Court Opinion

ID: 9780694
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 02:26:42.428844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:10.695193
License: Public Domain

KITE, Chief Justice,
dissenting, in which HILL, J., joins.
[T101] I write separately because I disagree with the majority's conclusion that this case is not moot because it falls within the special category of disputes that are "capable of repetition, yet evading review." Were I writing the majority opinion, I would conclude that the case is moot because no showing was made that it falls within that special category.
[T102] In Turner v. Rogers, — U.S. —, 131 S.Ct. 2507, 180 L.Ed.2d 452 (2011), the Court granted a petition for writ of cer-tiorari to consider whether a right to counsel existed in civil contempt proceedings to en-foree child support orders. The respondent, mother, asserted the case was moot because the petitioner, father, had completed his sentence for contempt prior to seeking the writ. The Supreme Court concluded the case was not moot because it fell within a special category of disputes that are "capable of repetition, while evading review." Id. at 2509. A dispute falls into this special category, the Court stated, and remains live if "(1) the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party [will] be subjected to the same action again." Id., citing Weinstein v. Bradford, 423 U.S. 147, 149, 96 S.Ct. 347, 349, 46 L.Ed.2d 350 (1975) (per curiam).
[T103] Applying the first prong of this test, the Court concluded the challenged action, father's imprisonment, was in its duration too short to be fully litigated through the state courts and arrive in the United States Supreme Court before he had completed the *467sentence. Applying the second prong, the Court concluded there was more than a reasonable likelihood that father would again be subjected to the same action. In reaching the latter conclusion, the Court said:
[father] has frequently failed to make his child support payments. He has been the subject of several civil contempt proceedings. He has been imprisoned on several of those occasions. Within months of his release from the imprisonment here at issue he was again the subject of civil contempt proceedings. And he was again imprisoned, this time for six months. As of December 9, 2010, [father] was $13,814.72 in arrears, and another contempt hearing was scheduled for May 4, 2011. These facts bring this case squarely within the special category of cases that are not moot because the underlying dispute is "capable of repetition, yet evading review.
Turner, 131 S.Ct. at 2515.
[T104] Unlike Turner, where the Court had before it numerous facts showing that father would again be subjected to imprisonment for civil contempt, no showing was made here that it is reasonably likely Operation Save America will again be subjected to a court order restraining it from assembling or displaying posters in Jackson. "The capable-of repetition doctrine applies only in exceptional situations, and generally only where the named plaintiff can make a reasonable showing that he will again be subjected to the alleged illegality." L.A. v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 109, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1669, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983), citing DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312, 319, 94 S.Ct. 1704, 1707, 40 L.Ed.2d 164 (1974). For there to be a "reasonable expectation" that a party will be subjected to the same action again, that event must be a "demonstrated probability." Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 482, 102 S.Ct. 1181, 1183, 71 L.Ed.2d 353 (1982); Weinstein, 423 U.S. at 149, 96 S.Ct. at 348. As the Court said in DeFunis, 416 U.S. at 320 n. 5, 94 S.Ct. at 1707 n. 5,
"Speculative contingencies afford no basis for our passing on the substantive issues [the petitioner] would have us decide," Hall v. Beals, 396 U.S. 45, 49 [90 S.Ct. 200, 24 L.Ed.2d 214] (1969), in the absence of "evidence that this is a prospect of "immediacy and reality'" Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103, 109 [89 S.Ct. 956, 22 L.Ed.2d 113] (1969) Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 273 [61 S.Ct. 510, 85 L.Ed. 826] (1941).
No evidence was presented in this case that Operation Save America will return to Jackson and attempt to assemble or display posters during another scheduled event such as the Boy Scouts expo and auction or, in the event it does, that the town will again file for a temporary restraining order without providing notice and an opportunity to be heard. The capable of repetition prong necessary for a dispute to fall within the special category of cases has not been satisfied. I would conclude, therefore, that the case is moot.