Opinion ID: 736912
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Second Prong of Georgia v. Rachel

Text: 31 In order to sustain removability under § 1443(1), a defendant must also demonstrate that he is denied or cannot enforce his specified federal rights in the state courts. Rachel, 384 U.S. at 788, 86 S.Ct. at 1788. Although traditionally the denial had to be manifest in a formal expression of state law, a defendant can now sustain pre-trial removal where a federal civil rights statute [o]n its face ... prohibits prosecution of any person seeking to exercise that civil right. Id. at 804, 86 S.Ct. at 1796-97 (citing Hamm, 379 U.S. at 311, 85 S.Ct. at 389). Thus, removal is available where the state court defendant's federal civil rights would inevitably be denied by the very act of being brought to trial in state court. Peacock, 384 U.S. at 828, 86 S.Ct. at 1812. In creating such a narrow range of cases that are susceptible to removal, the Supreme Court sought to ensure that removal would be available only in cases where the predicted denial [of equal civil rights] appeared with relative clarity prior to trial. Rachel, 384 U.S. at 803, 86 S.Ct. at 1796. For if the denial was less clear, the federal courts would become involved in the unseemly process of prejudging their brethren of the state courts. Id. 32 The Trustees assert that the mere pendency of the state court defamation action violates their federal civil rights as prescribed in § 1985(3). They emphasize that the Commissioners filed their defamation action soon after the Trustees filed the federal civil rights action, and as such the state action can be viewed only as a means to intimidate and retaliate against the Trustees for pursuing their federal action. They contend that § 1985(3), like the sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at issue in Rachel, prohibits actions to intimidate or punish persons for exercising civil rights protected by § 1985(3). Furthermore, they argue that attempts to punish, even if unsuccessful, deny and violate the very rights provided by that provision. 33 A careful reading of § 1985(3) makes clear, however, that the provision grants no such protection. It does not confer an absolute right on private citizens to defame others. Nor does it confer immunity from state civil actions brought to seek redress for those statements. Furthermore, the Trustees do not attempt to demonstrate, and apparently cannot demonstrate, that a state law exists that would on its face deny them the ability to enforce their equal rights in state court. 34 The Trustees nonetheless claim that, just as Hamm v. City of Rock Hill immunized state court defendants from prosecution for trespass, Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971), held that § 1985(3) immunizes the Trustees from a defamation action. They submit that the Court in Griffin explained that § 1985(3) protects against 'intimidation,' which must include threats of civil and criminal prosecution against African-Americans exercising First Amendment rights, and, therefore, that § 1985(3) protects the Trustees from a defamation action. But Griffin cannot be read to extend protection to the Trustees for several reasons. First, the Court in Hamm relied on language that expressly protected against prosecution, in that § 203 of the Civil Rights Act provided that [n]o person shall ... punish or attempt to punish any person for exercising any right protected under the Act. Hamm, 379 U.S. at 311, 85 S.Ct. at 389. No such language exists in § 1985(3). In fact, the only place in this statute which specifically refers to intimidation is related to the right to vote. Thus, a perusal of § 1985(3) makes clear that it does not provide the Trustees with a right to engage in tortious, defamatory conduct. Second, the Trustees misread Griffin, for nowhere in it does the Court intimate that § 1985(3) prohibits the prosecution of a state court defamation action. 35 In sum, it is clear that nothing in § 1985(3) or in Griffin immunizes the Trustees from civil state court defamation actions, and that they fail to fit within the limited exception set forth in Rachel. In fact, the circumstances of the Trustees' case are closer in appearance to Peacock than to Rachel. The distinction between these two types of cases is clear: 36 The line between Rachel and Peacock is that between prosecutions in which the conduct necessary to constitute the state offense is specifically protected by a federal equal rights statute under the circumstances alleged by the petitioner, and prosecutions where the only grounds for removal is that the charge is false and motivated by a desire to discourage the petitioner from exercising or to penalize him for having exercised a federal right. 