Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Jacobsen

362 U.S. 73, 80 S. Ct. 568, 4 L. Ed. 2d 568, 1960 U.S. LEXIS 1520

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: March 7, 1960
• Docket: 49
• Status: Published

Opinions

Mr. Justice Whittaker

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellants, engaged in the business of growing, packing, and marketing in commerce, Florida avocados, brought this action in the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California to enjoin respondents, state officers of California, from enforcing § 792 of the California Agricultural Code.¹

Section 792 prohibits, among other things, the importation into or sale in California of avocados containing “less than 8 per cent of oil, by weight of the avocado excluding the skin and seed.” The complaint alleged, inter alia, that the varieties of avocados grown in Florida do not normally, or at least not uniformly, contain at maturity as much as 8% of oil by weight; that in each year since 1954 appellants have shipped in interstate commerce, in full compliance with the Federal Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937² and Florida Avocado Order No. 69 issued under that Act by the Secretary of Agriculture on June 11, 1954, Florida avocados into the State of California and have attempted to sell them there; that appellees, or their agents, have consistently barred the sale of appellants’ avocados in California for failure uniformly to contain not less than 8% of oil by weight, resulting in denial to appellants of access to the California market, and forcing reshipment of the avocados to and their sale in other States, to the injury of appellants, all in violation of the Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution, as well as of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 and Florida Avocado Order No. 69 issued thereunder.

Inasmuch as the complaint alleged federal unconstitutionality of the California statute, appellants requested the convening of, and there was convened, a three-judge District Court pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 2281 to hear the case. After hearing, the court concluded that, because appellants had not contested the validity of § 792 nor sought abatement of appellees’ condemnation of the avocados in the California state courts, the case presented “no more than a mere prospect of interference posed by the bare existence of the law in question,” and that it had “no authority to take jurisdiction [and was] left with no course other than to dismiss the action,” which it did. 169 F. Supp. 774, 776. Appellants brought the case here on direct appeal under 28 U. S. C. § 1253, and we postponed the question of our jurisdiction to the hearing on the merits. 360 U. S. 915.

The first and principal question presented is whether this action is one required by § 2281 to be heard by a District Court of three judges and, hence, whether we have jurisdiction of this direct appeal under § 1253.

Section 2281 provides³ that an injunction restraining the enforcement of a state statute may not be granted upon the ground of unconstitutionality of such statute “unless the application therefor is heard and determined by a district court of three judges . . . ,” and §• 1253 provides ⁴ that any order, granting or denying an injunction in any civil action required by any Act of Congress to be heard and determined by a District Court of three judges, may be appealed directly to this Court.

Appellees concede that if the complaint had attacked § 792 solely on the ground of conflict with the United States Constitution, the action would have been one required by § 2281 to be heard and determined by a District Court of three judges. But appellees contend that because the complaint also attacks § 792 on the ground of conflict with the Federal Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 and the Secretary’s Florida Avocado Order No. 69, it is possible that the action could be determined on the statutory rather than the constitutional ground, and, therefore, the action was not required to be heard by a District Court of three judges under § 2281 and, hence, a direct appeal does not lie to this Court under § 1253.

Section 2281 seems rather plainly to indicate a congressional intention to require an application for an injunction to be heard and determined by a court of three judges in any case in which the injunction may be granted on grounds of federal unconstitutionality. The reason for this is quite clear. The impetus behind the first three-judge court statute was the decision in Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908), in which it was held that a federal court could enjoin a state officer from enforcing a state statute alleged to be unconstitutional, despite the prohibition of the Eleventh Amendment concerning suits against a State. Debate was immediately launched in the Senate with regard to cushioning the impact of the Young case, the principal concern being with the power thus activated in one federal judge to enjoin the operation or enforcement of state legislation on grounds of federal unconstitutionality.⁵

The result of the debates on this subject was passage of a three-judge-court statute in 1910, 36 Stat. 557, which was codified as § 266 of the Judicial Code, 36 Stat. 1162.® This statute prohibited the granting of an interlocutory injunction against a state statute upon grounds of federal unconstitutionality unless the application for injunction was heard and determined by a court of three judges.

