Opinion ID: 411925
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First Amendment Exception to the Jurisdictional Limitation of Section 14(b).

Text: 17 Appellant advances the novel argument that even if section 14(b) would normally preclude local district court jurisdiction to hear a constitutional challenge to the Voting Rights Act, where, as here, the constitutional challenge to the Act is predicated on a violation of the First Amendment, an exception to the jurisdictional limitations imposed by Section 14(b) should be recognized. Reich contends that the Supreme Court has held that First Amendment rights occupy a preferred position in the constellation of rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and that these rights should be favored when they come into conflict with other rights. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965). Appellant therefore concludes that [i]t is outrageous for a [First Amendment case] to be strapped with the [section 14(b) ] District of Columbia requirement--for a private litigant, the District of Columbia requirement [chills] first amendment rights [because] the costs [of litigating in the District of Columbia] are prohibitive. 18 At best, Dombrowski offers weak support for appellant's position. While Dombrowski does recognize the importance of free expression among our constitutionally protected rights, there is simply no basis for appellant's reading of the case to support a general exception from jurisdictional or prudential limitations on suits that raise first amendment issues. Instead, Dombrowski stands for the much narrower proposition that a federal court could enjoin a state court criminal prosecution where the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of an overbroad criminal statute and alleged that bad faith prosecution under the statute had a chilling effect on their exercise of their first amendment rights. Id. at 492, 85 S.Ct. at 1124. 19 Though the burdens to appellant of litigating his first amendment challenge to the Voting Rights Act in a distant forum may be real and substantial, the Act's requirement that he litigate in the District Court for the District of Columbia neither unconstitutionally infringes his first amendment rights nor deprives him of due process. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court dismissing appellant's suit for lack of jurisdiction is AFFIRMED.