Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/389/241
Timestamp: 2016-02-08 06:41:39
Document Index: 429675576

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 781', '§ 781', '§ 781', '§ 781', '§ 781', '§ 457', '§ 1', '§ 17', '§ 1', '§ 52', '§ 781']

Sanford ZWICKLER, Appellant, v. Aaron E. KOOTA, as District Attorney of the County of Kings. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews Sanford ZWICKLER, Appellant, v. Aaron E. KOOTA, as District Attorney of the County of Kings.
389 U.S. 241 (88 S.Ct. 391, 19 L.Ed.2d 444)
Argued: Oct. 12, 1967.
[HTML] Emanuel Redfield, New York City, for appellant.
Section 781b of the New York Penal Law makes it a crime to distribute in quantity, among other things, any handbill for another which contains any statement concerning any candidate in connection with any election of public officers, without also printing thereon the name and post office address of the printer thereof and of the person at whose instance such handbill is so distributed.
and the New York Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion, People v. Zwickler, 16 N.Y.2d 1069, 266 N.Y.S.2d 140, 213 N.E.2d 467. Thereafter appellant, invoking the District Court's jurisdiction under the Civil Rights Act, 28 U.S.C. 1343, and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. 2201,
sought declaratory and injunctive relief in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York on the ground that, on its face, the statute was repugnant to the guarantees of free expression secured by the Federal Constitution. His contention, below and in this Court, is that the statute suffers from impermissible 'overbreadth' in that its sweep embraces anonymous handbills both within and outside the protection of the First Amendment. Cf. Talley v. State of California, 362 U.S. 60, 80 S.Ct. 536, 4 L.Ed.2d 559. A three-judge court, one judge dissenting, applied the doctrine of abstention and dismissed the complaint,
remitting appellant to the New York courts to assert his constitutional challenge in defense of any criminal prosecution for any future violations of the statute or, short of this, to the institution of 'an action in the state court for a declaratory judgment.'
261 F.Supp. 985, 993. Because appellant's appeal presents an important question of the scope of the discretion of the district courts to abstain from deciding the merits of a challenge that a state statute on its face violates the Federal Constitution, we noted probable jurisdiction. 386 U.S. 906, 87 S.Ct. 854, 17 L.Ed.2d 781. We reverse.
We shall consider first whether abstention from the declaratory judgment sought by appellant would have been appropriate in the absence of his request for injunctive relief, and second, if not, whether abstention was nevertheless justified because appellant also sought an injunction against future criminal prosecutions for violation of § 781b.
was the principal '* * * measure of the broadening federal domain in the area of individual rights,' McNeese v. Board of Education, etc., 373 U.S. 668, 673, 83 S.Ct. 1433, 1436, 10 L.Ed.2d 622. By that statute '* * * Congress gave the federal courts the vast range of power which had lain dormant in the Constitution since 1789. These courts ceased to be restricted tribunals of fair dealing between citizens of different states and became the primary and powerful reliances for vindicating every right given by the Constitution, the laws, and treaties of the United States.' (Emphasis added.) Frankfurter & Landis, The Business of the Supreme Court: A Study in the Federal Judicial System, 65. Indeed, even before the 1875 Act, Congress, in the Civil Rights Act of 1871,
subjected to suit, '(e)very person who, under color of any statute * * * subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person * * * to the deprivation of any rights * * * secured by the Constitution and laws * * *,' 42 U.S.C. 1983; and gave the district courts 'original jurisdiction' of actions '(t)o redress the deprivation, under color of any State law * * * of any right * * * secured by the Constitution * * *.' 28 U.S.C. 1343(3).
In thus expanding federal judicial power, 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, 637, 4 S.Ct. 544, 551, 28 L.Ed. 542. 'We yet like to believe that wherever the Federal courts sit, human rights under the Federal Constitution are always a proper subject for adjudication, and that we have not the right to decline the exercise of that jurisdiction simply because the rights asserted may be adjudicated in some other forum.' Stapleton v. Mitchell, D.C., 60 F.Supp. 51, 55; see McNeese v. Board of Education, etc., 373 U.S. at 674, 83 S.Ct., at 1437, n. 6. Cf. Cohens v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 404, 5 L.Ed. 257. The judge-made doctrine of abstention, first fashioned in 1941 in Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971, sanctions such escape only in narrowly limited 'special circumstances.' Propper v. Clark, 337 U.S. 472, 492, 69 S.Ct. 1333, 1344, 93 L.Ed. 1480.
One of the 'special circumstances'that thought by the District Court to be present in this caseis the susceptibility of a state statute of a construction by the state courts that would avoid or modify the constitutional question. Harrison v. NAACP, 360 U.S. 167, 79 S.Ct. 1025, 3 L.Ed.2d 1152. Compare Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360, 84 S.Ct. 1316, 12 L.Ed.2d 377.
