Court Opinion

ID: 9474491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:58:46.462881+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:07.182953
License: Public Domain

NICHOLS, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I join in the portion of the opinion which holds that the alleged tort of slander or libel arose not only in the District of Columbia, but elsewhere wherever the defamatory statements circulated. Respectfully, I dissent from the portion which affirms dismissal of the constitutional due process violation.
The district court did not have before it a question whether it should midwife the birth of a “constitutional tort” for abusive pronouncements by prosecutors against suspects. This tort, however young, was born previously before Mr. Stepanian amended his complaint to add a count founded upon it. Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 99 S.Ct. 2264, 60 L.Ed.2d 846 (1979); Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978); Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971); Marrero v. City of Hialeah, 625 F.2d 499 (5th Cir.1980). It appears to me that the Supreme Court did not mean the trial court in such case thereafter should stop for an overview of “factors counseling hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress.” This is for the Court or court that has taken for itself in the first place, the role of father of the new tort. To search for and *905apply such factors all over again, though the tort is now a brawny youngster, is to introduce a personal and variable factor into jurisprudence not reasonable to impute to the Supreme Court. Once the originally enacting Justice or judge has weighed the factors, and found them inadequate to require a stop to judicial legislation, his decision is a precedent as binding as any other portion of it would be. The “factors counseling hesitation” were weighed in Marrero v. Hialeah, authority binding in this circuit, and found wanting. That settles them unless the Supreme Court or Congress acts and necessitates a reweighing.
But if the factors are to be weighed all over again, even so I find a weighing as here made inappropriate. The public interest in free flow of information is considered in Marrero v. Hialeah as given weight only in measuring the scope of immunity (625 F.2d at 510). It is not then a reason for throwing the case out of court entirely. The difficulty in defining what “process is due” before release of defamatory material, is largely answered by the regulatory and ethical published standards devised to govern Mr. Addis’ behavior. It may well be that Florida common law affords a remedy in damages quite duplicating that sought in the constitutional tort. If so, there is no waste of judicial resources in letting the constitutional tort stand for now. The anomaly of looking to state law for protection of a federal constitutional right, is the whole point of the Bivens case. The acquittal in the criminal trial may have cleared Mr. Stepanian’s name, but it would seem this would be so only as to matters alleged against him in the indictment. If Mr. Addis went beyond the contents of the indictment in his defamatory utterances, it is hard to see how the acquittal per se could have helped Mr. Stepanian.
The remaining task in my view thus is to determine the nature and scope of Mr. Ad-dis’ immunity, under the authorities, and to determine his liability, if any, for utterances outside his immunity. The time of publication, and thus the date of the alleged tort, is different because we have determined it has taken place elsewhere as well as in the District of Columbia. I believe the journalist respected his commitments to Mr. Addis, who is entitled to benefit from this, to the extent that the various press articles are to be considered based on the actual indictment so far as the text of the indictment will support them and preceded the articles.