Court Opinion

ID: 9496363
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:24:29.017688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:31.476218
License: Public Domain

BYE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with almost the entirety of the majority’s opinion. I write separately only to note I would decide differently the question of whether Eckles has standing to pursue his First Amendment claim against the County. I discuss only the threshold question of whether Eckles presents a “case or controversy” within the meaning of Article III of the Constitution, therefore, the following discussion presumes without deciding Eckles’s speech was protected by the First Amendment.
Plaintiffs First Amendment claim against the County arises from two letters written by the County’s lawyer to Eckles’s lawyer. The text of the first, dated August 2, 2000, reads in pertinent part:
*771As I am sure you are aware, your client has erected three large signs on his property relating to the assessments of his property, and the equity of property taxes in general. Please note that his signs appear to be in violation of the zoning ordinance of the City of Corydon and Iowa Code § 306C.
The Corydon Zoning Ordinance governing signs, § 16.070, clearly prohibits signs in residential districts except for those that fall into the enumerated exceptions, which your client’s signs clearly do not. In addition, on information and belief, your client has not obtained the required permit from the Department of Transportation as mandated by Iowa Code § 306C.18, which regulates billboards erected adjacent to Iowa highways (Mr. Eckles’ residence is adjacent to Iowa Highway 14).
Since your client’s signs fail to comply with Corydon Zoning Ordinances as well as the permit requirements of the Iowa Department of Transportation, you may want to advise Mr. Eckles to remove these signs as soon as possible. Failure to remove these signs could result in action from both the City of Corydon and the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Appellant’s App. at 256. It appears the letter was a bluff, and one which failed to rattle Eckles’s mettle. Eckles promptly replied with a letter which reads, in pertinent part:
I find it curious that a person who does not represent the City or the Department of Transportation is writing to my lawyer suggesting another party (unrelated to this action) may take legal action against me for some apparent violation ....
Also, perhaps you should check the Co-rydon Zoning Ordinance yourself, as it allows, “Any sign of a noncommercial nature when used to protect the health, safety, or welfare of the general public.” That is precisely what my “signs” do.
Finally, I’ve been doing some checking myself, and Iowa Code section 711 makes it a crime for a person to “threaten to cause some public official or officer or employee to take or withhold action.” Which is precisely what your letter does. DON’T TREAD ON ME!!
Supplemental App. at 322.
The County ignored Eckles’s advise to not “tread on” him and made another attempt at using intimidation to squelch his speech. The second letter from the County’s lawyers to Eckles’s lawyer, written on August 14, 2000, and after the County received Eckles’s defiant response to the first letter, reads in relevant part:
We ... have advised the Wayne County Assessor that these signs constitute libel per se. Libel is defined as, “a malicious publication, expressed either in print or writing or by signs and pictures, tending to injure the reputation of another or to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or to injure him in the maintenance of his business.” Vojak v. Jensen, 161 N.W.2d 100 (Iowa 1968). Libelous statements are actionable “per se” if the injured party is degraded, rendered odious, subjected to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, injured in trade or business, or exposed to contempt in the deprivation of the benefits of public confidence. Brown v. First National Bank of Mason County, 193 N.W.2d 547 (Iowa 1972).
Clearly, Mr. Eckles’ statements constitute libel per se. Mr. Eckles has stated the Wayne County Assessor is a “thief’ who “steals.” Such statements are libel per se as they impugn the assessor’s integrity, accuse her of dishonesty and directly damage her professional reputa*772tion. Amick v. Montross, 206 Iowa 51, 220 N.W. 51 (Iowa 1928).

At this time, we request that Mr. Eckles remove these statements from public view and request that Mr. Eckles place a statement of retraction apologizing for this inappropriate conduct.

