Opinion ID: 201281
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: As-Applied Attack

Text: 57 Plaintiffs mount two types of challenges to the entry of judgment against their as-applied claim. 58 First, they argue that the district court applied the wrong standard to evaluate their claim. They say their burden was to show no more than that clinic employees or others were approaching within six feet of people in the 18-foot protected area, without getting the consent of the people approached. They say no showing of state action is necessary. Further, they argue that the district court wrongly held them to the more stringent standards of an equal protection selective prosecution claim, rather than to those of an as-applied First Amendment viewpoint discrimination claim. 59 Second, the plaintiffs argue that the district court erred in concluding that their evidentiary submissions raised no genuine dispute of material fact. We address this argument later. 60 Three preliminary items may be quickly dispatched. First, the defendants argue that absent some concrete injury to plaintiffs, such as being arrested, the as-applied challenge is neither ripe nor do the plaintiffs have standing. Plaintiffs alleged that they have been chilled in the exercise of their speech rights by fear of arrest and some have been threatened with arrest. Like the district court, we have no doubt plaintiffs have standing under the First Amendment doctrine for equitable relief, and the controversy is ripe. See Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 475, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974) (declaratory relief available on as-applied challenge when no state prosecution is pending); Mangual v. Rotger-Sabat, 317 F.3d 45, 56-60 (1st Cir.2003) (the First Amendment challenge of a newspaper reporter to a criminal libel statute was ripe, and the reporter had standing, where the law chilled the reporter's writing as there was no indication that the state had disavowed criminal prosecutions of violators). 61 Second, the plaintiffs simply misread McGuire I when they argue that it held that all plaintiffs need to show to win an as-applied challenge is that clinic employees engaged in nonconsensual pro-abortion advocacy within the six-foot floating buffer zone. McGuire I described some evidence which was a necessary but not sufficient predicate for any as-applied claim. 62 Third, the plaintiffs argue that activities of private persons, including those neither known to the police nor to which the police have turned a blind eye, demonstrate that the statute has been applied in a viewpoint discriminatory way. Not so. Obviously, only the government can violate First Amendment rights: every First Amendment claim thus requires state action in some sense. See Brentwood Acad. v. Tenn. Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass'n, 531 U.S. 288, 295, 121 S.Ct. 924, 148 L.Ed.2d 807 (2001) (state action is a necessary component of a constitutional claim against a state); Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U.S. 507, 514-21, 96 S.Ct. 1029, 47 L.Ed.2d 196 (1976) (First Amendment claim required state action; claim against private shopping center for preventing peaceful labor picketing failed because shopping center was not a state actor); Yeo v. Town of Lexington, 131 F.3d 241, 248, 255 (1st Cir.1997) (en banc) (state action is necessary component of First Amendment claim; student editors exercising independent editorial judgment were not state actors). Yet much of what plaintiffs complain about here is purely private action jousting with the ideas plaintiffs espouse. The First Amendment is concerned with government interference, not private jousting in the speech marketplace. 63 Sometimes, as plaintiffs state, the statute itself can provide the requisite state action, at least if there is some threat that the statute will be enforced by state personnel. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 941-42, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982) (While private misuse of a state statute does not describe conduct that can be attributed to the State, the procedural scheme created by the statute obviously is the product of state action, and acts done under the authority of that statute can be considered state action if the acts are done jointly by private and state actors). However, as the court noted in Lugar, it all depends on what is being challenged: state action is present in this way only if what the plaintiff is really aiming at is the constitutionality of the statute itself. For example, there is no state action if what the plaintiff is really aiming at are the acts of private persons that are actually illegal under the statutory scheme, because then the acts do not reflect the policy of the state. See id. at 940-41, 102 S.Ct. 2744. To the extent that the plaintiffs are claiming that the statute is unconstitutional as applied merely because private pro-choice persons are engaging in acts that are illegal under the statute, their claim has nothing to do with the statute at all and they cannot bring it because there is no state action. 