Matzner v. Brown

288 F. Supp. 608, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9434
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedMay 8, 1968
DocketCiv. No. 434-68
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 288 F. Supp. 608 (Matzner v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matzner v. Brown, 288 F. Supp. 608, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9434 (D.N.J. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

SHAW, District Judge.

This action is brought by petitioners pursuant to the Federal Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983,1 the provisions of which the district courts of the United States have original jurisdiction to enforce. 28 U.S.C. § 1343 .2

Petitioners were indicted in Passaic County for murder in the first degree and trial of the indictments is scheduled for May 20, 1968. They retained F. Lee Bailey, Esquire, a member of the bar of the State of Massachusetts, to represent them as trial counsel. Leave to represent them was granted by the State trial court during September 1967 pursuant to R.R. 1:12-8. Since that time he has represented them and intends, at their request, if permitted by the court, to represent them at trial.

On April 24, 1968, Mr. Bailey wrote to the Governor of the State of New Jersey expressing his opinion as to the merits of the State’s case with criticism of the continued prosecution of it. Copies of this letter were forwarded to the Attorney General of New Jersey, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, the President of the New Jersey Bar Association, the Attorney General of the United States, members of the New Jersey State Legislature, Congressmen and United States Senators from the- State of New Jersey, and sixteen members of the American Polygraph Association. The letter reached the hands [610]*610of the press and statements made therein were published.

By letter dated April 30, 1968, addressed to the respondent by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, respondent was advised as follows:

, The Court,(on the basis of a published letter)fromF. Lee Bailey, Esquire, to Governor Hughes, dated April 24, 1968, directs that you revoke the permission heretofore given to Mr. Bailey to appear as counsel in the Kavanaugh and related matters unless the said Bailey or his client shows cause satisfactory to you to permit him to remain as counsel in said matters. (Emphasis supplied)
A hearing to that end is- to be held by you forthwith. At such hearing, you shall make inquiry as to the extent of the distribution of said letter and counterparts thereof addressed to others. The foregoing is independent of such action as the Supreme Court may itself take with respect to a permanent bar of Mr. Bailey from appearing in the courts of New Jersey or other discipline.

A hearing was held by respondent in his chambers on May 3, 1968. At the conclusion of the hearing respondent ordered that the privilege extended to F. Lee Bailey, Esquire, to appear as counsel for petitioners be revoked. Thereupon, the above mentioned petition was filed in this Court and a hearing held on May 7, 1968.

Petitioners contend that: (1) The order of the respondent deprives them of rights secured to them by the Fifth3 and Sixth4 Amendments to the United States Constitution, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth5 Amendment. (2) They are entitled to an order of this Court restraining enforcement of the State court order.

The question of jurisdiction to enjoin State court criminal proceedings in a case of this kind is not entirely free of doubt. The doubt arises because of the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2283 which reads:

A court of the United States may not grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a State court except as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments.

It has been held, however, in this Circuit that there is jurisdiction. Cooper v. Hutchinson, 184 F.2d 119 (3rd Cir. 1950). But it has been held otherwise in the Fourth Circuit. Baines v. City of Danville, 337 F.2d 579 (4th Cir.1964). Also see Island Steamship Lines v. Glen-non, 178 F.Supp. 292 (D.C.Mass.1959). The United States Supreme Court left the question unsettled in the recent case of Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965) when it commented in a footnote: “We therefore find it unnecessary to resolve the question whether suits under 42 U. S.C. § 1983 (1958 ed.) come under the ‘expressly authorized’ exception to § 2283.” Id. at 484, 85 S.Ct. at 1119. See 21 Rutgers Law Review 92 (1966). However, in Dombrowski the Court did observe that:

[Considerations of federalism have tempered the exercise of equitable power, for the Court has recognized that federal interference with a State’s good-faith administration of its criminal laws is peculiarly incon[611]*611sistent with our federal framework. It is generally to be assumed that state courts and prosecutors will observe constitutional limitations as expounded by this Court, and that the mere possibility of erroneous initial application of constitutional standards will usually not amount to the irreparable injury necessary to justify a disruption of orderly state proceedings. Id. at 484-485, 85 S.Ct. at 1119.

In the absence of a. United States Supreme Court decision settling the question of jurisdiction, this Court is bound to observe the Third Circuit holding in the Cooper case to the effect that there is jurisdiction. But it must also observe the admonition that, “[I]t is a very delicate matter for a federal court to interfere with the processes of state courts. It is even more delicate when the processes sought to be interfered with are prosecutions for crime brought by the state in its own courts.” Id. at 125.

It is recognized that the right to assert a claim under the Federal Civil Rights Act in a federal court is not dependent upon exhaustion of state remedies. Lane v. Wilson, 307 U.S. 268, 274-275, 59 S.Ct. 872 (1939). But the granting of equitable relief such as that sought here invokes the exercise of sound discretion. Such discretion must be sparingly exercised if we are to observe “[T]he delicate balance between state and federal authority and the inadvisability of federal court interference with a state prosecution.” United States ex rel. Schaedler v. Common Pleas Court, 242 F.Supp. 526, 527-528 (E.D.Pa.1965).

It has been urged in this CourF| that by appealing to the Executive and Legislative branches of the government counsel was doing nothing more than exercising petitioners’ First Amendment right of freedom of speech under the Federal Constitution. This right is not so unrestricted that the exercise of it can be permitted to interfere with the fair and impartial administration of justice, particularly in a case to be tried by a jury. Where the line should be drawn between permissible utterances for publication and those which jeopardize due process in the judicial system has been a much debated subject. See “A Free Press And A Fair Trial”, Villanova Law Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 677-741 (1966).

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Related

In Re Bailey
273 A.2d 563 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
288 F. Supp. 608, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matzner-v-brown-njd-1968.