Opinion ID: 812932
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendant’s Constitutional Claim

Text: Defendant also claims that the gang condition violated his freedom of association under the First Amendment. Once again applying plain-error review, we must reject this claim. A defendant on probation “forfeits much of his freedom of action and even freedom of expression to the extent necessary to successful rehabilitation and protection of the public.” Porth v. Templar, 453 F.2d 330, 334 (10th Cir. 1971). -15- Following this principle, “[c]ourts have consistently upheld imposition of conditions of probation that restrict a defendant’s freedom of speech and association when those conditions bear a reasonable relationship to the goals of probation.” United States v. Turner, 44 F.3d 900, 903 (10th Cir. 1995). We have repeatedly found such a reasonable relationship to exist. For example, we have said that the First Amendment permitted a special condition that required a defendant to disassociate himself from any organization aimed at defeating the tax laws, see United States v. Lawson, 670 F.2d 923, 929 (10th Cir. 1982); that forbade a defendant from picketing in front of abortion clinics, see Turner, 44 F.3d at 903; and that prohibited a defendant from making “public speeches designed to urge or encourage others to violate the [tax] laws,” Porth, 453 F.2d at 334 (but remanding for revision of condition to avoid forbidding “the naked expression of opinion as to constitutionality of the measures in question.”). Moreover, other circuits have repeatedly considered and rejected First Amendment challenges to conditions of supervised release similar to those imposed on Defendant. See Turner v. United States, 347 F. App’x 866, 868–69 (3d Cir. 2009) (defendant could not associate with members of the Pagan Motorcycle Club); Ross, 476 F.3d at 721 (defendant could “not associate with known neo-Nazi/white supremacist members, known neo-Nazi/white supremacist affiliates, or any other organization that advocates engaging in criminal activity or overthrowing the United States government” (internal quotation marks -16- omitted)); United States v. Bolinger, 940 F.2d 478, 480 (9th Cir. 1991) (defendant could “not participate in the activities, or be a member of any motorcycle clubs” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Malone v. United States, 502 F.2d 554, 555 (9th Cir. 1974) (defendant could “not visit any Irish pubs” or accept any “employment that directly or indirectly associates him with any Irish organization or movement” (internal quotation marks omitted)). And as we have noted, in Johnson the Ninth Circuit implicitly held that a restriction only on association with gang members would have comported with the First Amendment. See Johnson, 626 F.3d at 1091. This case law persuades us that any error that the district court may have committed in restricting the Defendant’s association with the members of the Iron Horsemen or allied gangs was not “clear or obvious.” Puckett, 556 U.S. at 135. As we have already discussed, given the court’s undisputed findings about Defendant’s past criminal behavior and the existence of criminal elements within the membership of the Iron Horsemen, we cannot say that the court clearly erred in concluding that the gang condition was reasonably related to one or more of the goals of Defendant’s supervised release. Defendant’s constitutional argument is therefore without merit. -17-