But we have here no question of a construction of § 781b that would 'avoid or modify the constitutional question.' Appellant's challenge is not that the statute is void for 'vagueness,' that is, that it is a statute 'which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application * * *.' Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391, 46 S.Ct. 126, 127, 70 L.Ed. 322.
Rather his constitutional attack is that the statute, although lacking neither clarity nor precision, is void for 'overbreadth,' that is, that it offends the constitutional principle that 'a governmental purpose to control or prevent activities constitutionally subject to state regulation may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms.' NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Flowers, 377 U.S. 288, 307, 84 S.Ct. 1302, 1314, 12 L.Ed.2d 325. See Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500, 508 509, 84 S.Ct. 1659, 1665, 12 L.Ed.2d 992; NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 438, 83 S.Ct. 328, 340, 9 L.Ed.2d 405; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U.S. 293, 81 S.Ct. 1333, 6 L.Ed.2d 301; Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 488, 81 S.Ct. 247, 252, 5 L.Ed.2d 231; Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 246, 77 S.Ct. 752, 760, 1 L.Ed.2d 796; Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U.S. 141, 146149, 63 S.Ct. 862, 864866, 87 L.Ed. 1313; Cantwell v. State of Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 304307, 60 S.Ct. 900, 904, 84 L.Ed. 1213; Schneider v. State of New Jersey, 308 U.S. 147, 161, 165, 60 S.Ct. 146, 152, 84 L.Ed. 155.
Appellee does not contest appellant's suggestion that § 781b is both clear and precise; indeed, appellee concedes that state court construction cannot narrow its allegedly indiscriminate cast and render unnecessary a decision of appellant's constitutional challenge. See Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500, 84 S.Ct. 1659.
The analysis in United States v. Livingston, D.C., 179 F.Supp. 9, 1213, aff'd, Livingston v. United States, 364 U.S. 281, 80 S.Ct. 1611, 4 L.Ed.2d 1719, is the guide to decision here:
After examining the purposes of the Civil Rights Act, under which that action was brought, we concluded that '(w)e would defeat those purposes if we held that assertion of a federal claim in a federal court must await an attempt to vindicate the same claim in a state court.' 373 U.S., at 672, 83 S.Ct., at 1436. For the 'recognition of the role of state courts as the final expositors of state law implies no disregard for the primacy of the federal judiciary in deciding questions of federal law.' England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 415416, 84 S.Ct. 461, 465, 11 L.Ed.2d 440.
These principles have particular significance when, as in this case, the attack upon the statute on its face is for repugnancy to the First Amendment. In such case to force the plaintiff who has commenced a federal action to suffer the delay of state court proceedings might itself effect the impermissible chilling of the very constitutional right he seeks to protect. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 486487, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 1120 1121, 14 L.Ed.2d 22; Baggett v. Bullitt, supra, 377 U.S. at 378 379, 84 S.Ct., at 1326; NAACP v. Button, supra, 371 U.S. at 433, 83 S.Ct. at 338; cf. Garrison v. State of Louisiana, 379 U.S 64, 7475, 85 S.Ct. 209, 215216, 13 L.Ed.2d 125; Smith v. People of State of California, 361 U.S. 147, 80 S.Ct. 215, 4 L.Ed.2d 205.
It follows that unless appellant's addition of a prayer for injunctive relief supplies one, no 'special circumstance' prerequisite to application of the doctrine of abstention is present here, Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360, 375379, 84 S.Ct. 1316, 13241326, and it was error to refuse to pass on appellant's claim for a declaratory judgment.
In support of his prayer for an injunction against further prosecutions for violation of § 781b, appellant's amended complaint alleges that he desires to continue to distribute anonymous handbills in quantity 'in connection with any election of party officials, nomination for public office and party position that may occur subsequent to said election compaign of 1966.'
He further alleges that '(b)ecause of the previous prosecution of plaintiff for making the distribution of the leaflet * * * plaintiff is in fear of exercising his right to make distribution as aforesaid and is in danger of again being prosecuted therefor, unless his right of expression is declared by this court, without submitting himself to the penalties of the statute.'
The majority below was of the view that, in light of this prayer, abstention from deciding the declaratory judgment issue was justified because appellant had made no showing of 'special circumstances' entitling him to an injunction against criminal prosecution. Appellee supports this holding by reliance upon the maxim that a federal district court should be slow to act 'where its powers are invoked to interfere by injunction with threatened criminal prosecutions in a state court.' Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 162, 63 S.Ct. 877, 880. We have recently recognized the continuing validity of that pronouncement. Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 483485, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 1119 1120. However, appellant here did not, as did the plaintiffs in Douglas, 319 U.S., at 159, 63 S.Ct., at 879, seek solely to 'restrain threatened criminal prosecution of (him) in the state courts * * *.' Rather, he also requested a declaratory judgment that the state statute underlying the apprehended criminal prosecution was unconstitutional.
