Opinion ID: 195818
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The State Constitutional Claim.

Text: 93 Appellant's complaint contained a claim that Dedham's by-law violated the Massachusetts Constitution. In granting summary judgment, the district court finessed the merits of the state constitutional claim. The court noted that, in presenting its arguments, appellant had not drawn any distinction between the federal and state constitutional claims, 16 and ruled, therefore, that appellant had forfeited any chance to argue that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights offers broader freedom-of-speech protection than the cognate provisions of the First Amendment. See National Amusements, 846 F.Supp. at 1032 n. 12. 94 On appeal, appellant concedes that it treated the two constitutional provisions identically in the court below, and tells us that it did so in the belief that the federal and state constitutional protections for freedom of speech were coextensive as applied to the exhibition of motion pictures. Having had second thoughts in light of the district court's holding that the by-law does not offend the First Amendment, appellant invites us to consider the omitted argument. We decline the invitation. 95 The short of it is that appellant's change of heart comes too late. It is hornbook law that theories not raised squarely in the district court cannot be surfaced for the first time on appeal. McCoy v. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, 950 F.2d 13, 22 (1st Cir.1991) (collecting cases), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1939, 118 L.Ed.2d 545 (1992). We see no reason to depart from this prudential rule in the circumstances at bar. Given the way in which appellant elected to present its case below, Judge Young acted appropriately in assuming, for purposes of his decision, that the freedom-of-speech protections found in the two constitutions were coterminous. Hence, the disputed ruling must be upheld. See Mesnick, 950 F.2d at 829 n. 11 (holding that a plaintiff whose complaint contained parallel claims under federal and state antidiscrimination statutes, but who relied exclusively on federal precedent in unsuccessfully opposing summary judgment, could not argue on appeal that state law was more favorably disposed to his claims).