Court Opinion

ID: 9609360
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:26:34.744366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:50.356374
License: Public Domain

ENGEL, Circuit Judge
(concurring in dismissal).
This is a classic example of a cause in search of a controversy.
Examination of the complaint filed demonstrates that it fails to allege a case of actual controversy within the meaning of either the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201 or Article III, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.
The federal Declaratory Judgment Act neither creates nor enlarges jurisdiction. It merely provides an additional remedy in cases wherein an actual controversy, and hence jurisdiction, already exists. Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 339 U.S. 667, 70 S.Ct. 876, 94 L.Ed. 1194 (1950). “Case or controversy” has been defined by the Supreme Court in Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal and Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 273, 61 S.Ct. 510, 512, 85 L.Ed. 826 (1941):
“The difference between an abstract question and a ‘controversy’ contemplated by the Declaratory Judgment Act is necessarily one of degree, and it would be difficult, if it would be possible, to fashion a precise test for determining in every case whether there is such a controversy. Basically, the question in each case is whether the facts alleged, under all the circumstances, show that there is a substantial controversy, between parties having adverse legal interests, of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment.”
I would readily agree that governmental action which is claimed to have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights has historically been subject to the special scrutiny of the courts, but the constitutional requirement that there be a case or controversy to be ad*588judieated does not disappear in First Amendment cases.
“The constitutional question, First Amendment or otherwise, must be presented in the context of a specific live grievance.”
Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103-110, 89 S.Ct. 956, 960, 22 L.Ed.2d 113 (1969).
In United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75, 67 S.Ct. 556, 91 L.Ed. 754 (1947), certain federal employees who desired to engage in some type of political conduct challenged the constitutionality of the Hatch Act, which they conceived would prohibit it. As to those employees who had not violated the Act, the court found there was no case or controversy:
The power of courts, and ultimately of this Court, to pass upon the constitutionality of acts of Congress arises only when the interests of litigants require the use of this judicial authority for their protection against actual interference. A hypothetical threat is not enough. We can only speculate as to the kinds of political activity the appellants desire to engage in or as to the contents of their proposed public statements or the circumstances of their publication. It would not accord with judicial responsibility to adjudge, in a matter involving constitutionality, between the freedom of the individual and the requirements of public order except when definite rights appear upon the one side and definite prejudicial interferences upon the other.22
The Constitution allots the nation’s judicial power to the federal courts. Unless these courts respect the limits of that unique authority, they intrude upon powers vested in the legislative or executive branches. Judicial adherence to the doctrine of the separation of powers preserves the courts for the decision of issues, between litigants, capable of effective determination. Judicial exposition upon political proposals is permissible only when necessary to decide definite issues between litigants. When the courts act continually within these constitutionally imposed boundaries of their power, their ability to perform their function as a balance for the people’s protection against abuse of power by other branches of government remains unimpaired. Should the courts seek to expand their power so as to bring under their jurisdiction ill-defined controversies over constitutional issues, they would become the organ of political theories. Such abuse of judicial power would properly meet rebuke and restriction from other branches. By these mutual cheeks and balances by and between the branches of government, democracy undertakes to preserve the liberties of the people from excessive concentrations of authority. No threat of interference by the Commission with rights of these appellants appears beyond that implied by the existence of the law and the regulations.
United Public Workers v. Mitchell, supra, 89-91, 67 S.Ct. 564-565.
Similarly, the plaintiffs here have alleged “no threat of interference by the [defendants] beyond that implied by the existence of the law . . .” Thus, while plaintiff Mercer alleges generally that he must “delete or omit curriculum material such as books, pamphlets,” etc. “in his work with the development of curriculum materials,” he neither claims that defendants have prevented him from using any particular source material, nor does he name a particular source that he wishes to use. We are left, as was the court in Mitchell, to speculate as to what he desires to use, and to presume that whatever he would ultimately choose would be prohibited by the defendants in obedience to the statute.
Likewise, Dr. Goldfine claims that he has “refrained from giving lectures because of the law in question.” The complaint neither describes the content of the lectures he desired to give nor indi*589cates that the defendants forbade him to give a suggested lecture, or even advised against it.
“Allegations of a subjective ‘chill’ are not an adequate substitute for a claim of specific present objective harm, or threat of specific future harm . .”
Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 13, 92 S.Ct. 2318, 2326, 33 L.Ed.2d 154 (1971)
Unlike Susan Epperson, who was required by the school administration to employ a textbook teaching the Darwinian Theory in direct contravention of an Arkansas statute, Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 89 S.Ct. 266, 21 L.Ed.2d 228 (1968), or Richard Steffel who at least was twice threatened with arrest under a Georgia criminal trespass statute when he and others distributed handbills in a shopping center opposing the Vietnam War, Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974), plaintiffs give us nothing concrete against which to measure the effect, intent, or constitutionality of the statutes challenged here.
The Supreme Court in Steffel v. Thompson, supra, held that, where petitioner had been actually threatened with reprisal for his actions, “it is not necessary that petitioner first expose himself to actual arrest or prosecution to be entitled to challenge a statute that he claims deters the exercise of his constitutional rights”. 415 U.S. at 459, 94 S.Ct. at 1216. So here, it may not be necessary that plaintiffs Mercer or Gold-fine expose themselves to actual discharge from employment or other serious sanction, in order to arouse a justiciable controversy. Neither, however, is it necessary for this court to hypothesize one on their behalf.
Since there is no actual case or controversy to be adjudicated, this court has jurisdiction to do no more than dismiss the action. Thus I am unable to join in that portion of the majority opinion which addresses itself to the issue of constitutionality of the state statutes, as thoughtful and scholarly as it may be.
A regard'for the principles of federalism suggests to me that we should refrain from expression on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of these statutes until such time as it is necessary to a decision which this court has the power and duty to reach.
I would dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. F.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1).