64 Here, plaintiffs claim to be aiming at the statute itself: they argue that the fact that private pro-choice individuals are now engaging in various acts that they claim are allowed by the statute is proof that the statute (at least as applied to the current facts) is itself unconstitutional content and viewpoint discrimination. Plaintiffs cannot win such an argument. The adverse effect[s] of the statute are not relevant to its facial viewpoint and content neutrality; only the legislative intent counts. McGuire I, 260 F.3d at 43. By themselves, acts of private parties under the statute are merely examples of how the statute is adversely affecting one side more than another. Plaintiffs thus cannot use private actions to challenge the statute itself. The only challenge they have left in this case is to the way the law has been enforced. Lugar and related cases stand for the proposition that enforcement of a state statute by purely private individuals, without some involvement by state officials, does not constitute state action; hence plaintiffs' evidence of private activity must be linked to the state's enforcement efforts somehow. See, e.g., Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614, 622-24, 111 S.Ct. 2077, 114 L.Ed.2d 660 (1991); Lugar, 457 U.S. at 941-42, 102 S.Ct. 2744; Flagg Bros. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 164-66, 98 S.Ct. 1729, 56 L.Ed.2d 185 (1978). 65 We turn now to the appropriate standard against which to measure the as-applied attack. The Standard 66 McGuire I recognized that while the statute was valid on its face, it was still possible that enforcement against a given person in a particular situation could be invalid on an as-applied basis. Plaintiffs were afforded the opportunity to show on remand that they were such persons. 67 There are different types of as-applied attacks. The most common situation is where the language of a statute is broad and could potentially cover many different types of fact situations; the as-applied challenge is then an attempt to specify the law by freshly testing its constitutionality in one particular fact situation while refusing to adjudicate the constitutionality of the law in other fact situations. 5 See United States v. Nat'l Treasury Employees Union, 513 U.S. 454, 477-78, 115 S.Ct. 1003, 130 L.Ed.2d 964 (1995) (act prohibiting receipt of honoraria by government employees in return for speeches and writings was unconstitutional as applied to lower-level executive employees, the parties to the case, but not necessarily as to senior employees); United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 23-25, 80 S.Ct. 519, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960) (refusing to declare an act facially unconstitutional where the act might be unconstitutional as applied to private actors but is certainly not unconstitutional as applied to public officials, and the parties challenging the law were public officials); Fallon, supra, at 1329-35 (explaining this sort of specification as the paradigmatic type of as-applied challenge). The fact situation that plaintiffs are involved in here is the core fact situation intended to be covered by this buffer zone statute, and it is the same type of fact situation that was envisioned by this court when the facial challenge was denied in McGuire I ; plaintiffs do not and cannot argue that they are different types of actors, or that they are involved in a different type of fact situation, from the ones on the basis of which the law was already upheld facially. Plaintiffs' as-applied challenge must be of a different sort. 6 68 Plaintiffs' as-applied challenge must be based on the idea that the law itself is neutral and constitutional in all fact situations, but that it has been enforced selectively in a viewpoint discriminatory way. See Thomas v. Chicago Park Dist., 534 U.S. 316, 325, 122 S.Ct. 775, 151 L.Ed.2d 783 (2002) (licensing scheme itself was constitutional but, if in course of enforcing the act, the licensing authority [g]rant[ed] waivers to favored speakers (or, more precisely, den[ied] them to disfavored speakers), then the licensing authority would be acting unconstitutionally). Such a challenge is dependent on the factual evidence provided as to how the statutory scheme has in fact operated vis-a-vis the plaintiffs. 69 The exact claim is that in practice the government has engaged in viewpoint discrimination by failing to enforce the statute against persons who violate the statute by expressing pro-abortion/pro-choice views without consent in the six-foot buffer zone, while enforcing the statutory prohibitions against those in the same position who express anti-abortion/pro-life views. The essence of a viewpoint discrimination claim is that the government has preferred the message of one speaker over another. The general principle is that the First Amendment forbids the government to regulate speech in ways that favor some viewpoints or ideas at the expense of others. Members of the City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 804, 104 S.Ct. 2118, 80 L.Ed.2d 772 (1984); see also Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 829, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995) (viewpoint discrimination occurs when speech is regulated where the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.). The viewpoint discrimination doctrine has been thought by one commentator to have two ultimate constitutional justifications: 1) fear of impermissible reasons for governmental action, and 2) fear of the skewing effects on the system of free expression. See Cass R. Sunstein, Half-Truths of the First Amendment, 1993 U. Chi. Legal F. 25, 26-27. 70 Viewpoint discrimination claims themselves may occur in different contexts. One such context occurs when the state decides whether or not to impose criminal penalties based on the viewpoint expressed by someone's words. See R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 391-92, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992). That is not this case. Here, both pro-abortion and anti-abortion speech is prohibited in the six-foot floating buffer zone, so long as there is no consent. Another sort of context involves government funding of speech, where viewpoint discrimination is permitted in some situations, see Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 192-95, 111 S.Ct. 1759, 114 L.Ed.2d 233 (1991), but not in all, see Legal Servs. Corp. v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533, 548-49, 121 S.Ct. 1043, 149 L.Ed.2d 63 (2001). That is also not this case. Rather, this case involves a claim that the government enforces the law against persons of one viewpoint who violate the statute while not enforcing the law against similarly situated persons of the opposing viewpoint who also violate the statute. 