It should also be noted that Mr. Eckles’ sign stating that the Wayne County Assessor has not been willing to compromise is factually inaccurate.... Thus, this statement constitutes a complete misrepresentation of the factual circumstances surrounding Mr. Eckles’ dispute. It is also our opinion that all of Mr. Eckles’ signs constitute a public nuisance. Not only has Mr. Eckles impugned the integrity and character of Kay Middlebrook, the Wayne County Assessor, but has also damaged the ability of local realtors to consummate property transactions in Corydon, Iowa. Thus, in our analysis, Mr. Eckles’ statements are totally lacking in redeeming social value.
We request an immediate response outlining how Mr. Eckles intends to remedy this unfortunate situation. If he does not intend to voluntarily remove these signs, we will recommend that the assessor file a libel action against Mr. Eckles to protect her reputation and good name. Obviously, from a cost standpoint, it is in everyone’s interest to resolve this matter short of additional litigation.
Appellant’s App. at 258-259 (emphasis added).
The district court held Eckles had no standing because he could not show his speech was chilled and, with regard to the threat of future prosecution, the letters did not evince a threat of concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent harm. Addressing the second County letter, the district court opined, “Defendant Wayne County did not threaten to bring a civil lawsuit against Eckles,” only that its lawyers would recommend the County assessor file.a libel action against Eckles. In effect, the district court concluded the second letter threatened no action on behalf of the County.
The majority opinion affirms summary judgment on the ground Eckles proffered no evidence the County could enforce the City and State ordinances referenced in the first letter. It further concludes, without addressing the threats contained in the second letter, the two letters were insufficient to establish Eckles was threatened with harm by the County.
I agree the first letter alone does not establish the County threatened Eckles with concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent harm, if only because Eckles knew it to be a bluff. Eckles’s defiant response to the County’s first letter proves he knew the County had no authority to enforce either City zoning ordinances or State Department of Transportation signage regulations. And there is no evidence the first letter chilled Eckles’s speech. Therefore, the first letter alone can not serve as a basis for standing.
It is the second letter which gives me pause. The County doesn’t appear to be bluffing any longer; its letter promises it will recommend the assessor file suit if Eckles doesn’t remove his signs. Conversely, the letter implies the lawyers will not so recommend if Eckles accedes to the County’s demand. While there continues to be no evidence Eckles’s speech has been chilled by the second letter, in my view the evidence shows Eckles must now choose between chilling his speech and suffering imminent harm at the hand of the County in retribution for his presumably protected speech. To refresh:
*773[T]o satisfy Article Ill’s standing requirements, a plaintiff must show (1) it has suffered an “injury in fact” that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (8) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.
Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-81, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000) (citing Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)).
Application of the second and third elements of the standing requirements is straightforward, so I address them cursorily. The letters show a direct causal relationship between Eckles’s speech and the threatened harm of litigation. The harm will likely be addressed by the declaratory relief sought by Eckles establishing that his speech is protected. It is the first element, requiring an injury-in-fact that is concrete and particularized and actual or imminent, which necessitates further development.
To be sure, the threat is as particularized as a threat can be. The letter is directed to Eckles by name and threatens him because of his speech. Only two nuances detract from the threatening nature of the letter; the threatened action would supposedly be taken by the assessor, not the County; and the letter promises to “advise” the assessor to sue, it does not promise she will sue.
The first argument, that the threatened action is to be taken by the assessor and not the County, I find unpersuasive. The County lawyer wrote the letter on behalf of the County; I doubt the County is in the practice of writing warning letters on behalf of every citizen against whom potentially libelous statements are made. The County threatens its agent, the assessor, will file a lawsuit against Eckles in retribution for Eckles’s complaints about her actions in her official capacity as assessor. The signs do not even mention the assessor by name, instead they only refer to the “Wayne County Assessor.” And it is the County’s lawyer who is promised to advise the assessor to file suit. The libel action, then, would not be the purely individual action the County claims. This is the use of government resources to use litigation, or at least the threat of litigation, to stop Eckles’s speech under the false banner of a private action. In sum, it is the County which is forcing Eckles to choose between keeping his signs and being sued.
On the second point, although the letter merely threatens County lawyers will “advise” the assessor to sue Eckles, it reads to me as a thinly veiled threat. I find it hard to believe the County, having gone to the trouble and expense of having its lawyers draft the first threatening letter, and which has taken off the gloves in its attempts to stops Eckles’s speech, would go to the trouble of merely notifying Eckles its assessor may receive legal advice on pursuing a private action. It is a less than subtle threat, and in my view, a sufficiently credible threat to meet the temporal and concreteness requirements for injury-in-fact.
I draw support for my position from the Supreme Court’s opinion in Lujan, which says:
When the suit is one challenging the legality of government action or inaction, the nature and extent of facts that must be averred (at the summary judgment stage) or proved (at the trial stage) in order to establish standing depends considerably upon whether the *774plaintiff is himself an object of the action (or forgone action) at issue. If he is, there is ordinarily little question that the action or inaction has caused him injury, and that a judgment preventing or requiring the action will redress it.
Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561-62, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Standing is but a threshold question intended to ensure there is a live case or controversy establishing federal jurisdiction. Steger v. Franco, Inc., 228 F.3d 889, 892 (8th Cir.2000). Here, Eckles is the object of Wayne County’s actions, and I am satisfied he has a case or controversy against the County. The federal courts should not shirk from deciding whether Eckles’s speech was protected and whether the County violated that right. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent in part.