The question of the propriety of the action of the District Court in abstaining was discussed as an independent issue governed by different considerations. We squarely held that 'the abstention doctrine is inappropriate for cases such as the present one where * * * statutes are justifiably attached on their face as abridging free expression * * *.' 380 U.S., at 489490, 85 S.Ct., at 1122. This view was reaffirmed in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 601, 87 S.Ct. 675, 682, n. 9, when a statute was attacked as unconstitutional on its face and we said, citing Dombrowski and Baggett v. Bullitt, supra, '(t)his is not a case where abstention pending state court interpretation would be appropriate * * *.'
This Court has repeatedly indicated that 'abstention' is appropriate 'where the order to the parties to repair to the state court would clearly serve one of two important countervailing interests: either the avoidance of a premature and perhaps unnecessary decision of a serious federal constitutional question, or the avoidance of the hazard of unsettling some delicate balance in the area of federal-state relationships.' Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, 360 U.S. 25, 32, 79 S.Ct. 1070, 1074, dissenting opinion). See generally Harrison v. NAACP, 360 U.S. 167, 79 S.Ct. 1025, 3 L.Ed.2d 1152; Allegheny County v. Frank Mashuda Co., 360 U.S. 185, 188189, 79 S.Ct. 1060, 10621063, 3 L.Ed.2d 1163. The first of these interests has been found in cases in which the federal constitutional issue might be mooted or 'presented in a different posture'
by a state court determination of pertinent state law. See, e.g., Chicago v. Fieldcrest Dairies, Inc., 316 U.S. 168, 62 S.Ct. 986, 86 L.Ed. 1355; Spector Motor Service, Inc., v. McLaughlin, 323 U.S. 101, 65 S.Ct. 152, 89 L.Ed. 101; Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory, 325 U.S. 450, 65 S.Ct. 1384, 89 L.Ed. 1725. The second of these interests has been found, for example, in situations in which the exercise of jurisdiction by a federal court would disrupt a state administrative process, Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424; interfere with the collection of state taxes, Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 392, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 1160, 92 L.Ed. 1460, or otherwise create 'needless friction' between the enforcement of state and federal policies. Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, supra, 360 U.S., at 33, 79 S.Ct., at 1075. See also Harrison v. NAACP, supra.
In particular, I can find in this statute no room for a state construction which might obviate the need for a decision on the constitutional issue. If, however, the opinion of the Court is intended to suggest that the central, or even a principal, issue in deciding the propriety of abstention is whether the complaint has alleged 'overbreadth,' or only 'vagueness,' with respect to the New York statute in question, I cannot agree. My reasons are three. First, neither principle has ever been definitively delimited by this Court; a doctrine built upon their supposed differences would be likely to founder for lack of a foundation. See generally, Note, The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine in the Supreme Court, 109 U.Pa.L.Rev. 67. Second, there is no reason to suppose that a case involving allegations of overbreadth would inevitably be inappropriate for abstention; the federal court might nonetheless reasonably consider that its exercise of jurisdiction would create 'needless friction' with state officials, Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, supra, 360 U.S., at 33, 79 S.Ct., at 1075, or it might reasonably conclude that a state court determination would present the federal issues 'in a different posture.' County of Allegheny v. Frank Mashuda Co., supra, 360 U.S., at 189, 79 S.Ct., at 1063. Third, such a standard might in effect reduce the abstention doctrine to a pleader's option; the fundamental interests served by the doctrine would be jettisoned whenever a complainant had sufficient foresight to insert into his pleading an allegation of overbreadth. I can see no proper alternative to a careful examination, in light of the interests served by abstention, of the circumstances of each case.
N.Y. Penal Law § 781b, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 40 (now superseded in identical language by N.Y. Election Law § 457, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 17, see Laws 1965, c. 1031, at 1782 1783):
The statute granted the district courts 'original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several States, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars, and arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority * * *.' Act of March 3, 1875, § 1, 18 Stat. 470. See generally Hart &Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System 727733; Wright, Federal Courts § 17; Chadbourn & Levin, Original Jurisdiction of Federal Questions, 90 U.Pa.L.Rev. 639 (1942); Forrester, Federal Question, Jurisdiction and Section 5, 18 Tulane L.Rev. 263 (1943); Forrester, The Nature of a 'Federal Question,' 16 Tulane L.Rev. 362 (1942); Mishkin, The Federal 'Question' in the District Courts, 53 Col.L.Rev. 157 (1953).
