Opinion ID: 775766
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Michael Warren

Text: 24 Michael Warren also disputes the District Court's findings that he likely violated-or threatened to violate-F.A.C.E., or that he violated New York State nuisance and trespass law. We conclude that the limited findings against him do not support the District Court's exercise of injunctive power. We thus vacate the injunction against Warren. The District Court, however, chose not to consider some potentially crucial evidence that Warren violated the T.R.O. against him, and we therefore remand for further proceedings. 25 We will consider each of the substantive causes of action in turn. 26
27 We find it difficult to fully understand the nature of the case against Warren pursuant to F.A.C.E., in large part because the District Court's Decision and Order contains few references to him. As explained above, F.A.C.E. provides for injunctive relief against persons who by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services.... 18 U.S.C. § 248(a)(1). The Act further provides for injunctive relief where a person's future actions pose a threat to clinic access. See id. § 248(c)(3)(A). 28 It appears to us that the District Court found it likely that Warren's protest organizing efforts threatened to violate F.A.C.E. in the future. We reach this conclusion in part because there are no findings that Warren has committed any past violations of F.A.C.E. The only past actions by Warren considered by the District Court occurred before Congress enacted F.A.C.E. in 1994: namely, he participated in a number of rescue missions, the last of which occurred immediately prior to F.A.C.E.'s effective date; he trespassed on the property of a non-party hospital where he passed out anti-abortion literature; and some of his activities have resulted in trespass convictions. The District Court did consider Warren's political activities. He currently holds leadership positions in Defendant Rescue Rochester and he helped organize Operation Save America-the planned protest which led to the imposition of the T.R.O. The plaintiffs contend that the District Court found that Operation Save America was modeled on the earlier, disruptive protest campaign, 7 and therefore that the District Court concluded that Warren was planning, and might again plan, to organize protest activities that threaten clinic access. 29 As we noted earlier, Operation Save America concluded prior to the entry of a preliminary injunction. Yet the District Court made no additional findings as to whether Warren continued to plan protests that might threaten clinic access. While we do not address the question of whether the record was sufficient to support injunctive relief for the duration of Operation Save America, it is clear to us that, once those protests had occurred without serious incident, the chief rationale behind enjoining Warren greatly weakened. Beyond the District Court's many references to activities by unnamed defendants, we are left with only one specific set of facts: Warren interfered with clinic access before Congress had made it a criminal offense by enacting F.A.C.E. Such a limited factual record against Warren cannot support New York State's reasonable cause to believe that Warren's ongoing activities constitute a threat to clinic access as required for injunctive relief pursuant to F.A.C.E. 8 30 Seeking to go beyond the District Court's factual findings, the plaintiffs have also charged that Warren violated the T.R.O. on several occasions prior to the issuance of the preliminary injunction, and that these violations might support the injunction against him. In its Decision and Order granting the preliminary injunction, the District Court referred to this evidence, but explicitly chose not to make findings of fact, reserving decision on those factual disputes for separate contempt proceedings. We agree with the plaintiffs that the particular factual context of these incidents may be critical to determining whether Warren has violated F.A.C.E. and, therefore, whether injunctive relief against him is appropriate. Depending upon the nature and circumstances of the T.R.O. violations, Warren's actions may have violated not only the T.R.O., but also impeded clinic access in violation of F.A.C.E. 31 Subsequent to argument on this appeal, the District Court did make factual findings on the contempt charge, but those findings do not settle the question of whether Warren violated F.A.C.E. when he violated the T.R.O. On August 17, 2001, the District Court issued a Decision and Order (the Contempt Decision), finding that Warren violated 18 U.S.C. § 401(3) (contempt) by protesting within buffer zones at covered facilities. See Decision and Order Dated August 17, 2001, Misc. Cr. 00-029A. The appeal of contempt proceeding is clearly not before us, but we may take judicial notice of the District Court's decision. Specifically, the District