Kuhns v. City of Allentown

264 F.R.D. 223, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9415, 2010 WL 423005
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 4, 2010
DocketCivil Action No. 08-2606
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 264 F.R.D. 223 (Kuhns v. City of Allentown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kuhns v. City of Allentown, 264 F.R.D. 223, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9415, 2010 WL 423005 (E.D. Pa. 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ELIZABETH T. HEY, United States Magistrate Judge.

In this action, three anti-abortion protesters (“Plaintiffs”) allege that Defendants Allentown Women’s Center and its executive directoi’, Jennifer Boulanger (collectively “AWC”), conspired with Defendants City of Allentown and Police Chief Roger MacLean (collectively “City Defendants”) to violate Plaintiffs’ constitutional and statutory rights to communicate religious and political antiabortion messages to AWC patients. Presently before the court is a motion for a protective order filed by AWC (Doe. 57), Plaintiffs’ response thereto (Doc. 58), AWC’s reply (Doc. 59), Plaintiffs’ sur-reply (Doc. 61), and arguments presented at oral argument conduced on January 22, 2010. For the following reasons, I will grant the motion in part and deny it in part.1

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The various parties in this case have a long adversarial history, some of which bears directly upon the present lawsuit and the pending motion. A brief discussion of this history is therefore necessary for purposes of historical context.

AWC provides reproductive health and abortion services at its facility in Allentown. [225]*225The public entrance to AWC is located on a narrow roadway known as Keats Street. The present ease follows two previous federal civil rights lawsuits by anti-abortion protesters against the City and its police department stemming from confrontational protests in the vicinity of the AWC entrance. See Arietta v. City of Allentown (“Arietta I”), No. 04-0226 (E.D.Pa.); Arietta v. City of Allentown (“Arietta II”), No. 04-5306 (E.D.Pa.). Two of the three plaintiffs in the present case, Kathleen R. Kuhns and Kathleen Teay, were also plaintiffs in Arietta II; Kuhns was also a plaintiff in Arietta I. The City and various police officials were named as defendants in both previous cases, while neither AWC nor Boulanger was a party in either case.

In resolving Arietta II, the parties entered into a Consent Agreement which created detailed rules governing the conduct of police and protesters around the AWC entrance. See Consent Agreement, attached to Doc. 25 at Ex. A; Complaint at ¶¶25, 29, 30-31 (discussing Consent Agreement). Among other things, the Consent Agreement created a seven-foot-wide crosswalk spanning Keats Street connecting the AWC parking lot and entrance, as well as a four-foot-wide painted walkway running the length of Keats Street adjacent to the AWC parking lot, perpendicular to the seven-foot-wide crosswalk. See id. The Consent Agreement provided that anti-abortion protesters could use the walkway and crosswalk, but had to withdraw from the crosswalk whenever a patient, staffer, volunteer or other person affiliated with AWC elected to use the crosswalk. See Consent Agreement at ¶ 2 h. The Consent Agreement further provided that the protesters could walk back and forth across Keats Street to engage in pro-life advocacy whenever AWC-related persons used the crosswalk, but that non-consensual physical contact was prohibited. See id. at ¶ 2 i.

AWC attempted to intervene in Arietta II upon learning of the broad terms of the Consent Agreement, arguing that the agreement was potentially harmful to its patients and could threaten the security of its staff and volunteers. Both the plaintiff-protesters and the City Defendants opposed AWC’s motion to intervene in Arietta II and, following briefing and argument, Judge Gardner denied the motion. See Arietta II. Doc. 235 (E.D.Pa. July 12, 2007); see also Complaint at ¶ 31.2

On June 4, 2008, Plaintiffs commenced the present lawsuit, alleging that AWC and the City Defendants conspired to deprive them of their civil and constitutional rights in circumvention of the Arietta II Consent Agreement. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that the City Defendants authorized the AWC to violate their civil and constitutional rights by (a) using tarps to escort persons across Keats Street from the parking lot to the AWC entrance, thus preventing Plaintiffs from communicating their anti-abortion message; (b) employing individuals to form a “human shield” around expectant mothers in order to “body block” Plaintiffs in a public place; and (c) using noise to drown out Plaintiffs’ antiabortion communications. Based on these activities, Plaintiffs asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of their rights to freedom of speech and religion under the First and Fourteenth Amendments (Count I), under section 1983 and the Pennsylvania Constitution for violation of their rights to religious freedom and expression (Count II), under section 1983 for violation of their equal protection rights under the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions (Count III), and a private action for public nuisance under state law (Claim IV).

By Opinion and Order dated March 31, 2009, Judge Gardner granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss as to Counts II and III in their entirety, but denied the motion as to Counts I and IV. See Doc. 25. As a result, all of Plaintiffs’ First Amendment and state nuisance claims survived and remain in the [226]*226ease.3

On September 11, 2009, Plaintiffs issued interrogatories and document production requests on Defendants. According to AWC, on October 23, 2009, AWC’s counsel conferred with Plaintiffs’ counsel concerning AWC’s request for a protective order, and Plaintiffs’ counsel stated that he would not agree to limit his clients’ use of the documents to this litigation or to any confidentiality provisions. See Doc. 57 at 3-4.

Consistent with Judge Gardner’s informal discovery dispute resolution procedures, Plaintiffs sent a letter to me dated November 12, 2009, asking the court to address concerns regarding Defendants’ answers to these discovery requests. AWC responded to the letter, and I held a teleconference with counsel on November 20, 2009, during which I heard argument and ruled on each of the discovery disputes raised in Plaintiffs’ letter.4 I memorialized these rulings by Order dated November 20, 2009. During the teleconference it became clear that AWC’s principal argument was that it was entitled to a protective order limiting Plaintiffs’ use of the information. In my Order dated November 20, 2009, I directed AWC to file its already-prepared motion for a protective order by November 23, 2009. See Doc. 56.5

AWC filed the present motion on November 23, 2009, and, following the submission of responsive briefs, I issued an Order scheduling oral argument for January 22, 2010, and directing AWC to compile and submit to the Court and opposing counsel an index of all materials it had identified as subject to discovery in light of my November 20, 2009, Order. AWC thereafter submitted to me and counsel an “Index of [AWC’s] Documents in Response to Plaintiffs’ Request for Production” (“Index”), identifying numerous documents and e-mails, as well as one group of photographs (dated 09/16/08) and four videos.

II. TIMELINESS OF THE MOTION

As an initial matter, Plaintiffs argue that the present motion for a protective order is untimely because AWC failed to seek a protective order before the time for compliance with discovery.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
264 F.R.D. 223, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9415, 2010 WL 423005, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuhns-v-city-of-allentown-paed-2010.