United Black Community Fund v. City of St. Louis

613 F. Supp. 739, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18499
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 26, 1985
Docket85-1050 C (2)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 613 F. Supp. 739 (United Black Community Fund v. City of St. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Black Community Fund v. City of St. Louis, 613 F. Supp. 739, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18499 (E.D. Mo. 1985).

Opinion

613 F.Supp. 739 (1985)

UNITED BLACK COMMUNITY FUND INC., Plaintiff,
v.
CITY OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, et al., Defendants.

No. 85-1050 C (2).

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, E.D.

June 26, 1985.

*740 *741 MacArthur Moten and Irene J. Smith, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff.

Francis M. Oates, Associate City Counselor, St. Louis, Mo., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

FILIPPINE, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court following trial for a decision on the merits. Plaintiff seeks, inter alia, a permanent injunction prohibiting the City of St. Louis and the other named defendants from enforcing Joint Regulation No. 1 ("The Regulation"), promulgated by the Comptroller and the Director of Personnel for the City of St. Louis. The following memorandum constitutes this Court's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 52(a).

Plaintiff, the United Black Community Fund, Inc., is a Missouri not-for-profit corporation *742 exempt from Federal Income Tax under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3). The Regulation at issue in this litigation governs payroll deductions of the City of St. Louis's employees. A charitable organization is eligible to receive funds from the City's employees through payroll deductions if, inter alia, "[t]he organization's administrative and fund-raising expenses do not exceed 25% of gross contributions." Plaintiff challenges the facial constitutional validity of the 25% administrative and fund-raising limitation. Plaintiff does not challenge any other provision of The Regulation as constitutionally infirm. The Court finds the City's workplace and its payroll deduction plan are nonpublic forums and the 25% administrative and fund-raising limitation reasonable. Judgment will be rendered in favor of defendant, and plaintiff's complaint dismissed with prejudice.

I

The defendant City of St. Louis is a municipal corporation of the State of Missouri existing by virtue of its charter and the Constitution of the State of Missouri. As a result of a settlement agreement entered into in prior litigation with the City, plaintiff has been permitted to solicit City employees for contributions and collect those contributions through payroll deductions in the same manner as the United Way of Greater St. Louis. Currently 1,116 City employees are contributing to plaintiff by means of payroll deductions. The City employees are motivated, in part, to contribute to plaintiff because the City has approved plaintiff for participation in its payroll deduction plan.

The linchpin on which plaintiff's challenge hangs is the nature of the forum regulated by the 25% administrative and fund-raising limitation. In the case at bar the City is regulating its own payroll system and workplace, not the property of others. The Supreme Court in Schaumburg v. Citizens for Better Environment, 444 U.S. 620, 100 S.Ct. 826, 63 L.Ed.2d 73 (1980) declared a municipal ordinance prohibiting door-to-door solicitations of contributions by a charitable organization that did not use at least 75% of its receipts for charitable purposes unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Schaumburg's ruling was recently reaffirmed in Secretary of the State of Maryland v. Munson, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 2839, 81 L.Ed.2d 786 (1984). Both Munson and Schaumburg struck down a 25% administrative and fund-raising limitation in the context of regulations that impacted on door-to-door and on-street solicitation. There is, however, a constitutional difference between the type of regulations allowed on the City's payroll and those permitted on the City's streets. "`Were we to hold to the contrary, display cases in public hospitals, libraries, office buildings, military compounds and other public facilities immediately would become Hyde Parks open to every would-be pamphleteer and politician. This the Constitution does not require.'" United Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civil Associations, 453 U.S. 114, 130 n. 6, 101 S.Ct. 2676, 2685 n. 6, 69 L.Ed.2d 517 (1981), (quoting Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. 298, 304, 94 S.Ct. 2714, 2717, 41 L.Ed.2d 770 (1974) (opinion of Justice Blackmun)). Thus, the question to be decided by this Court is whether the City payroll and workplace are the type of forums in which the Schaumburg and Munson rules govern.

The analysis set forth by the Supreme Court in Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators, 460 U.S. 37, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983) is the gate through which this Court's inquiry must first pass. In Perry the court articulated from prior precedent three classes of forums. The first class is the public forum, or "places which by long tradition or by government fiat have been devoted to assembly and debate...." Id. at 45, 103 S.Ct. at 954. In public forums, the government may not prohibit all speech and may enforce content-based regulation only if such regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and narrowly drawn to achieve that end. Content-neutral *743 time, place and manner restrictions may also be imposed if they are narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest and leave open ample alternative channels of communication. Streets and public parks are classic examples of public forums. Id.

The second type of forum is public property which the state has opened for use by the public. The state is not required to indefinitely retain the open character of the facility, as long as it does, however, it is bound by the same standards that apply in a traditional public forum. Id. at 46, 103 S.Ct. at 955. This second category of forum includes university meeting facilities, Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 102 S.Ct. 269, 70 L.Ed.2d 440 (1981), school board meetings, City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Public Employment Relations Commission, 429 U.S. 167, 97 S.Ct. 421, 50 L.Ed.2d 376 (1976), and municipal theaters, Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 95 S.Ct. 1239, 43 L.Ed.2d 448 (1975).

The third class of forum is public property which is not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication. Such property is governed by different standards, and the state, no less than a private owner of property, has power to preserve the property under its control for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated. Perry, 460 U.S. at 46, 103 S.Ct. at 954; United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburg Civic Association, 453 U.S. at 129-30, 101 S.Ct. at 2685; Greer v. Spock,

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

Related

Herbert v. PDC
148 P.3d 1102 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2006)
Herbert v. Public Disclosure Commission
136 Wash. App. 249 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
613 F. Supp. 739, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-black-community-fund-v-city-of-st-louis-moed-1985.