Maldonado v. County of Monterey

330 F. Supp. 1282, 80 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2306, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12577
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJuly 1, 1971
DocketNo. C-71 1045
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 330 F. Supp. 1282 (Maldonado v. County of Monterey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maldonado v. County of Monterey, 330 F. Supp. 1282, 80 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2306, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12577 (N.D. Cal. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

PECKHAM, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4), and bring this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging the deprivation, under color of a municipal ordinance of their constitutional right to free speech. Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Ordinance No. 1799 of the County of Monterey, and ask for a declaratory judgment pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, that the ordinance is unconstitutional on its face.

Plaintiffs are labor organizers with the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (UFWOC), and were active during the Salinas Valley agricultural disputes in August and September, 1970. In pursuing their attempts to organize agricultural workers, the plaintiffs find it necessary to communicate with the workers in the fields. It is difficult to locate or gain access to the workers after hours, because many of them are housed in labor camps owned by growers, and closed to UFW-OC representatives.

In attempting to communicate with farm workers while they are in the fields, the union representatives find it almost always necessary to use some sort of loudspeaker equipment because the workers are usually located too far from the roadway to hear someone speaking in a normal voice. Most of UFWOC’s picketing activity in Monterey County takes place on rural highways and roads adjacent to the agricultural fields. Using sound amplification devices is the only really effective way of disseminating information because many of the workers live in labor camps or other remote and isolated locations, and do not have regular access to the few Spanish-Ianguage radio stations and newspapers in the area. Further, plaintiffs’ financial resources for utilizing these alternative means of communication are limited.

On April 27, 1971, the Board of Supervisors of Monterey County passed and adopted County Ordinance No. 1799, entitled, “An Ordinance Relating to Noise on Highways.”1 Said ordinance, [1284]*1284which has been effective since May 27, 1971, prohibits loud and raucous noise upon or from any public highway and defines loud and raucous noise in relevant part, as follows:

§ 1(c) (3) The human voice or any record or recording thereof when am- ' plified by any device whether electrical or mechanical or otherwise to such an extent as to cause it to carry on to private property or to be heard by others using the public highways or public thoroughfares.

On May 12, 1971, plaintiffs were using a loudspeaker to speak to strawberry workers near Watsonville. Shortly after they began, a Monterey County Sheriff’s deputy appeared in response to complaints from a ranch supervisor and remarked that after May 27, plaintiffs would no longer be allowed to use the loudspeaker.

Plaintiffs contend that the challenged ordinance absolutely prohibits the use of loudspeakers from public roads and thus violates the First Amendment. From May 27 to June 11, 1971, plaintiffs refrained from using loudspeaking equipment. On the latter date, this Court issued a temporary restraining order against the enforcement of § 1(c) (3) of Monterey County Ordinance No. 1799. On June 21, 1971 a hearing was held to determine whether a preliminary injunction should issue and to decide whether defendants’ motion to dismiss should be granted.

Defendants move this Court to dismiss this action, citing Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and its companion cases. Defendants argue that Younger v. Harris prevents the federal district courts from interfering with the enforcement of state criminal statutes, except in the most unusual situations. It is possible that the opinion in Younger v. Harris, if broadly construed, may support defendants’ contention. However, this Court is impressed with the fact that the holding therein was confined to the question of when federal courts should enjoin the state judicial processing of an ongoing criminal prosecution. In the present case, criminal prosecutions, although threatened against plaintiffs, have not yet been instituted; hence, the relief sought will not enjoin state criminal proceedings.

Defendants are urging this Court to go beyond Younger v. Harris, supra, and to rule, in effect, that plaintiffs must exhaust their state judicial remedies before they can proceed in the federal courts under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 et seq. This Court must decline to make such an unprecedented extension of the Younger v. Harris decision. Cf., Damico v. California, 389 U.S. 416, 88 S.Ct. 526, 19 L.Ed.2d 647 (1967).

Therefore, defendants’ motion to dismiss is denied.

Abstention is also improper in this case. The California Supreme Court has already had an opportunity to construe a similar ordinance, and has upheld its constitutionality. Haggerty v. Associated Farmers of Calif., 44 Cal.2d 60, 279 P.2d 734 (1955); Wollam v. City of Palm Springs, 59 Cal.2d 276, 29 Cal.Rptr. 1, 379 P.2d 481 (1963) (citing Haggerty with approval).

Turning now to the merits of plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, two Supreme Court cases are clearly in point: Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558, 68 S.Ct. 1148, 92 L.Ed. 1574 (1949), and Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 69 S.Ct. 448, 93 L.Ed. 513 (1949). In Saia v. New York, the Court declared unconstitutional a penal ordinance which forbade the use of sound amplification devices except with the permission of the Chief of Police. The Court stated therein: “Loud-speakers are today indispensable instruments of effective public [1285]*1285speech. The sound truck has become an accepted method of political campaigning. It is the way people are reached.” Saia v. New York, supra, 334 U.S. at 561, 68 S.Ct. at 1150.

In Kovacs v. Cooper, supra, the Court affirmed Kovacs’ conviction of violating an ordinance prohibiting the operation upon the city street of vehicles equipped with sound amplifiers or other instruments which emitted loud and raucous noises. In a majority opinion speaking for three of the justices, Justice Reed wrote that “The right of free speech is guaranteed every citizen that he may reach the minds of willing listeners and to do so there must be opportunity to win their attention. This is the phase of freedom of speech that is involved here.” Kovacs v. Cooper, supra, 336 U.S. at 87, 69 S.Ct. at 454.

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Bluebook (online)
330 F. Supp. 1282, 80 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2306, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maldonado-v-county-of-monterey-cand-1971.