Opinion ID: 586314
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The First Amendment Defense.

Text: 51 Having determined that defendants are not entitled to summary judgment on most of plaintiffs' claims, we next consider defendants' contention, accepted by the district court, that defendants' actions constitute expression protected under the First Amendment. Relying principally on NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 102 S.Ct. 3409, 73 L.Ed.2d 1215 (1982), defendants argue that the state and federal anti-discrimination statutes are unconstitutional as applied to them because they impermissibly regulate defendants' speech in applying economic pressure on the Stevensville and threatening to boycott the Stevensville unless it cancelled JFJ's contract. We find defendants' arguments unpersuasive. 52 The First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and of association, which are secured to all persons by the Fourteenth Amendment, are among our most fundamental rights and are integral to our democratic society. See, e.g., Burson v. Freeman, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1846, 1850, 119 L.Ed.2d 5 (1992). Significantly, however, these rights are not absolute. See, e.g., Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 366 U.S. 36, 49 & n. 10, 81 S.Ct. 997, 1006 & n. 10, 6 L.Ed.2d 105 (1961). 53 States can constitutionally regulate conduct even if such regulation entails an incidental limitation on speech. See, e.g., United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 376-77, 88 S.Ct. 1673, 1678-79, 20 L.Ed.2d 672 (1968). A law or regulation directed at conduct that places an incidental burden on speech will be upheld if it is within the constitutional power of the Government; if it furthers an important or substantial governmental interest; if the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression; and if the incidental restriction on alleged First Amendment freedoms is no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest. Id. at 377, 88 S.Ct. at 1679. 54 We observe initially that the statutes at issue in this case that bar direct discrimination on the basis of, among other things, race or religion, see 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3); New York Civ. Rights Law § 40; New York Executive (Human Rights) Law § 296(2)(a), easily satisfy these criteria. These statutes are plainly aimed at conduct, i.e., discrimination, not speech. See R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 60 U.S.L.W. 4667, 4671, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 2546, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (U.S. June 23, 1992) (No. 90-7675); Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2456, 2463, 2465-67, 115 L.Ed.2d 504 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring). New York has the constitutional authority to prohibit, and a substantial, indeed compelling, interest in prohibiting, racial and religious discrimination in obtaining public accommodations. The federal government has a similar interest in preventing the discriminatory interference with constitutional rights, such as the right to interstate travel. The governmental interest in prohibiting such discrimination in these situations is not directed at or related to suppressing expression. 55 It is nevertheless true that these statutory prohibitions against discrimination can be violated by speech or other expressive conduct. However, simply because speech or other expressive conduct can in some circumstances be the vehicle for violating a statute directed at regulating conduct does not render that statute unconstitutional. See, e.g., R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, --- U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 2546 (observing that words[ ] may produce a violation of Title VII's general prohibition against sexual discrimination in employment practices); Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U.S. 490, 502, 69 S.Ct. 684, 690-91, 93 L.Ed. 834 (1949) ([I]t has never been deemed an abridgment of freedom of speech ... to make a course of conduct illegal merely because the conduct was in part initiated, evidenced, or carried out by means of language, either spoken, written, or printed.); United States v. Rowlee, 899 F.2d 1275, 1278 (2d Cir.) ([S]peech is not protected by the First Amendment when it is the very vehicle of the crime itself. E.g. ... (conspiracy).) (citation omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 87, 112 L.Ed.2d 59 (1990). 56 In light of the foregoing, we believe that the statutes at issue in this case making direct discrimination unlawful pass muster under the third O'Brien criterion. We further believe that the statutes are no broader than necessary to further the legitimate goal of eradicating discrimination. For similar reasons, we conclude that in this case, the First Amendment is no bar to liability under the general common law prohibition of tortious interference with contract, which, like the statutes, is directed against conduct, not speech. See Hughes v. Superior Court of California, 339 U.S. 460, 466-68, 70 S.Ct. 718, 721-23, 94 L.Ed. 985 (1950); McCalden, 955 F.2d at 1220. 57 Having concluded that the statutes outlawing direct discriminatory conduct are constitutional does not, however, end our inquiry. Plaintiffs seek to hold defendants liable under § 41 of the Civil Rights Law and § 296(6) of the Human Rights Law, which provide, respectively, a cause of action against persons who aid or incite or aid, abet, incite, compel, or coerce a violation of the Civil Rights and Human Rights statutes. The issue is whether these statutes can be constitutionally applied to defendants. We believe that they can. 58 Arguably, under the O'Brien analysis set forth above, these statutes are also constitutional as regulating discriminatory conduct, not speech. Although incitement or coercion, for example, can be accomplished through speech or other expressive conduct, they need not be. However, even assuming that these statutes in part regulate speech or expressive conduct directly, they are still constitutional. 