37 Johnson v. Mississippi, 421 U.S. 213, 234, 95 S.Ct. 1591, 1602, 44 L.Ed.2d 121 (1975) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (citing People of State of New York v. Davis, 411 F.2d 750 (2d Cir.1969)). Even if the Trustees are correct in their assertions concerning the Commissioners' retaliatory motivation, their case clearly falls into the latter category, and as such, outside the narrow exception identified in Rachel. Moreover, removal is not warranted by the concern, simpliciter, that a denial of equal rights may take place and go uncorrected at trial. Rachel, 384 U.S. at 800, 86 S.Ct. at 1794-95. An analysis of that sort would require this Court to second-guess the impartiality of our state court brethren, and this outcome is exactly what the court in Rachel and Peacock counseled against. 38 None of the cases on which the Trustees rely persuades us to hold otherwise. See Sofarelli, 931 F.2d 718; Whatley v. City of Vidalia, 399 F.2d 521 (5th Cir.1968); Rogers v. Rucker, 835 F.Supp. 1410 (N.D.Ga.1993); Northside Realty Assoc., Inc. v. Chapman, 411 F.Supp. 1195 (N.D.Ga.1976). Whatley is not apposite because the removing defendants in that case specifically invoked the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provides that [n]o person shall intimidate, threaten or coerce ... any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote. Id. at 522 n. 2 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 1973i(b)). Thus, because Congress had specifically immunized the action in question, the state court defendants could not be prosecuted for encouraging individuals to vote. 39 The cases of Sofarelli, Rogers, and Northside Realty are similarly unhelpful. In those cases, the removing state court defendants invoked a provision of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which provides that no person shall coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any other person ... on account of his having aided or encouraged any other person in the exercise or enjoyment of any right granted by the Fair Housing Act. Northside Realty, 411 F.Supp. at 1198 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 3617). Thus, no person who had encouraged another to take advantage of the Fair Housing Act could be prosecuted, and the filing of the suit itself violated the removing defendants' civil rights. As previously discussed, the Trustees cannot avail themselves of such a provision, for § 1985(3) does not immunize them from a civil defamation suit. 40 In addition, the Trustees cannot derive support from Conrad v. Robinson, 871 F.2d 612 (6th Cir.1989). In that case, the removing defendant Robinson filed a Title VII action against Conrad, and a newspaper article was subsequently published that discussed the pending case. Conrad, based on the statements in the newspaper article and in Robinson's complaint, brought a libel action against him. In upholding § 1443(1) removal, the Sixth Circuit noted that the only statements made by Robinson which Conrad claimed were libelous related to Robinson's [preexisting] federal court suit. As a result, the Sixth Circuit opined that the connection between Robinson's speech and this protected activity [the filing of the suit] is very close.... Had Robinson's comments in the Plain Dealer been unrelated to his pre-existing federal court case against [the union], but were just general allegations that Conrad discriminated on the basis of race, the result might be very different. Id. at 616. 41 We need not pass on whether we will follow Conrad because the question addressed by the Sixth Circuit is not the same as the one we now face. In Conrad, the removing defendant alleged that the state court prosecution was not permitted because Title VII prohibited any form of retaliation against an employee for having filed charges of discrimination in employment. Id. at 615 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3). Title VII contains an explicit proscription against discrimination against any employee because he has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter, or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this subchapter. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). The Conrad court determined that the filing of the defamation suit was in retaliation for the filing of an action under Title VII. In the present case, the Trustees have not cited to a specific federal law that prohibits retaliation against, or provides immunity for, their allegedly defamatory conduct. 42 We are not insensitive to the point so effectively made by the Trustees' able counsel that the events that form the basis of the state court defamation action stem from the same set of facts as those underlying the federal civil rights action, and that, since allegations of racial bias suffuse the litigation, which is anchored in federal court, the defamation action too must be heard there in order to assure that civil rights are not compromised. But this view ignores the rigors of federalism, and the technical precepts of governing by dint of which the principles of federalism are translated into reality.