The statute also contained its own provision for direct appeal to this Court from an order granting or denying an interlocutory injunction. The objective of § 266 was clearly articulated by Mr. Chief Justice Taft in Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Louisiana Public Service Comm’n, 260 U. S. 212:

“The legislation was enacted for the manifest purpose of taking away the power of a single United States Judge, whether District Judge, Circuit Judge or Circuit Justice holding a District Court of the United States, to issue an interlocutory injunction against the execution of a state statute by a state officer or of an order of an administrative board of the State pursuant to a state statute, on the ground of the federal unconstitutionality of the statute. Pending the application for an interlocutory injunction, a single judge may grant a restraining order to be in force until the hearing of the application, but thereafter, so far as enjoining the state officers, his power is exhausted. The wording of the section leaves no doubt that Congress was by provisions ex industria seeking to make interference by interlocutory injunction from a federal court with the enforcement of state legislation, regularly enacted and in course of execution, a matter of the adequate hearing and the full deliberation which the presence of three judges, one of whom should be a Circuit Justice or Judge, was likely to secure. It was to prevent the improvident granting of such injunctions by a single judge, and the possible unnecessary conflict between federal and state authority always to be deprecated.” 260 U. S., at 216.

In 1925, § 266 was amended to require a three-judge court for issuance of a permanent as well as an interlocutory injunction, and § 238 of the Judicial Code (a broad statute governing direct appeals to this Court from District Courts) was amended, so far as here pertinent, to incorporate the provision for direct appeals to this Court from the orders of three-judge courts granting or denying an injunction in a § 266 case. 43 Stat. 938. Such is the present scheme of §§ 2281 and 1253.

With this background, it seems entirely clear that the central concern of Congress in 1910 was to prevent one federal judge from granting an interlocutory injunction against state legislation on grounds of federal unconstitutionality. And the 1925 amendment requiring a court of three judges for issuance of a permanent as well as an interlocutory injunction “was designed to end the anomalous situation in which a single judge might reconsider and decide questions already passed upon by three judges on the application for an interlocutory injunction.” Stratton v. St. Louis Southwestern R. Co., 282 U. S. 10, 14. Section 2281, read in the light of this background, seems clearly to require that when, in any action to enjoin enforcement of a state statute, the injunctive decree may issue on the ground of federal unconstitutionality of the state statute, the convening of a three-judge court is necessary; and the joining in the complaint of a noncon-stitutional attack along with the constitutional one does not dispense with the necessity to convene such a court. To hold to the contrary would be to permit one federal district judge to enjoin enforcement of a state statute on the ground of federal unconstitutionality whenever a non-constitutional ground of attack was also alleged, and this might well defeat the purpose of § 2281.

Cases in this Court since Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Garrett, 231 U. S. 298 (1913), have consistently adhered to the view that, in an injunction action challenging a state statute on substantial federal constitutional grounds, a three-judge court is required to be convened and has — just as we have on a direct appeal from its action — jurisdiction over all claims raised against the statute.⁷ These cases represent an unmistakable recognition of the congressional policy to provide for a three-judge court whenever a state statute is sought to be enjoined on grounds of federal unconstitutionality, and this consideration must be controlling.⁸

