Court Opinion

ID: 9485743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:28:33.807915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:19.636916
License: Public Domain

REYNOLDS, Senior District Judge,
concurring.
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that plaintiff-appellant Jack Schmidling lacks standing to challenge the Chicago weed ordinance. Schmidling was three times threatened -with prosecution under the previous ordinance, the most recent citation having been issued in 1989, less than two years before this lawsuit was filed. The ordinance was amended in 1990, but not in any way that reduces the likelihood of Schmidling being cited again. Another natural gardener, Marie Wojciechowski (not a party to this action), has been cited and prosecuted under both versions of the ordinance, and her garden (or weed-patch, depending on your point of view) is identical to Schmidling’s for purposes relevant to the weed ordinance.
Under these circumstances, I think Schmi-dling has established a “credible threat of prosecution,” thereby satisfying the case or controversy requirement of Article III. Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat’l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 298, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 2308-09, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979). See Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 459, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 1215-16, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974) (two prior warnings to cease handbilling, combined with prosecution of plaintiffs “handbilling companion” create Article III controversy). The majority’s characterization of Schmidling’s fear of prosecution as “speculative and imaginary” should be, and usually is, reserved for cases in which the plaintiff “feel[s] inhibited” by the mere existence of a law; it is not an appropriate characterization where the plaintiff has received actual, formal threats of prosecution. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 42, 91 S.Ct. 746, 749-50, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971); Steffel, 415 U.S. at 459, 94 S.Ct. at 1215-16.
Nevertheless, I concur with the result reached by the majority because I believe plaintiffs have no hope of prevailing on the merits of their constitutional claims. Were the issue to be reached, the weed ordinance *502would be found neither unconstitutionally vague nor irrational.