Board of Supervisors of La. State Univ. v. Lewark

281 So. 2d 706
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedAugust 20, 1973
Docket53513
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 281 So. 2d 706 (Board of Supervisors of La. State Univ. v. Lewark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Supervisors of La. State Univ. v. Lewark, 281 So. 2d 706 (La. 1973).

Opinion

281 So.2d 706 (1973)

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY and Agricultural and Mechanical College
v.
James Edward LEWARK and Kathryn Ann Warren.

No. 53513.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

August 20, 1973.

*707 Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, Edward J. Gay, III, New Orleans, for plaintiff-respondent.

Smith & Scheuermann, Lawrence Blake Jones, New Orleans, for defendants-relators.

SUMMERS, Justice.

We have presented for decision the question: Did the trial court judge abuse his discretion by denying a suspensive appeal from an order granting a permanent injunction in this freedom of the press case?

James Edward Lewark and Kathryn Ann Warren were students at Louisiana State University in New Orleans (LSUNO) and the only two members there of the Revolutionary Communist Youth (RCY). The RCY is the youth section of the Spartacist League, which, according to the testimony, is a Trotsky organization striving to build a revolutionary movement based on politics.

At approximately noon on January 26, 1973 Lewark and Warren were selling literature at a card table they had set up in the north patio of the University Center on the LSUNO Campus. This was an activity they had engaged in from time to time since the preceding October. Some of the printed material they sold was: "Workers Vanguard", a newspaper published by Spartacist Publishing Company of New York City; "Women's Revolution"; "Ruefnick, a Communist Youth News Letter", published by Revolutionary Communist Youth; "Permanent Revolution"; by Leon Trotsky; "Transitional Program" and "Logic of Marxism", published by Pathfinder Press; "Stalinism and Bolshevism—Critical Remarks on the National Question", "What is Revolutionary Leadership?", "Basic Documents of RCY", "Basic Documents of the Spartacist League", "From Maoism to Trotskyism", "Cuba and Marxism Theory", "Right of Nations to Self-Determination" by Progressive Publishers, Moscow, USSR. Although these publications were sold for a price, Lewark and Warren facetiously concede their business operates in the "Red".

While Lewark and Warren were soliciting sales for this literature, Larry Gracie, University Center Service Coordinator for LSUNO, observed their activity. He approached them and advised them that they were violating the University rules, regulations and procedures. He directed them to cease the proscribed activity.

A discussion ensued in which Lewark and Warren readily conceded they were selling the literature, but they questioned the correctness of Gracie's understanding of the rules and regulations. In the end *708 Lewark and Warren defied Gracie's order and threatened to continue their activity thereafter, charging they were being denied freedom of the press.

The university bylaws and regulations require that "[N]o one connected with the university in any capacity shall use for his own benefit or any other personal purpose any university property of whatever description."

Article 63.3 of the Louisiana Criminal Code provides in part: "No person shall without authority go into or upon or remain in or upon or attempt to go into or upon or remain in or upon any structure..., including public buildings and structures, ... or any part, portion or area thereof, after having been forbidden to do so, either orally or in writing...." And Article 63.4 of the Code provides in part that "[N]o person shall incite, solicit, urge, encourage, exhort, instigate or procure any other person to go into or upon or to remain in or upon any structure, ... including public buildings and structures, ... or any part, portion or area thereof, knowing that such other person has been forbidden to go or remain there, either orally or in writing...."

The university bylaws and regulations further prescribe the procedure for obtaining permission for use of university premises and facilities. Insofar as they are pertinent here, the bylaws and regulations limit permission to student organizations for educational or religious purposes.

When Gracie reported to Louis J. Berndt, Jr., Director of the University Center, the stated intention of Lewark and Warren to continue selling literature in the University Center, Berndt thereafter approached Lewark and Warren and advised them that prior approval of the university authorities was necessary before they could use university facilities for such purposes. The answer was a demand that Berndt not interfere with their activities.

On Sunday, January 28, 1973, Lewark, acting for RCY, sent a letter to the University Chancellor pointing out that stopping them from selling literature in the university center was a direct violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press. The letter demanded that all university officials cease their interference.

Following this Edgar E. Burks, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, met with Lewark and Warren, explained the rules, regulations, practices and procedures in an effort to prevail upon them to abide by university policies, bylaws and regulations, all to no avail.

In keeping with this attitude, on January 30, 1973, Lewark and Warren circulated a pamphlet on the campus, titled "Trampled" in which they charged the university administration with moving to suppress the right to freedom of speech at LSUNO. The pamphlet quoted the university's policy of "free speech" as outlined in the Student Handbook: "The university recognizes that the student's rights, as a citizen, to speak and write freely must not be abridged or restricted in any way except to permit the university to carry on its academic functions .... Printed matter may be distributed on the campus by students in an orderly manner to those who wish to receive it." The pamphlet charged the policy "is a hoax."

The pamphlet also defined the RCY to be "a revolutionary socialist youth movement which can intervene in all social struggles armed with a working class program based on the politics of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky." Its aims were also set forth: "We work for the formation of a revolutionary vanguard party of the working class to lead the struggle here and internationally for a successful communist revolution, which will lay the basis for forcing the energies of all humanity towards creating a truly free society."

In addition, the pamphlet charged that denying RCY the right to sell literature *709 was an attack on all students and urged the students to demand that no further attempts be made to stop RCY from distributing and selling its literature.

At the same time another letter was directed to the university chancellor advising that RCY would continue to sell the publications of its press and threatened injunctive relief if interfered with.

Believing that RCY planned to resume use of the campus and its facilities and the sale of literature for the purpose of publicly defying the rules, regulations, statutes and practices to provoke a confrontation to cause disruption and interference with the proper and authorized use of the university center and other facilities by students, faculty, members of the staff and others, the university sought, on February 7, 1973, and obtained, a temporary restraining order from the District Court. The order restrained and enjoined Lewark and Warren, the only members of RCY on the campus, from using property of the university for personal purposes and from selling or soliciting the sale on university property of any materials without prior approval.

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281 So. 2d 706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-supervisors-of-la-state-univ-v-lewark-la-1973.