Appellees place some reliance on Ex parte Buder, 271 U. S. 461, and Lemke v. Farmers Grain Co., 258 U. S. 50 {Lemke I), in support of their position. Buder held merely that a claim of conflict between a state statute and a federal statute was not a constitutional claim requiring the convening of a three-judge court under § 266, and thus there could be no direct appeal here. Buder did not, however, require that a constitutional claim be the sole claim before the three-judge court. Lemke I held that it was permissible to appeal to the Court of Appeals rather than directly to this Court from the final order of a single district judge in a case in which a state statute was attacked on the grounds that it was both unconstitutional and in conflict with a federal statute. The case was decided under § 238, which, until 1925, was a broad statute calling for a direct appeal to this Court from the action of a District Court “in any case that involves the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States . . . and in any case in which the constitution or law of a State is claimed to be in contravention of the Constitution of the United States.” The breadth of § 238 had led the Court on several occasions to construe this provision to mean that a direct appeal to this Court was required only when the sole ground of District Court jurisdiction was the federal constitutional claim involved, Union & Planters’ Bank v. Memphis, 189 U. S. 71, 73; Carolina Glass Co. v. South Carolina, 240 U. S. 305, 318, but if jurisdiction was based both on a constitutional ground and some other federal ground the appeal might properly be taken either to this Court or to the Court of Appeals. Spreckels Sugar Refining Co. v. McClain, 192 U. S. 397, 407-408; Macfadden v. United States, 213 U. S. 288, 293. Lemke I, decided in 1922, merely followed this line of decisions, and was not in any way concerned with a direct appeal to this Court under § 266 from the order of a three-judge court — the question now before us.

The distinction between the scope of our direct appellate jurisdiction under § 238 and § 266 prior to 1925 was effectively illustrated by the differing course of events in Lemke I and Lemke v. Homer Farmers Elevator Co., 258 U. S. 65 (Lemke II). Both cases involved an attack on a state statute on grounds of federal unconstitutionality and conflict with a federal statute. In both, interlocutory injunctions were sought before three-judge courts, and the injunctions were granted. Lemke I, however, also sought a permanent injunction before a single district judge, and, from his order denying the injunction, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeals before coming here. Lemke II, on the other hand, was directly appealed to this Court under § 266 from the interlocutory order of the three-judge court. As indicated, this Court held that the final order of the single judge in Lemke 1 was properly appealed to the Court of Appeals under § 238 because of the additional nonconstitutional basis for District Court jurisdiction. But in Lemke II this Court took jurisdiction over all issues presented in the direct appeal under § 266 from the interlocutory order of the three-judge court. See also Shafer v. Farmers Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189, a case virtually identical with Lemke II, in which this Court also took jurisdiction over all questions in a § 266 direct appeal from an interlocutory injunction granted by a three-judge court.

The problem was greatly simplified in 1925 when § 266 was amended to require three-judge courts for the granting of both interlocutory and permanent injunctions on grounds of federal unconstitutionality, and § 238, while substantially amended to reduce the scope of our general appellate jurisdiction, so far as here pertinent, merely incorporated the provision for direct appeals to this Court from injunctions granted or denied under § 266. We do not find in these amendments any intention to curtail either the jurisdiction of three-judge courts or our jurisdiction on direct appeal from their orders. Indeed, the cases since 1925 have continued to maintain the view that if the constitutional claim against the state statute, is substantial, a three-judge court is required to be convened and has jurisdiction, as do we on direct appeal, over all grounds of attack against the statute. E. g., Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U. S. 378, 393-394; Railroad Comm’n of California v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 302 U. S. 388, 391; Public Service Comm’n v. Brashear Freight Lines, 312 U. S. 621, 625, n. 5.

To hold that only one judge may hear and decide an action to enjoin the enforcement of a state statute on both constitutional and nonconstitutional grounds would be to ignore the explicit language and manifest purpose of § 2281, which is to provide for a three-judge court whenever an injunction sought against a state statute may be granted on federal constitutional grounds. Where a complaint seeks to enjoin a state statute on substantial grounds of federal unconstitutionality, then even though nonconstitutional grounds of attack are also alleged, we think the case is one . that is “required by . . . Act of Congress to be heard and determined by a district court of three judges.” 28 U. S. C. § 1253. (Emphasis added.) We, therefore, hold that we have jurisdiction of this direct appeal.