'This development in the federal judiciary, which in the retrospect seems revolutionary, received hardly a contemporary comment.' Frankfurter & Landis, supra, at 65. While there is practically no legislative history of the Act, see id., at 6569, for a summary of what history is available, commentators are generally agreed that a broad grant of jurisdiction was intended. See, e.g., Forrester, The Nature of a 'Federal Question,' 16 Tulane L.Rev. 362, 374385 (1942); Mishkin, The Federal 'Question' in the District Courts, 53 Col.L.Rev. 157, 160 (1953). This is not to say that this Court has read the congressional grant of power in the Act of 1875 as equated with the potential for federal jurisdiction found in Article III of the Constitution. See, e.g., National Mut. Ins. Co. of Dist. of Col. v. Tidewater Transfer Co., 337 U.S. 582, 613615, 69 S.Ct. 1173, 11881189, 93 L.Ed. 1556 (opinion of Rutledge, J.); Shoshone Mining Co. v. Rutter, 177 U.S. 505, 20 S.Ct. 726, 44 L.Ed. 864.
Five Civil Rights Acts were passed between 1866 and 1875. See 14 Stat. 27 (1866), 16 Stat. 140 (1870), 16 Stat. 433 (1871), 17 Stat. 13 (1871), 18 Stat. 335 (1875). Only § 1 of the Act of April 20, 1871, 17 Stat. 13, presently codified as 42 U.S.C. 1983, achieved measurable success in later years. See generally Note, The Civil Rights Act of 1871: Continuing Vitality, 40 Notre Dame Law 70 (1964).
Other 'special circumstances' have been found in diversity cases, see, e.g., Clay v. Sun Insurance Ltd., 363 U.S. 207, 80 S.Ct. 1222, 4 L.Ed.2d 1170; Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, 360 U.S. 25, 79 S.Ct. 1070, 3 L.Ed.2d 1058; Meredith v. City of Winter Haven, 320 U.S. 228, 64 S.Ct. 7, 88 L.Ed. 9 but see County of Allegheny v. Frank Mashuda Co., 360 U.S. 185, 79 S.Ct. 1060, 3 L.Ed.2d 1163; cf. Note, Abstention and Certification in Diversity Suits: 'Perfection of Means and Confusion of Goals,' 73 Yale L.J. 850, and cases cited therein; and in cases involving possible disruption of complex state administrative processes, see, e.g., Alabama Public Serv. Comm'n v. Southern R. Co., 341 U.S. 341, 71 S.Ct. 762, 95 L.Ed. 1002; Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424; cf. County of Allegheny v. Frank Mashuda Co., 360 U.S. 185, 79 S.Ct. 1060, 3 L.Ed.2d 1163; Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, 360 U.S. 25, 79 S.Ct. 1070, 3 L.Ed.2d 1058. See generally Wright, Federal Courts § 52; Note, 59 Col.L.Rev., supra, at 757762.
A lower court held 'void for indefiniteness' a predecessor statute of § 781b. People v. Clampitt, 34 Misc.2d 766, 222 N.Y.S.2d 23 (Ct.Spec.Sess., N.Y. City, 1961). Thereupon the legislature amended the statute to its present form, providing that an offense could not be made out under it until whatever literature might be 'printed' or 'reproduced' might also be 'distributed.' The constitutionality of the amended statute has not been determined in the New York courts.
For the different constitutional considerations involved in attacks for 'vagueness' and for 'overbreadth' see Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 603604, 608610, 87 S.Ct. 675, 683, 684, 686687, 17 L.Ed.2d 629.
We have frequently emphasized that abstention is not to be ordered unless the state statute is of an uncertain nature, and is obviously susceptible of a limiting construction. Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U.S. 528, 534, 85 S.Ct. 1177, 1181, 14 L.Ed.2d 50; Davis v. Mann, 377 U.S. 678, 690, 84 S.Ct. 1441, 1447, 12 L.Ed.2d 609; Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360, 375379, 84 S.Ct. 1316, 13241326; England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 415416, 84 S.Ct. 461; McNeese v. Board of Education, 373 U.S. 668, 673, 674, 83 S.Ct. 1433, 1436; NAACP v. Bennett, 360 U.S. 471, 79 S.Ct. 1192; City of Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co., 357 U.S. 77, 84, 78 S.Ct. 1063, 1067, 2 L.Ed.2d 1174; Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. McLaughlin, 323 U.S. 101, 105, 65 S.Ct. 152, 154, 89 L.Ed. 101. Note, 80 Harv.L.Rev., supra, at 605; Note, 40 Notre Dame Law, supra, n. 10, at 102.
Our discussion of the issue of injunctive relief in Dombrowski is at 380 U.S., at 483489, 85 S.Ct., at 11191122, and our discussion of the issue of abstention is at 489492, 85 S.Ct. 11221124.