Robert Clark v. John M. Formella, Attorney General, State of New Hampshire

District Court, D. New Hampshire·Decided August 28, 2026·No. 1:25-cv-00379·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Robert Clark

v. Case No. 1:25-cv-379-PB-AJ Opinion No. 2026 DNH 113 J ohn M. Formella, Attorney General, State of New Hampshire

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER In this putative class action, plaintiff Robert Clark seeks to challenge the constitutionality of New Hampshire’s anti-loitering statute. See N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. (“RSA”) § 644:6. Clark, who lived in homeless camps around Concord, New Hampshire for about thirteen years, has twice been arrested and charged, but never convicted, under the statute. He also alleges that local police have repeatedly stopped him on public and private properties in Concord, implicitly threatening his arrest under the law if he did not comply. While Clark seeks to represent an expansive class encompassing all those against whom the statute could be enforced, he premises his own standing to bring this suit on the law’s repeated invocation against him and its frequent enforcement against homeless individuals generally. Shortly after filing suit, however, Clark obtained housing, raising doubts about whether the statute will be enforced against him in the future. Several motions are ripe for ruling in this case, including Clark’s motion to certify his proposed class and the Attorney General’s motion to

dismiss, which advances arguments that Clark lacks standing to challenge § 644:6, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1), and that he fails to state a claim, see id. 12(b)(6). The Attorney General also cites to Clark’s newfound housing as reason to question his suit’s justiciability, raising a separate question of

mootness that is not otherwise briefed. Because the Court must assure itself of its own jurisdiction before reaching the merits, I only address the Attorney General’s threshold standing argument here. The parties will be required to address mootness in

subsequent motion practice under Rule 12(b)(1), only after which the Court will be able to entertain the Attorney General’s arguments for dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) and Clark’s motion for class certification. I. BACKGROUND1

A. RSA § 644:6 First enacted in 1971 and later amended in 1985, New Hampshire’s “Loitering or Prowling” statute consists of three principal provisions. See

1 Because this order addresses the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, I draw the well-pled facts from the complaint, “according the plaintiff the benefit of all reasonable inferences.” Latigua-Núñez v. U.S. Coast Guard, 174 F.4th 293, 297 (1st Cir. 2026) (quoting Murphy v. United States, 45 F.3d 520, 522 (1st Cir. 1995)). RSA § 644:6. The first provision defines the offense and supplies four non-exhaustive examples of conduct that can evince its commission:

A person commits a violation if he knowingly appears at a place, or at a time, under circumstances that warrant alarm for the safety of persons or property in the vicinity. Circumstances which may be considered in determining whether such alarm is warranted include, but are not limited to, when the actor: (a) Takes flight upon appearance of a law enforcement official or upon questioning by such an official. (b) Manifestly endeavors to conceal himself or any object. (c) Has in his possession tools or other property which would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime was about to be perpetrated. (d) Examines entrances to a structure which the actor has no authority or legitimate purpose to enter.

Id. § 644:6, I. Before a police officer may arrest an apparent violator of the statute, its second provision requires that the officer attempt to constructively engage with the suspect. Specifically, [p]rior to any arrest under this section, unless flight or other circumstances make it impossible, a law enforcement official shall afford the actor the opportunity to dispel any alarm which would otherwise be warranted, by requesting him to identify himself and give an account for his presence and conduct. Failure to identify or account for oneself, absent other circumstances, however, shall not be grounds for arrest.

Id. § 644:6, II. The statute’s third provision makes clear that satisfaction of the second provision’s procedural requirement is a prerequisite to conviction: No person shall be convicted under this section if the law enforcement official did not comply with paragraph II or it appears at trial that the explanation he gave of his conduct and purposes was true and, if believed by the law enforcement official at the time, would have dispelled the alarm. In such cases, any record of the arrest made under authority of paragraph I shall be expunged.

Id. § 644:6, III. Because § 644:6 classifies loitering as a violation under New Hampshire law, a convicted violator “may be sentenced to conditional or unconditional discharge, or a fine” of up to $1,000. Id. § 651:2, III-a and IV(a). In practice, according to public data obtained from the New Hampshire court system, police routinely charge violations of § 644:6. From January 2013 through December 2024, 2,280 cases alleging violations of the statute

were filed statewide, averaging 190 per year. See Doc. 29 at 1-2. Recent data further suggests that these cases are on the rise; from July 2024 through June 2025, 229 such cases were filed, reflecting a twenty-percent annualized increase compared to the average over the preceding twelve years. See id. at

2-3. And of course, charging data does not capture the frequency with which police question individuals without initiating an arrest pursuant to § 644:6, II. See Doc. 1 at 25. Unsurprisingly, homeless individuals are often the subject of § 644:6’s

enforcement. In Manchester, for example, from July 2021 to December 2024, fifty out of eighty-nine cases charging a violation of § 644:6—more than half—involved homeless defendants. Id. at 32. Similarly, in Concord, from July 2021 to June 2023, ten out of twenty-three such cases charged homeless

individuals. Id. at 32-33. B. Factual and Procedural History Clark was first arrested under § 644:6 just over fifteen years ago. In

June 2011, he was observed “going from car to car . . . trying to open doors” in a parking lot on Commercial Street in Concord. Doc. 1-2 at 31. When police responded, they found Clark “sitting in the driver’s seat” of a Chevrolet sedan. Id. Upon inquiry by the responding officers, Clark admitted that “he

did not know who the owner of the car was” and “did not have permission to be in the car.” Id. Clark also informed the police that he was carrying a knife. Id. He was arrested and charged with “prowling” under § 644:6, as well as criminal trespass and being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.2 Id.

at 24-26, 31. The felon-in-possession charge was later dropped, and the criminal-trespass and prowling charges were placed on file. Id. at 22-23. Sometime over the next year, Clark became homeless when his father lost his job, leading to their eviction. Doc. 1 at 9. Since then, Clark has led a

“transient and erratic life” in Concord, moving from place to place for more than thirteen years. Id. After his eviction, Clark first moved to “a field near The Friendly Kitchen soup kitchen” on Commercial Street. Id. More recently,

2 In April 2009, Clark had been convicted under RSA § 649-A:3 of possession of child sexual abuse images in state court. Doc. 1 at 10; Doc. 1-2 at 31. In his complaint, he notes that this conviction has impeded his ability to secure housing. Doc. 1 at 10. Clark has lived “on a bench outside of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness building” on North Main Street, “under a bridge near

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