We turn now to the merits. The Court is of the view that the District Court was in error in holding that, because appellants had not contested the validity of § 792 nor sought abatement of appellees’ condemnation of their avocados, there was no “existing dispute as to present legal rights,” but only “a mere prospect of interference posed by the bare existence of the law in question [§792],” and in accordingly dismissing the action for want of jurisdiction. As earlier stated, the complaint alleges that, since the issuance of the Secretary’s Florida Avocado Order No. 69 in 1954, appellants have made more than a score of shipments in interstate commerce of Florida avocados to and for sale in California, and appellees, or their agents-, have in effect consistently condemned those avocados for failure to contain 8% or more of oil by weight, thus requiring appellants — to prevent destruction and complete loss of their shipments — to reship the avocados to and sell them in other States, all in violation of the Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution as well as the Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. It is therefore evident that there is an existing dispute between the parties as to present legal rights amounting to a justiciable controversy which appellants are entitled to have determined on the merits. In these circumstances, the fact that appellants did not contest the validity of § 792 nor seek abatement of appellees’ condemnation of the avocados in the California state courts — which, because of the time period necessarily involved, would have resulted in the complete spoilage and loss of the product — does not constitute an impediment to their right to seek an injunction in the federal court against enforcement of § 792 on the ground that it violates both the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937.

The judgment is therefore reversed and the cause is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

Reversed and remanded.

Mr. Justice Douglas joins in the part of the opinion that passes on the merits, the Court having held, contrary to his view, that the case is properly here on direct appeal from a three-judge court.

1 Deering’s Agricultural Code of the State of California, 1950; c. 2, Div. 5, of West’s Ann. California Agricultural Code.

2 50 Stat. 246, 7 U. S. C. § 601 et seq.

3 28 U. S. C. § 2281 provides:

“An interlocutory or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement, operation or execution of any State statute by restraining the action of any officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute or of an order made by an administrative board or commission acting under State statutes, shall not be'granted by any district court or judge thereof upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of such statute unless the application therefor is heard and determined by a district court of three judges under section 2284 of this title.”

4 28 U. S. C. § 1253 provides:

“Except as otherwise provided by law, any party may appeal to the Supreme Court from an order granting or denying, after notice and hearing, an interlocutory or permanent injunction in any civil action, suit or proceeding required by any Act of Congress to be heard and determined by a district court of three judges.”

5 In the Senate debates Senator Overman of North Carolina commented as follows:

“This measure proposes that whenever a petition is presented the circuit judge before whom it is presented shall, before granting the injunction, call in one circuit judge and one district judge or another circuit court judge, making three judges who shall pass upon the question of the injunction.

“We think, sir, that if this could be done it would allay much intense feeling in the States. As was said by Mr. Justice Harlan, in his dissenting opinion in the Minnesota case [Ex parte Young], we have come to a sad day when one subordinate Federal judge can enjoin the officer of a sovereign State from proceeding to enforce the laws of the State passed by the legislature of his own State, and thereby suspending for a time the laws of the State. . . . That being so, there being great feeling among the people of the States by reason of the fact that one Federal judge has tied the hands of a sovereign State and enjoined in this manner the great officer who is charged with the enforcement of the laws of the State, causing almost a revolution, as it did in my State, and in order to allay this feeling, if this substitute is adopted and three judges have to pass upon the question of the constitutionality of a State statute and three great judges say that the statute is unconstitutional, the officers of the State will be less inclined to resist the orders and decrees of our Federal courts. The people and the courts of the State are more inclined to abide by the decision of three judges than they would of one subordinate inferior Federal judge who simply upon petition or upon a hearing should tie the hands of a State officer from proceeding with the enforcement of the laws of his sovereign State. . . 42 Cong. Rec. 4847.

And Senator Bacon of Georgia remarked:

“The purpose of the bill is to throw additional safeguards around the exercise of the enormous powers claimed for the subordinate Federal courts. If these courts are to exercise the power of stopping the operation of the laws of a State and of punishing the officers of a State, then at least let it be done on notice and not hastily, and let there be the judgment of three judges to decide such questions, and not permit such dangerous power to one man.

“The necessity for this legislation is a very grave one. It is a most serious trouble which now exists — that by the action of one judge the machinery of State laws can be arrested. . . .” 42 Cong. Rec. 4853.