Court found that Warren violated the T.R.O. on three occasions. Concerning the first two violations on May 18 and May 22, 1999, the District Court only stated that Warren demonstrated against abortion while inside the buffer zone at Genessee Hospital, but gave no further detail. The District Court also found that Warren entered the Planned Parenthood Rochester buffer zone on July 14, 1999. The court did not specify where in the buffer zone Warren stood or what Warren did while standing there. Almost all of the specific findings by the District Court concerned another protestor named Gerald Crawford. In other words, the contempt decision never addressed the factual questions that, for our purposes, are essential: namely, whether Warren's actions in violation of the T.R.O. utilized force or threat of force or... physical obstruction to intentionally injure[], intimidate[] or interfere[] with or attempt[] to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services.... 18 U.S.C. § 248(a)(1). Mere presence within a buffer zone is not enough for finding a F.A.C.E. violation. We also need to know what part of the zones Warren entered in violation of the T.R.O., whether patients were present during those incidents, or even, assuming patients were present, whether his actions blocked clinic access. Since the T.R.O. is in part a prophylactic designed to prohibit a range of behavior that has a strong tendency to interfere with clinic access, even a clear violation of its terms might not stand as an independent contravention of F.A.C.E. 32 Testimony at the preliminary injunction hearing concerning Warren's violations of the T.R.O. indicates that he may not have interfered with clinic access. For example, one alleged violation by Warren apparently involved his presence in buffer zones at Planned Parenthood Rochester. At the preliminary injunction hearing, a police officer testified that Warren was present in the PPR zone, and refused to leave despite repeated warnings. The police officer explicitly testified that Warren never blocked anyone entering or exiting the clinic and never threatened anyone. In other words, the officer's testimony describes behavior that might be a technical violation of the T.R.O. (justifying criminal contempt proceedings) but not illegal interference with clinic access (rendering F.A.C.E. inapplicable). 33 Our difficulty in assessing the case against Warren can thus be traced to at least three problems. First, the District Court failed to set forth clear findings related to the different individuals named in the injunction. The District Court even issued the injunction against unidentified John Does. 9 In place of such particularized findings, the District Court issued findings that tended to discuss habitual behavior of a group of defendants without specifying who exactly was engaging in that behavior. The lack of particularized findings creates the genuine risk-a risk that may have been realized in Warren's case-that a person's political associations or participation in political protests will serve as the conduit for a finding of liability under F.A.C.E. 34 Second, the District Court did not definitively confirm that all named defendants are currently engaged in plans or activities that constitute a threat of violating F.A.C.E. Many of the events the District Court relied upon in its findings are years old-some even pre-dating the passage of F.A.C.E. in 1994. Courts may not use past conduct to place a permanent burden on the exercise of First Amendment rights. When a district court contemplates imposing an injunction based in part on a past history of illegal behavior by protestors, it should be vigilant to ensure that the current protests threaten to maintain whatever coercive influence resulted from the original illegal conduct. See Milk Wagon Drivers Union of Chicago v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 296 (1941). 35 When issuing an injunction, a district court's findings should definitively confirm that injunctive relief is necessitated by current and ongoing plans or activities, and that all named defendants are currently engaged in the plans or activities that constitute a threat of violating F.A.C.E. In Warren's case, the District Court's findings did not do so. These failures require us to vacate the injunction against Warren insofar as F.A.C.E. provides the authority for the court's injunctive power. 36 We are faced, however, with a third difficulty: the District Court never made findings of fact concerning Warren's then-alleged violations of the T.R.O. While we agree with Warren that the District Court enjoined him without an adequate basis for concluding that he likely violated F.A.C.E., the District Court's failure to make findings of fact on this material evidence may have prevented the plaintiffs from meeting their burden of showing likelihood of success on the merits. By reserving the issues for separate contempt proceedings, the District Court denied the plaintiffs an opportunity to introduce critical evidence of their claim that Warren could reasonably be expected to repeat his behavior during the pre-F.A.C.E. rescue missions. 37 At least on the record before us, F.A.C.E. does not provide grounds for enjoining Warren. The state law claims of public nuisance and trespass, which we will now discuss, do not provide any firmer support for injunctive relief against him. We are therefore required to vacate the injunction against Warren and remand for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion. Those additional proceedings should include a full consideration of Warren's alleged violations of the T.R.O. 38
