Second Hand Tunes v. City of Chicago

231 F. Supp. 2d 784, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22337, 2002 WL 31572092
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 18, 2002
Docket02 C 7741
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 231 F. Supp. 2d 784 (Second Hand Tunes v. City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Second Hand Tunes v. City of Chicago, 231 F. Supp. 2d 784, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22337, 2002 WL 31572092 (N.D. Ill. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

COAR, District Judge.

Before this Court is the motion of the plaintiff, Second Hand Tunes, for a preliminary injunction. A hearing was held in this matter on November 6, 2002, at which time the Court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction and reserved the right to issue a written opinion within ten days.

Factual and Procedural Background

Second Hand Tunes operates two retail establishments within the City of Chicago (“the City”) which sell to and purchase from their customers a broad selection of new (5% of sales) and previously owned (95% of sales) music, books, and motion pictures, in various formats including prerecorded digital audio discs (“CDs”) and digital video discs (“DVDs”). Chapter 4— 264 of the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago, also known as the Secondhand Dealers Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), regulates businesses that engage in the resale of items such as audio-video equipment, cameras, children’s products, computer hardware, jewelry made of precious metal, precious stone or gem, sporting or athletic gear or equipment, including a bicycle, watch, or currency. Under the Ordinance, a regulated business must obtain a Secondhand Dealers License before engaging in the business of reselling. One of the requirements for receiving the license is “whether the applicant is of good character and repute.” Under the Ordinance, secondhand dealers are required to keep a record book which contains the time of the transaction, a description of every piece of secondhand property received, purchased, sold or exchanged, the date of the transaction, and the purchaser or seller. The description of each person who sells an item includes the person’s name, address, birth date, social security number, weight, height and gender. In addition, every licensee must require that two forms of identification be shown to him or her by each person selling secondhand property to the licensee. If the customer does not have a photographic identification, the licensee is required to photograph the customer and record the customer’s personal information on the reverse side of the photograph. The records must be open to inspection by the mayor or any member of the police force during the licensee’s business hours. Further, the licensee must deliver a copy of the records for the preceding day by 12:00 noon every day. Effective June 19, 2002 the City amended the definition of audio-video equipment to include DVDs and CDs. Prior to the June 19, 2002 amendment, Second Hand Tunes was not covered by the Ordinance.

In late August, Second Hand Tunes was visited by members of the Chicago Police Department. They informed Derek Erd-man, a Second Hand Tunes store manager, that Second Hand Tunes needed a Secondhand Dealer’s License to continue to buy or sell previously owned CDs or DVDs due to a recent amendment of the City’s Secondhand Dealers Ordinance. The police officers gave Derek Erdman a copy of the amendment and he made a photo copy and returned the original to the officers. In *788 mid-September, the police again visited Second Hand Tunes seeking to enforce the Ordinance. The police informed Second Hand Tunes that it was required to comply with the license application requirements for secondhand dealers. Second Hand Tunes was visited repeatedly by the police in October. On October 28, 2002, Second Hand Tunes filed a complaint in this Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Second Hand Tunes sought to enjoin the defendant from enforcing the amendment because it allegedly infringes on Second Hand Tunes’ constitutional rights by regulating CDs and DVDs, which are mediums of expression protected by the First Amendment. Second Hand Tunes also filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”), which this Court granted on October 30, 2002. The TRO expired on November 6, 2002, the date of the preliminary injunction hearing in this matter. At the November 6, 2002 hearing, this Court denied plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction and reserved the right to issue a written opinion.

Discussion

“A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary and drastic remedy, one that should not be granted unless the movant, by a clear showing, carries the burden of persuasion.” Mazurek v. Armstrong, 520 U.S. 968, 972, 117 S.Ct. 1865, 138 L.Ed.2d 162 (1997) (quotation omitted); see also Ind. Civil Liberties Union v. O’Bannon, 259 F.3d 766, 770 (7th Cir.2001) (“A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy[.]”), reh’g en banc denied. A party seeking a preliminary injunction must demonstrate some likelihood of success on the merits, an inadequate remedy at law, and irreparable harm if the preliminary injunction is denied. See O’Bannon, 259 F.3d at 770. If the moving party demonstrates these elements, then the court must balance the harm to the nonmovant if an injunction is granted, the harm to the movant if the injunction is denied, and the public interest. See id. Courts in the Seventh Circuit use what has been described as the sliding scale approach: “the more likely the plaintiff will succeed on the merits, the less the balance of irreparable harms need favor the plaintiffs position.” Ty, Inc. v. Jones Group, Inc., 237 F.3d 891, 895 (7th Cir.2001).

1. Likelihood of Success on the Merits (Counts I and II)

Second Hand Tunes has declined to pursue its application for a secondhand dealer’s license. Accordingly, Second Hand Tunes asserts a facial, as opposed to an as-applied challenge to the Ordinance. Second Hand Tunes argues that there is a substantial likelihood that it will prevail on its First Amendment prior restraint claims (Counts I and II of the complaint) because the licensing scheme in the defendant’s Ordinance is utterly devoid of objective criteria, or any guidelines whatsoever, for public officials to follow in making the decision of whether to grant or deny a Secondhand Dealer’s License. The Ordinance’s licensing scheme provides, inter alia, that “the Superintendent of Police shall cause an investigation to be made to ascertain whether the applicant is of good character and repute.” The Ordinance’s licensing scheme does not contain any further definition of the phrase “good character and repute” to give assistance to the police officers who must interpret its meaning. Thus, Second Hand Tunes argues given the fact that the licensing scheme provides for unfettered discretion, the fact that the amendment to the Ordinance is directed narrowly and specifically at the circulation of CDs and DVDs— mediums of expression—and the fact that the Ordinance’s licensing scheme requires licenses to be renewed annually, the Ordinance presents a “real and substantial threat” of censorship by government officials. See City of Lakewood v. Plain Deal *789 er Publishing Co., 486 U.S. 750, 756, 108 S.Ct. 2138, 2143 n. 6, 100 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988).

Facial challenges to legislation are generally disfavored, but are permitted in the First Amendment context “where the licensing scheme vests unbridled discretion in the decision maker and where the regulation is challenged as overbroad.” FW/PBS, Inc. v.

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231 F. Supp. 2d 784, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22337, 2002 WL 31572092, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/second-hand-tunes-v-city-of-chicago-ilnd-2002.