Opinion ID: 198467
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A person is guilty of obstructing highways and other public passages if:

Text: (1) Having no legal privilege to do so, he purposely or recklessly obstructs any highway or other public passage, whether alone or with others, and persists after warning by a police officer. No person shall be deemed guilty of obstructing in violation of this Article solely because of a gathering of persons to hear him speak or otherwise communicate or solely because of being a member of such a gathering; or (2) He refuses to obey a reasonable official request or order to remove himself from a public gathering when such request or order is made: (a) To prevent obstruction of a highway, street, or other public passage.... 2 The district court may grant summary judgment of its own volition where the litigation is sufficiently advanced that both parties have had a reasonable opportunity to present any material evidence in their favor. Bank v. International Bus. Machines Corp., 145 F.3d 420, 431 (1st Cir.1998) (citation omitted). The magistrate judge reasoned that a sua sponte grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants was appropriate because: (1) whether the Defendants' arrest of the Plaintiffs was a per se violation of the Massachusetts and federal constitutions is a question of law which does not depend on the development of further facts, and (2) Plaintiffs' [Count II] does not allege a claim that it was a violation of their constitutional rights for them to be arrested by the SRT team. Diaz v. City of Fitchburg, No. 94-40157-NMG, slip op. at 14 n. 5 (D.Mass. Sep. 26, 1997) (order and report and recommendation). Plaintiffs do not challenge the lower court's decision to act sua sponte. 3 Plaintiffs also make a three-sentence argument that use of a paramilitary force to effect a full custodial arrest for a fine-only offense absent exigent circumstances is unconstitutional and/or a violation of Massachusetts public policy. Although plaintiffs raised this argument in their motion for summary judgment, the district court rejected it because it was not pleaded. See supra note 2. Thereafter, despite amending their complaint to assert this claim, plaintiffs declined to press it before the district court (at least in its current as-a-matter-of-law form) in either a motion for summary judgment or a motion for judgment as a matter of law. We therefore regard this claim as both unpreserved, see Poliquin v. Garden Way, Inc., 989 F.2d 527, 531 (1st Cir.1993) (stating that, [t]o raise an issue on appeal, a litigant must generally show the issue was raised in the trial court by a proper request), and inadequately argued on appeal, see United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.1990) (holding that issues adverted to in a perfunctory manner, unaccompanied by some effort at developed argumentation, are deemed waived) 4 For example, in assessing the constitutionality of a warrantless search of a private residence, we have noted: Exigent circumstances exist where law enforcement officers confront a compelling necessity for immediate action that would not brook the delay of obtaining a warrant. Although exigency determinations invariably are fact-intensive, exigent circumstances commonly include: (1) hot pursuit of a fleeing felon; (2) threatened destruction of evidence inside a residence before a warrant can be obtained; (3) a risk that the suspect may escape from the residence undetected; or (4) a threat, posed by a suspect, to the lives or safety of the public, the police officers, or to an occupant. United States v. Tibolt, 72 F.3d 965, 969 (1st Cir.1995) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). 5 Some courts have concluded that custodial arrests for specific offenses are or could be unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See, e.g., Pierce v. Multnomah County, 76 F.3d 1032, 1041 (9th Cir.1996) (holding that a jury could find unconstitutional city's policy of allowing custodial arrest to verify arrestee's identification for purposes of issuing a citation for a non-arrestable offense); Thomas v. Florida, 614 So.2d 468, 471 (Fla.1993) (holding that a full custodial arrest for violation of a municipal ordinance regulating noncriminal conduct was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment); Barnett v. United States, 525 A.2d 197, 198-99 (D.C.1987) (holding unconstitutional a full custodial arrest for the civil infraction of walking to create a hazard) 6 Although plaintiffs have not made the trial transcript or the jury instructions a part of the appellate record, it appears that plaintiffs were able to argue to the jury that a custodial arrest in the circumstances presented here was unreasonable. The jury rejected this claim