Law. See, e.g., Whitney v. California, 274 U. S. 357, 274 U. S. 375-376 (1927) (Brandeis, J., concurring); Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, 283 U. S. 369 (1931); Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 354 U. S. 484 (1957); NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 371 U. S. 429 (1963); New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254 (1964).
Bad-faith harassment can, of course, take many forms, including arrests and prosecutions under valid statutes where there is no reasonable hope of obtaining a conviction, see, e.g., Cameron v. Johnson, supra, at 390 U. S. 621, and a pattern of discriminatory enforcement designed to inhibit the exercise of federal rights, see, e.g., Bailey v. Patterson, 323 F.2d 201 (CA5 1963). Cf. ALI, Study of the Division of Jurisdiction Between State and Federal Courts § 1372(7), pp. 308-310 (1969).
The federal declaratory judgment is not a prize to the winner of a race to the courthouses, but rather a declaration of rights that obviates the need to risk a state criminal proceeding or a race to the courthouses. Within the limits of Art. III, see Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U. S. 103 (1969), doctrines of ripeness should be so fashioned as to give adequate room for this kind of relief.
"There, Congress has declared the historic judgment that, within this precious area . . . , there is to be no slightest risk of nullification by state process. The danger is unhappily not past. It would be moving in the wrong direction to reduce the jurisdiction in this field -- not because the interest of the state is smaller in such cases, but because its interest is outweighed by other factors of the highest national concern."
Wechsler, Federal Jurisdiction and the Revision of the Judicial Code, 13 Law & Contemp.Prob. 216, 230 (1948).
Whether in this context, 28 U.S.C. § 2283 bars injunctive relief I need not consider, since there is no injunction here.
I do not consider here the types of relief available in cases of bad faith harassment discussed supra, at n. 11.
The Senate Report noted that "[t]he declaratory judgment is a final, binding judgment between adversary parties, and conclusively determines their rights." S.Rep. No. 1005, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., 5 (1934). But, in my view, the federal court's duty to render a declaratory judgment is not the less whatever may be its res judicata effect as between the parties to the litigation.
"[T]axes are the life-blood of government, and their prompt and certain availability an imperious need. Time out of mind, therefore, the sovereign has resorted to more drastic means of collection."
"Where . . . adequate opportunity is afforded for a later judicial determination of the legal rights, summary proceedings to secure prompt performance of pecuniary obligations to the government have been consistently sustained. Property rights must yield provisionally to governmental need. Thus, while protection of life and liberty from administrative action alleged to be illegal, may be obtained promptly by the writ of habeas corpus, the statutory prohibition of any 'suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax' postpones redress for the alleged invasion of property rights. . . ."
(Citations omitted). Cf. Matthews v. Rodgers, 284 U. S. 521, 284 U. S. 525-526 (1932). The special reasons justifying the policy of federal noninterference with state tax collection are obvious. The procedures for mass assessment and collection of state taxes and for administration and adjudication of taxpayers' disputes with tax officials are generally complex, and necessarily designed to operate according to established rules. State tax agencies are organized to discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the state procedures. If federal declaratory relief were available to test state tax assessments, state tax administration might be thrown into disarray, and taxpayers might escape the ordinary procedural requirements imposed by state law. During the pendency of the federal suit, the collection of revenue under the challenged law might be obstructed, with consequent damage to the State's budget, and perhaps a shift to the State of the risk of taxpayer insolvency. Moreover, federal constitutional issues are likely to turn on questions of state tax law, which, like issues of state regulatory law, are more properly heard in the state courts. See generally S.Rep. No. 1035, 75th Cong., 1st Sess. (1937). These considerations make clear that the underlying policy of the anti-tax injunction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, relied on in Great Lakes, bars all anticipatory federal adjudication in this field, not merely federal injunctions. Very different considerations apply in the context of state criminal statutes challenged as unconstitutional. At issue on one side are fundamental personal rights, not property rights. At risk on the other is not the current financing of state government, but the future enforcement of a particular criminal statute.
"any party may appeal to the Supreme Court from an order granting or denying . . . an . . . injunction in any civil action . . . required . . . to be . . . determined by a district court of three judges."
"While there are similarities between injunctions and declaratory judgments, there are also important differences. . . . [T]his Court's jurisdiction under [§ 1253] is to be literally construed. . . . It would hardly be faithful to such a construction to read the statutory term 'injunction' as meaning 'declaratory judgment.'"
398 U.S. at 398 U. S. 430-431.

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