McCullen v. Coakley

844 F. Supp. 2d 206, 2012 WL 562427, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25731
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedFebruary 22, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 08-10066-JLT
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 844 F. Supp. 2d 206 (McCullen v. Coakley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCullen v. Coakley, 844 F. Supp. 2d 206, 2012 WL 562427, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25731 (D. Mass. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

JOSEPH L. TAURO, District Judge.

I. Introduction

This case concerns a recently revised Massachusetts statute, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 266, § 120E1/2 (“Act”), which establishes a thirty-five-foot fixed buffer zone around driveways and entrances of reproductive health care facilities (“RHCFs”). Presently at issue is Plaintiffs’ challenge to the Act as applied to their speech activities at three RHCFs in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield. For the reasons given below, this court finds that the Act as applied is a valid regulation of the time, place, and manner of Plaintiffs’ speech. For that reason, Judgment shall be entered in favor of Defendants on all counts.

II. Background1

A. The Parties

Plaintiffs Eleanor McCullen, Jean Blackburn Zarella, Gregory A. Smith, Eric Cad-in, Mark Bashour, Nancy Clark, and Cyril Shea are Massachusetts residents who regularly engage in pro-life counseling outside RHCFs. Defendant Attorney General Martha Coakley is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Defendants Conley, Early, and Mastroianni are the [209]*209District Attorneys for Suffolk, Worcester, and Hampden Counties where the clinics at issue in this action are located. As such, Defendants bear responsibility for enforcing the Act. They are sued in their official capacities only.2

B. Procedural History

On January 16, 2008, Plaintiffs filed the Complaint, which advanced eight counts under 42 U.S.C. § 1988: (1) Free Speech— Time, Place, and Manner; (2) Free Speech—Substantial Overbreadth; (3) Free Speech—Prior Restraint; (4) “Free Speech—Free Association—Free Exercise Hybrid”; (5) Free Speech—Viewpoint Discrimination; (6) Due Process—Vagueness; (7) Due Process—Liberty Interest; and (8) Equal Protection.3

After a Status Conference held on April 23, 2008, and without objection from the Parties, this court ordered that the matter proceed on the merits in two stages: (1) a Bench Trial on Plaintiffs’ facial challenge; and (2) a bench trial on Plaintiffs’ as-applied challenge.4

On May 28, 2008, this court held the first bench trial, on Plaintiffs’ facial challenge.5 In an August 22, 2008 decision, this court held that the Act survived all three facial challenge standards.6 The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held a de novo review and affirmed this court’s decision,7 and the Supreme Court denied Plaintiffs’ petition for certiorari at this stage of the case.8

On September 17, 2010, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Leave to File Amended Complaint and a Motion to Permit Arguments as to Facial Invalidity. On October 7, 2010, Defendants filed a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings on the As-Applied Claims in Counts Two Through Eight. On December 2, 2010, this court heard oral arguments on all three Motions and took them under advisement. On December 29, 2010, this court issued a Memorandum denying Plaintiffs Motion to Permit Arguments as to Facial Invalidity, and allowing Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. Plaintiffs were allowed to amend the complaint to include claims regarding RHCFs in Springfield and Worcester and to include new plaintiffs who would make allegations regarding speech activities at those clinics. Plaintiffs were also permitted to amend the complaint to include four District Attorneys in their official capacities, consistent with the expansion of the geographic scope of the complaint.

On February 25, 2011, Plaintiffs filed the Amended Complaint, and on March 11, 2011, the Commonwealth filed its Answer. On May 11, 2011, the parties entered a Stipulation of Dismissal Covering the Claims by Carmel Farrell Regarding the Brookline Clinic. The effect of the Amended Complaint and the Stipulation is that Plaintiffs now challenge the constitutionality of the Act as applied at the RHCFs in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield. On August 24, 2011, a bench trial was held on Plaintiffs’ as applied claims, and the court took the matter under advisement.

[210]*210III. Discussion

A. Legal Standard

This court has already found the Act to be a content neutral time, place and manner restriction, and upheld it as facially valid. In so doing, the court found that the Act survived intermediate scrutiny because it is (1) justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech; (2) narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest; and (3) leaves open ample alternative means of communication.9 It has already been established that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a “substantial and legitimate content-neutral interest in protecting public safety at RHCF entrances and driveways, because ‘[i]t is a traditional exercise of the States’ police powers to protect the health and safety of their citizens.’ ”10 In light of this court’s December 29, 2010 opinion, the only issue that remains to be decided is “whether the statute as applied at the clinics specified in the complaint leaves open adequate alternative channels of communication.” 11

A valid time, place, and manner restriction, by its nature must burden some First Amendment activity for the purpose of advancing the State interest at stake. As Justice Souter, emphasized, in his concurring opinion in Hill v. Colorado, however, prior cases “ ‘quite clearly hold that restrictions on the time, place, or manner of protected speech are not invalid ‘simply because there is some imaginable alternative that might be less burdensome on speech.’ ”12 Indeed, “the First Amendment does not guarantee the right to communicate one’s views at all times and places or in any manner that may be desired.” 13 As this court pointed out in the facial challenge phase of this case, “[t]imeplace-manner regulations routinely make particular forms of expression impracticable without raising constitutional concerns.” 14 The question is not, “ ‘whether a degree of curtailment’ of speech exists, but rather ‘whether the remaining communicative avenues are adequate.’ ” 15 Alternative methods, therefore, need not be perfect substitutes for Plaintiffs’ desired manner of communication.

It is well established that, “only the government can violate First Amendment rights,” and that, “every First Amendment claim thus requires state action in some sense.”16 As the [211]*211First Circuit has emphasized, “The First Amendment is concerned with government interference, not private jousting in the speech marketplace.”17 In order for the Act to violate the First Amendment as it is applied to Plaintiffs, the lack of adequate alternative means of communication must be traceable to state action. As the First Circuit pointed out in McGwire II,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McCullen v. Coakley
134 S. Ct. 2518 (Supreme Court, 2014)
McCullen v. Coakley
708 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
844 F. Supp. 2d 206, 2012 WL 562427, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccullen-v-coakley-mad-2012.