6 Section 266 of the Judicial Code originally provided in pertinent part:

“No interlocutory injunction suspending or restraining the enforcement, operation, or execution of any statute of a State by restraining the action of any officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute, shall be issued or granted by any justice of the Supreme Court, or by any district court of the United States, or by any judge thereof, or by any circuit judge acting as district judge, upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of such statute, unless the application for the same shall be presented to a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, or to a circuit or district judge, and shall be heard and determined by three judges, of whom at least one shall be a justice of the Supreme Court, or a circuit judge, and the other two may be either circuit or district judges, and unless a majority of said three judges shall concur in granting such application. . . . An appeal may be taken direct to the Supreme Court of the United States from the order granting or denying, after notice and hearing, an interlocutory injunction in such case.” 36 Stat. 1162.

7 See, e. g., Van Dyke v. Geary, 244 U. S. 39; Cavanaugh v. Looney, 248 U. S. 453; Lemke v. Homer Farmers Elevator Co., 258 U. S. 65 (Lemke II); Chicago, Great Western R. Co. v. Kendall, 266 U. S. 94; Shafer v. Farmers Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189; Herkness v. Irion, 278 U. S. 92; Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U. S. 378; Spielman Motor Sales Co. v. Dodge, 295 U. S. 89; Railroad Comm’n of California v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 302 U. S. 388; Public Service Comm’n v. Brashear Freight Lines, 312 U. S. 621; Parker v. Brown, 317 U. S. 341.

In the Garrett case, the following observations were made by Mr. Justice Hughes:

“Because of the Federal questions raised by the bill the Circuit [District] Court had jurisdiction and was authorized to determine all the questions in the case, local as well as Federal. Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. R., 213 U. S. 175, 191. A similar rule must be deemed to govern the application for preliminary injunction under the statute which requires a hearing before three judges, and authorizes an appeal to this court. 36 Stat. 557. This statute applies to cases in which the preliminary injunction is sought in order to restrain the enforcement of a state enactment upon the ground of its ‘unconstitutionality.’ The reference, undoubtedly, is to an asserted conflict with the Federal Constitution, and the question of unconstitutionality, in this sense, must be a substantial one. But, where such a question is presented, the application is within the provision, and this being so, it cannot be supposed that it was the intention of Congress to compel the exclusion of other grounds and thus to require a separate motion for preliminary injunction, and a separate hearing and appeal, with respect to the local questions which are involved in the case and would properly be the subject of consideration in determining the propriety of granting an injunction pending suit. The local questions arising under the state constitution and statutes were therefore before the Circuit [District] Court and the appeal brings them here.” 231 U. S., at 303-304.

8 In Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U. S. 378, for example, certain state administrative orders were sought to be enjoined on the ground that they violated both the State and Federal Constitutions. The Governor of the State had declared martial law in an effort to enforce the orders, and his action was also challenged on the ground that any statute purporting to confer such authority on him was in violation of the State and Federal Constitutions. With regard to the jurisdiction of the three-judge court which had been convened for the purpose of considering an application for injunction, Mr. Chief Justice Hughes said:

“As the validity of provisions of the state constitution and statutes, if they could be deemed to authorize the action of the Governor, was challenged, the application for injunction was properly heard by three judges. Stratton v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 282 U. S. 10. The jurisdiction of the District Court so constituted, and of this Court upon appeal, extends to every question involved, whether of state or federal law, and enables the court to rest its judgment on the decision of such of the questions as in its opinion effectively dispose of the case.” 287 U. S., at 393-394.

In Phillips v. United States, 312 U. S. 246, it was held that a suit by the United States to enjoin the action of a Governor in interfering with the construction of a state power project using federal funds was not within § 266 because the validity of a state statute or order had not been challenged. Sterling v. Constantin was distinguished on the ground that it involved an attempt to restrain the action of a Governor as part of a main objective to enjoin execution of certain administrative orders as violative of the State and Federal Constitutions. As such, Sterling was said to have been “indubitably within § 266.” 312 U. S., at 253.