59 It has long been established that the First Amendment provides no defense to persons who have used otherwise protected speech or expressive conduct to force or aid others to act in violation of a valid conduct-regulating statute. See, e.g., Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm'n on Human Relations, 413 U.S. 376, 388-89, 93 S.Ct. 2553, 2560-61, 37 L.Ed.2d 669 (1973) (holding that ordinance making it unlawful to aid sexually discriminatory employment practices could be constitutionally applied to bar newspaper advertisements for sex-designated employment); Hughes, 339 U.S. 460, 70 S.Ct. 718 (permitting restraint against peaceful picketing designed to force employer to engage in discriminatory hiring practices in violation of state policy); Giboney, 336 U.S. at 502, 69 S.Ct. at 690-91 (permitting restraint against peaceful picketing designed to compel employer not to sell ice to non-union businesses in violation of state anti-trade restraint statute); cf. Brewer v. Hoxie Sch. Dist. No. 46, 238 F.2d 91, 93, 102 (8th Cir.1956) (upholding injunction that prohibited, among other things, a threatened boycott with the objective of preventing school district from implementing desegregation order). This rather unremarkable constitutional principle is incorporated into § 41 of the Civil Rights Law and § 296(6) of the Human Rights Law, which, even if viewed as regulating speech, regulate only that speech designed to secure a violation of the anti-discrimination statutes. These statutes are unquestionably constitutional. If discrimination engaged in by primary actors using words can be constitutionally outlawed, see R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, --- U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 2547, so too can discrimination engaged in by third parties who use speech or other expressive conduct to coerce a primary actor to violate an anti-discrimination statute. Accordingly, these anti-discrimination statutes can be constitutionally applied to defendants in the instant case. 60 Assuming for present purposes only that plaintiffs' allegations are true, defendants engaged in concerted economic pressure, principally through a threatened boycott, with the objective of coercing the Stevensville to deny plaintiffs accommodations for reasons prohibited by the anti-discrimination statutes. Both case law and commentary recognize that a boycott (as with any mode of expression) designed to secure an unlawful objective is not protected by the First Amendment. See FTC v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Ass'n, 493 U.S. 411, 425-27, 110 S.Ct. 768, 776-77, 107 L.Ed.2d 851 (1990); see also Michael C. Harper, The Consumer's Emerging Right To Boycott: NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and Its Implications for American Labor Law, 93 Yale L.J. 409, 430 (1984) ([A]ny effective boycott that compels action illegal under a valid state law should not be permitted.). Moreover, it is of no constitutional significance that defendants here only threatened a boycott. If the state can regulate a boycott because its objectives are incompatible with valid laws, then it certainly can regulate the threat of such conduct, particularly when, as here, the threat was sufficient to achieve the desired illicit end. See Kent Greenawalt, Criminal Coercion and Freedom of Speech, 78 Nw.U.L.Rev. 1081, 1090 (1983) (If the threat coupled with the demand involves ... a direct denial of a civil right, it may be punished.); see also Brewer, 238 F.2d at 93, 102. 61 Defendants erroneously rely on Claiborne Hardware to contend that the First Amendment renders their boycott (or threatened boycott) immune from liability. In Claiborne Hardware, black citizens in Claiborne County, Mississippi, boycotted white merchants in that county to force the government, as well as civic and business leaders, to effectuate the rights of equality and of freedom that lie at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment itself. 458 U.S. at 914, 102 S.Ct. at 3426. The boycott was enforced through peaceful picketing and speeches, as well as through violence and threats of violence. The Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed a judgment against the boycotters that held them jointly and severally liable for all losses incurred by the targeted businesses as a result of the boycotters' tortious interference with those businesses. 62 The Supreme Court reversed and held that the boycotters could not be held liable for the losses caused by the non-violent elements of the boycott. According to the Court, the state could not prohibit the non-violent elements of a politically motivated boycott designed to force governmental and economic change and to effectuate rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Id. at 914-15, 102 S.Ct. at 3426-27; see also id. at 914, 102 S.Ct. at 3426 (It is not disputed that a major purpose of the boycott ... was to influence governmental action.). The Court further recognized that this was so despite the coercive nature of the boycott, stating that [s]peech does not lose its protected character ... simply because it may embarrass others or coerce them into action. Id. at 910, 102 S.Ct. at 3424; see also Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U.S. 415, 419, 91 S.Ct. 1575, 1577-78, 29 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971). Finally, and most significantly for present purposes, the Court noted that it was not presented with a boycott designed to secure aims that are themselves prohibited by a valid state law. Claiborne Hardware, 458 U.S. at 915 n. 49, 102 S.Ct. at 3427 n. 49 (citing Hughes, 339 U.S. 460, 70 S.Ct. 718); see also Claiborne Hardware, 458 U.S. at 933, 102 S.Ct. at 3436 (At times the difference between lawful and unlawful collective action may be identified easily by reference to its purpose. In this case, however, petitioners' ultimate objectives were unquestionably legitimate.). For these reasons, the boycotters' peaceful activity was protected and they could not be held liable for the white merchants' business losses. 63 Claiborne Hardware is therefore readily distinguishable. Unlike the boycott in that case, the threatened boycott and other concerted economic activity in the instant case, assuming plaintiffs' allegations to be true, were designed to achieve an objective prohibited by valid state and federal statutes. Moreover, in contrast to the boycott in Claiborne Hardware, the instant conduct was not political speech designed to secure governmental action to vindicate legitimate rights, but was a series of private communications in the context of a private dispute. Accordingly, the safe harbor carved out by Claiborne Hardware for certain boycott activity is unavailable to defendants. 64 Defendants' further contention that they are immune from liability for their conduct because they were motivated by a desire to safeguard the integrity of their religion is equally unavailing. Apart from certain statutory exceptions, see New York Executive (Human Rights) Law § 296(11), parties are not exempt from conforming their actions to laws of general application not directed at speech but at conduct. See Employment Div., Dept. of Human Resources v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 878-79, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 1598-99, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990) (We have never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate.); Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U.S. 569, 574, 61 S.Ct. 762, 765, 85 L.Ed. 1049 (1941).