71 The First Amendment viewpoint discrimination claim that is made here is, by its terms, a claim of discrimination. Plaintiffs argue that the district court confused this doctrine with the Equal Protection Clause's anti-discrimination doctrine concerning selective enforcement of criminal laws. However, plaintiffs do not address what substantive differences exist. 72 There are at least two differences that might be relevant between this case and the typical case in which a claim of equal protection discriminatory enforcement is made. First, this is a First Amendment challenge based on viewpoint discrimination, not an equal protection challenge based on discriminatory enforcement of the laws. Second, here a plaintiff in a civil action is bringing this claim to support desired injunctive relief; in the typical equal protection discriminatory enforcement case, the challenge is brought by a defendant offering a defense to a criminal prosecution. 73 The issue of whether the two standards differ deserves brief discussion here, but we need not resolve it, because plaintiffs lose under even the standard most favorable to them. The primary potential difference concerns the role of intent: in equal protection cases, plaintiffs must show that the relevant government actor intended to discriminate against the disfavored group. See, e.g., Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 608, 105 S.Ct. 1524, 84 L.Ed.2d 547 (1985); Personnel Adm'r of Mass. v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 274, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979). Intent, in this context, means more than mere knowledge by the government actor that a policy has a discriminatory effect; the government agent must have adopted the policy because of, and not despite, its discriminatory impact. See Wayte, 470 U.S. at 610, 105 S.Ct. 1524; Feeney, 442 U.S. at 279, 99 S.Ct. 2282. Impermissible intent is difficult to demonstrate in the kind of selective enforcement claim being brought by the plaintiffs here. When wearing its prosecutor hat, the government has a great number of legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for the actions it takes to engage in or decline prosecution. 74 We think that some showing of intent on the part of government officials probably is necessary to make out an as-applied First Amendment viewpoint discrimination claim in this case. This statute was held facially constitutional based on the fact that the legislative motivations in passing it were content-neutral motivations. The fact that one side of the abortion debate might suffer some incidental adverse effects or burdens did not defeat the statute's constitutionality. If we require invidious legislative intent to make this kind of otherwise content-neutral statute content or viewpoint discriminatory, then there seems no reason why we should not require invidious intent by the enforcers to take this statute outside of the category of content-neutrality now. Unless government actors were to intentionally enforce the statute unequally, then any evidence of inequality that plaintiffs were to show would merely indicate a disproportionate[ ] burden[ ] that would not signify viewpoint discrimination. McGuire I, 260 F.3d at 44. 75 The role that traditional pattern evidence (statistical studies and the like) can play in a traditional equal protection challenge is limited by the fact that courts have been loathe to infer intent from mere effect, although the Supreme Court has consistently noted that such an inference is possible. See Vill. of Arlington Heights v. Metro. Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 266, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977) (Sometimes a clear pattern, unexplainable on grounds other than race, emerges from the effect of the state action even when the governing legislation appears neutral on its face.... But such cases are rare. (citing Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886))); see also Feeney, 442 U.S. at 275, 99 S.Ct. 2282 (it may be appropriate to infer intent from disproportionate impact where the impact is unexplainable on other grounds); Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 241-42, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976) (pattern evidence may be a piece of the inquiry into finding intent from the totality of the relevant facts). Perhaps the standard for allowing such an inference of intent from a pattern of impact would be more plaintiff-friendly in the First Amendment context, given the special place that First Amendment rights have traditionally held in our constitutional jurisprudence. See, e.g., Palko v. Conn., 302 U.S. 319, 327, 58 S.Ct. 149, 82 L.Ed. 288 (1937) (Freedom of speech is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.). 76 At any rate, we need not consider this further. The Supreme Court has stated that in order to win a viewpoint discriminatory enforcement challenge against a law that is facially neutral, the challenger would need to show a pattern of unlawful favoritism. Thomas, 534 U.S. at 325, 122 S.Ct. 775. We turn now to the issue of whether plaintiffs have raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the existence of such a pattern. Genuine Issue of Material Fact 77 The district court held that on the facts plaintiffs had not shown that the enforcement of the statute amounted to viewpoint discrimination. That conclusion was based on several subsidiary conclusions. First, the relevant police departments, Boston and Brookline, had in fact adopted the Attorney General's construction of the Act. As a result, the employees or agents exemption did not in practice excuse unconsented speech that was pro-abortion within the six-foot floating buffer zone. See McGuire, 271 F.Supp.2d at 342-43. Second, plaintiffs produced no evidence that in enforcing the Act the state was ignoring the speech activities of favored speakers (or ... prosecuting, issuing warnings, or unduly beleaguering only disfavored speakers). Id. at 341. In fact, the state had enforced the Act in the same manner as to both viewpoints, giving warnings to those of both viewpoints who apparently violated the Act and using arrest powers only after multiple warnings. 78 We first discuss the relevance of the Attorney General's interpretation of the employees or agents exemption in this as-applied context. Plaintiffs protest mightily that we must not give the Attorney General's interpretation any weight, given that it is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the statute and that is not binding in any way for the future. We do not think that the interpretation is inconsistent with the statute's plain meaning. In fact, as we explained in McGuire I , we find the Attorney General's interpretation to be one very likely interpretation of the exemption's language. See McGuire I, 260 F.3d at 47. Further, it makes no difference that the Attorney General's interpretation is non-binding for the future. This as-applied challenge must, logically, be aimed at past conduct; we cannot speculate as to future enforcement patterns. The Attorney General's interpretation, therefore, is important for our purposes merely because it is clearly a proper, content-neutral way of interpreting the exemption; thus, to the extent that the police have adhered to it in their actual enforcement practices, there are no grounds for holding their enforcement viewpoint discriminatory. 79 We turn to the evidence. Plaintiffs have produced evidence that some escorts tell patients that they do not have to listen to the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also produced evidence that some escorts have tried to drown out the words of the plaintiffs. There is further some evidence that some escorts have taken anti-abortion leaflets out of the hands of patients. There is no evidence that patients did not consent to almost all of the takings of these leaflets. None of these three kinds of acts is self-evidently a violation of the statute as interpreted by the Attorney General. We look for other evidence that pro-choice advocates violated the statute. 80 Zarella's deposition reported that she had heard escorts repeating [p]ro-abortion rhetoric. But the only further specifics she gave were of escorts saying things like We have help. We'll help you get inside. Statements like these are not violations of the Act under the Attorney General's interpretation. 81 More importantly, even if the plaintiffs have produced some evidence that pro-abortion individuals violated the statute, they are stymied because there is no evidence that the police turned a blind eye toward pro-abortion speech while not turning a blind eye to possible transgressions by plaintiffs. The evidence shows that the police responded to all incidents involving pro-abortion personnel to which they have been made aware. 7 They cannot be expected to be made aware of every incident, particularly when, as the district court noted, none of the plaintiffs has complained to the police or to any other law enforcement authority about any oral protests, education, or counseling being engaged in by employees and agents at clinic entrances. McGuire, 271 F.Supp.2d at 340. 82 Warnings have been given to both sides. The district court was correct in concluding that even if all of the warnings given to clinic employees and agents were for physical aggressiveness and not for speech, those warnings still helped to show that the Act was being applied evenhandedly because they served the purposes of the Act. McGuire, 285 F.Supp.2d at 87-88. Plaintiffs make much of the fact that no pro-abortion person has been arrested for violating the Act, but this fact does not help plaintiffs because there is no evidence that it is anything other than a byproduct of the police's flexible enforcement policy, which seeks to warn extensively before arresting. This enforcement policy, on the evidence, has been applied evenhandedly to both sides, and in fact only one anti-abortion protestor has been arrested for violating the Act. 83 Plaintiffs raise one final issue when they argue that their evidence shows that the police have interpreted and used the entry and exit exemption as a loophole for the rest of the law. Police have instructed escorts always to enter the clinic, plaintiffs say, because police have interpreted the exemption for people entering or leaving an RHCF to protect escorts who enter the clinic even if they protest, educate, or counsel within six feet of a patient without that patient's consent. Essentially, they argue, the police's use of the enter/exit exemption has eviscerated the Attorney General's content-neutral interpretation of the employees or agents exemption. The evidence does not support the plaintiffs' claim. Even if the escorts have accompanied the patient through the doors into the clinic, there is no evidence they have proselytized as they did so. 84 Because there is no evidence that the police have enforced this statute in anything other than an evenhanded way, the district court correctly entered summary judgment for the defendants on the as-applied claim.