39 As an alternative ground for injunctive relief, the District Court found that the defendants violated New York state public nuisance and trespass law. Neither of these provide grounds for enjoining Warren. 40 Pursuant to New York law, a public nuisance `consists of conduct... which [offends or interferes with] the public in the exercise of rights common to all, in a manner such as to... interfere with use by the public of a public place or endanger or injure the property, health, safety or comfort of a considerable number of persons.' N.Y. State Nat'l Org. for Women v. Terry, 886 F.2d 1339, 1361 (2d Cir. 1989) (quoting Copart Indus., Inc. v. Consol. Edison Co., 41 N.Y.2d 564, 568, 394 N.Y.S.2d 169, 172, 362 N.E.2d 968, 971 (1977)), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 947 (1990). A public nuisance may be caused by protest activities at health clinics that endanger the health and security of a considerable number of persons. Terry, 886 F.2d at 1362. In Terry, the illegal conduct included mass demonstrations that obstructed vehicular and pedestrian traffic, making clinic access uncertain and precarious. Id. 41 In general, the nuisance claim in this case rides piggyback on the F.A.C.E. claim. The types of behavior that impeded clinic access also created a nuisance by interfering with the administration of medical care at health clinics. As with F.A.C.E., the nuisance case against Warren is short on details. The District Court did not discuss Warren's current protest conduct, and narrates no recent instance in which Warren created a public nuisance. Based on this record, New York public nuisance law cannot support a preliminary injunction against Warren. The state law claim suffers the same infirmities as the F.A.C.E. claim. It is possible that the District Court, on remand, might conclude that Warren's actions in violation of the T.R.O. created a public nuisance, justifying injunctive relief. But on the record before us, we cannot sustain the injunction based on public nuisance. 42 Nor does New York state trespass law provide a suitable basis for injunctive relief against Warren. Under New York law, trespass is the interference with a person's right to possession of real property either by an unlawful act or a lawful act performed in an unlawful manner. Terry, 886 F.2d at 1361 (2d Cir. 1989) (citing Ivancic v. Olmstead, 66 N.Y.2d 349, 352, 497 N.Y.S.2d 326, 488 N.E.2d 72 (1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1117 (1986) and Phillips v. Sun Oil Co., 307 N.Y. 328, 331, 121 N.E.2d 249 (1954)). The threat of continuing trespass entitles a property owner to injunctive relief where irreparable injury may result. Terry, 886 F.2d at 1361 (citing Exchange Bakery & Rest., Inc. v. Rifkin, 245 N.Y. 260, 268, 157 N.E. 130 (1927)). 43 Initially, this cause of action appears the strongest basis for injunctive relief against Warren. He has, after all, been convicted of trespassing on the property of Genessee Hospital on several different occasions. Setting aside the question of whether trespass would justify such a broad injunction, or whether Warren's sporadic trespasses constitute a continuing violation posing a risk of irreparable injury, we find the trespass claim inadequate for one fundamental reason. The victim of the trespasses, Genessee Hospital, is not a party to this action, and so the plaintiffs cannot assert a cause of action under New York law for trespass on property owned and used entirely by another. See, e.g., Terry, 886 F.2d at 1361 (The threat of continuing trespass entitles a property owner to injunctive relief where irreparable injury may result.) (emphasis added); see also N.Y. State Energy Research & Dev. Auth. v. Nuclear Fuel Serv., Inc., 561 F. Supp. 954, 968 n.3 (W.D.N.Y. 1983) ([I]njunctive relief if otherwise appropriate will be available purely to vindicate the possessor's interest in the property.) (emphasis added). In Terry, for example, the plaintiffs seeking injunctive relief were themselves the victims of trespasses by the defendants. 44 Neither F.A.C.E. nor the state law causes of action support the injunction against Warren. We therefore vacate the injunction against him and remand for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion.