Opinion ID: 387100
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Violation of a Protected Right

Text: 29 In Griffin, the Supreme Court stated that a § 1985(3) conspiracy must aim at a deprivation of the equal enjoyment of rights secured by the law to all. 403 U.S. at 102, 91 S.Ct. at 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d at 348. The plaintiffs in the case at bar contend that the object of the defendants' conspiracy was to deprive them of their First Amendment right to associate with their fellow nonunion employees. They argue that curtailment of their interests secured by the First Amendment is a deprivation of equal protection of the laws within the meaning of section 1985(3) as interpreted by Griffin. 30 The Ku Klux Klan Act was originally entitled, An Act to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for Other Purposes. 17 Stat. 13 (1871). The guaranties afforded by the First Amendment are protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. E. g., Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 30-31, 98 S.Ct. 5, 10, 21 L.Ed.2d 24, 31 (1968); New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 276-77, 84 S.Ct. 710, 724, 11 L.Ed.2d 686, 704 (1964); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 903, 84 L.Ed. 1213, 1217 (1940); De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 U.S. 353, 364, 57 S.Ct. 255, 260, 81 L.Ed. 278, 283 (1937). Moreover, the right of free association is closely aligned with the right of free speech and is similarly protected by the First Amendment. E. g., Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209, 233, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 1798-99, 52 L.Ed.2d 261, 283 (1977); Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 181, 92 S.Ct. 2338, 2346, 33 L.Ed.2d 266, 279 (1972); Baird v. State Bar of Arizona, 401 U.S. 1, 6, 91 S.Ct. 702, 705, 27 L.Ed.2d 639, 646 (1971); NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449, 462, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 1171-72, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488, 1499 (1958). 31 The defendants urge that section 1985(3) does not provide a remedy for private interference with First Amendment freedoms. They appeal to the well-established principle that the Fourteenth Amendment erects no shield against merely private conduct, however discriminating or wrongful. Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 13, 68 S.Ct. 836, 842, 92 L.Ed. 1161, 1180 (1948). To support their construction of section 1985(3), the defendants rely upon several decisions of the Seventh Circuit. In Dombrowski v. Dowling, 459 F.2d 190 (7th Cir. 1972), the court held that section 1985(3) does not afford protection against private deprivations of rights protected under the Fourteenth Amendment absent some kind of state involvement. Emphasizing the historical connection between sections 1983 and 1985(3), the court decided that it is necessary to identify the interests which Congress intended to protect from unequal treatment as well as the kinds of conduct which it meant to proscribe. 32 The breadth of the statute's coverage is yet to be determined, but three categories of protected rights have been plainly identified. Griffin gives express recognition to a black citizen's Thirteenth Amendment rights and to his federal right to travel interstate; the title of the statute expressly identifies the third category, namely, rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. We think the § 1983 cases make it clear that in this third category a state involvement requirement must survive Griffin. 33 459 F.2d at 195 (footnotes omitted). 5 Subsequently the Seventh Circuit has extended the Dombrowski rationale in Murphy v. Mount Carmel High School, 543 F.2d 1189 (7th Cir. 1976), expressly holding that section 1985(3) provides no remedy for purely private impairment of First Amendment speech and associational freedoms. Accord Bellamy v. Mason's Stores, Inc., 508 F.2d 504 (4th Cir. 1974). 34 The Seventh Circuit's reasoning is contrary to the Supreme Court's analysis in Griffin. Of course, most basic constitutional provisions impose limitations on the power of government to regulate private conduct. Thus, the rights they confer on individuals are typically rights of the individual against the state. But the Griffin court, after acknowledging the conceptual difficulties associated with private deprivations of constitutional rights, construed section 1985(3) to reach both public and private constitutional wrongs. 35 A century of Fourteenth Amendment adjudication has ... made it understandably difficult to conceive what might constitute a deprivation of the equal protection of the laws by private persons. Yet there is nothing inherent in the phrase that requires the action working the deprivation to come from the State. Indeed, the failure to mention any such requisite can be viewed as an important indication of congressional intent to speak in § 1985(3) of all deprivations of equal protection of the laws and equal privileges and immunities under the laws, whatever their source. 36 403 U.S. at 97, 91 S.Ct. at 1796, 29 L.Ed.2d at 345 (citation omitted and some emphasis supplied). Thus, Griffin made it unmistakably clear that section 1985(3) was intended to provide a remedy for all private conspiracies. It is thus evident that all indicators text, companion provisions, and legislative history point unwaveringly to § 1985(3)'s coverage of private conspiracies. Id. at 101, 91 S.Ct. at 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d at 347. 6 The Griffin Court's method of analysis and the unequivocal language of its opinion foreclose our adoption of the approach taken by the Seventh Circuit. 37 In addition, the interpretation given to the statute in this circuit makes that approach unnecessary. Although Griffin found that section 1985(3) covered purely private conspiracies, it did not announce what might constitute a deprivation of equal protection by private persons. Uncertainty in this regard may have contributed to the Seventh Circuit's decision to retain some form of state involvement as a part of the § 1985(3) cause of action. See Dombrowski, 459 F.2d at 194. However, this circuit has adopted a different tack. McLellan establishes that section 1985(3) was not intended to redress every conceivable private interference with another's rights. Rather, the object of a section 1985(3) conspiracy must be to deprive another of the enjoyment of legal rights by independently unlawful conduct. McLellan, 545 F.2d at 927 (footnote omitted). The independent illegality requirement was derived in part from the passage in United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629, 1 S.Ct. 601, 27 L.Ed. 290 (1883), which explains that the only method by which a private person can deprive another of the equal protection of the laws is by the commission of some offense against the laws which protect the rights of persons, as by theft, burglary, arson, libel, assault, or murder. Id. at 643, 1 S.Ct. at 612, 27 L.Ed. at 295. In this way, McLellan limited the potentially boundless reach of the statute and provided meaning to the concept of a private impairment of constitutional rights. Therefore, McLellan resolved the difficulties perceived by the Dombrowski court and made its analysis unnecessary. 38 It cannot be gainsaid that the defendants' conspiracy comprehended an intent to violate the law independent of section 1985(3). The plaintiffs contend that the conspiracy was calculated to deprive them of the right to freely associate with other nonunion laborers. They have alleged and have sought to prove that the defendants conspired to accomplish this object by assaulting and beating them with wooden boards and iron bars; by destroying tools, equipment, and automobiles; and by overturning and setting fire to the Cross office trailer. The means adopted by the conspirators to deprive the plaintiffs of their rights of free association encompass patent violations of both the civil and criminal laws of Texas. See, e. g., Tex.Penal Code Ann. §§ 22.01 (assault); 22.02 (aggravated assault); 28.02 (arson); 28.04 (reckless damage or destruction) (Vernon 1974). See generally W. Prosser, Law of Torts §§ 9-10 (assault and battery); 14 (trespass to chattels). The plaintiffs also offered proof that the conspirators engaged in the very unlawful conduct they conspired to commit and that as a result plaintiffs suffered injury to their persons and property. Under such circumstances, we conclude that section 1985(3) affords a remedy for purely private conspiracies aimed at denying their victims the First Amendment right of free association. 7