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Benjamin Spock v. Bert A. David, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, and James R.schelsinger, Secretary of Defense, 502 F.2d 953, 3rd Cir. (1974)
Benjamin Spock v. Bert A. David, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, and James R.schelsinger, Secretary of Defense, 502 F.2d 953, 3rd Cir. (1974)
2d 953
This case is before us on an appeal from a final order of the district court which
granted injunctive relief protecting plaintiffs' first amendment rights from
interference by the military authorities at the Fort Dix Military Reservation.
The case was before us in October, 1972 on an appeal from the denial of a
preliminary injunction, which we reversed. Spock v. David, 469 F.2d 1047 (3d
Cir. 1972). At that time two categories of plaintiffs were before us. Spock and
Hobson were candidates of the Peoples Party for President and Vice President
of the United States in the election to be held on November 7, 1972. Jenness
and Pulley were candidates for the same offices of the Socialist Workers Party.
They had been denied permission to conduct a political meeting or to distribute
political literature on the Reservation. We referred to those plaintiffs and the
Socialist Workers Party as the candidates. Ginaven, Misch, Hardy and Stanton
were individual political activists who in the past had distributed leaflets within
the Fourt Dix Military Reservation, and who had, as a result of that activity,
received from the commanding officer of that base letters ejecting them from
Fort Dix and barring their reentry. We referred to Ginaven, Misch, Hardy and
Stanton collectively as the barred pamphleteers. In reversing the district court
we remanded for the entry of a preliminary injunction directing the defendants
to cease from interfering with the political campaigning by the candidateplaintiffs between the date of our opinion and November 7, 1972. We directed
that the case be set down for a final hearing promptly to dispose of the
candidateplaintiffs' claim for injunctive relief after November 7, 1972, and of
the claims for injunctive relief of the barred namphleteer-plaintiffs.
2
The district court, with the identical factual record before it on the merits of the
first amendment claim as was before us in Spock v. David, supra, properly
treated that decision as law of the case on the first amendment issue. The
defendants on this appeal are in the apparent dilemma of seeking to have us
overrule Spock v. David on the merits while at the same time pressing the
contention that there is no federal jurisdiction. This panel is also bound by the
law of the case on essentially the same record. This being so we will not repeat
the discussion of the merits of the claim. See Spock v. David, 469 F.2d at
1053-1056.
At the time of final hearing the candidate-plaintiffs, Spock and Hobson, though
defeated in the presidential race of 1972, desired to continue political activity
on the Fourt Dix Military Reservation, and the barred pamphleteers desired to
distribute their literature on that base. Thus the dispute over jurisdictional
amount was not moot. When the case was before us on the appeal from the
denial of a preliminary injunction we indicated that the only basis for federal
jurisdiction was 28 U.S.C. 1331, and that the jurisdictional amount requirement
of that section must be met. We pointed out:
'Section 1331 refers both to sum and to value. In cases in which there is an
adequate remedy at law, the recovery of damages, the jurisdictional amount
must be determined by reference to the sum of those damages. In cases where
there is no adequate remedy at law, the measure of jurisdiction is the value of
the right sought to be protected by injunctive relief.' 469 F.2d at 1052.
We did not find it necessary, in passing upon the claim for preliminary
injunctive relief, to detail the methods by which the right to convey a political
message might be valued for purposes of 1331. Jurisdictional amount had not
then been traversed by an affidavit or answer in the district court, and we could
not say as a legal certainty that the plaintiffs would never be able to establish
their jurisdictional claim. Looking at the value of the right to campaign for the
offices of President and Vice President, we concluded that it was more likely
than not that the district court would hold that this right had a value in excess of
$10,000, and we ordered a preliminary injunction. We were less certain about
the ability of the pamphleteer- plaintiffs to succeed at final hearing, and
declined to order a preliminary injunction.
At final hearing the plaintiffs, while continuing to urge, as they had before this
court, that free speech is by definition worth more than $10,000 and that such
an allegation ought not be subject to denial,2 and while continuing to rely on 28
U.S.C. 1331, introduced testimony which the district court found 'clearly
indicates that the amount in controversy exceeds the $10,000 jurisdictional
requirement of 28 U.S.C. 1331.' Appendix at 288a (Memorandum of District
Court).
That testimony established the cost of getting the plaintiffs' political message to
the 28,000 people living in Fort Dix by those alternative means which would
remain available to them were the challenged bar orders to remain in effect. The
testimony was that the alternative means comprised paid advertisements on
television and radio stations which broadcast to that viewing area, paid
advertisements in print media which the military authorities permitted to
circulate on the reservation and direct mail. A full page advertisement in an
edition of Time magazine which accepted regional advertising for New Jersey
would have cost $12,125.00 in black and white and $18,790.00 in color. Local
radio advertising which could be received at Fort Dix would cost $1,116.00 a
week. A direct mailing would cost between $3,500.00 and $4,000.00 per 1000
soldiers. The testimony suggested that none of the alternatives would be likely
to be as effective a means of communication to the target population as the
rallies and the pamphlets prohibited by the military defendants.
The defendants do not challenge the testimony that the cost of alternative
10
The defendants do not challenge the testimony that the cost of alternative
means of communication of the political messages sought to be transmitted
would far exceed $10,000. They contend that all this undisputed evidence, on
which the district court relied in finding the requisite jurisdictional amount, is
irrelevant. Their attack is frontal and total. They urge that first amendment
rights are incapable of valuation, and that absent a new congressional
enactment, there is no federal forum whatsoever for the protection of those
rights against deprivations by federal officials. In a footnote they suggest, citing
Arnold, The Power of State Courts to Enjoin Federal Officers, 73 Yale L.J.
1385 (1964), that state courts similarly lack power to enjoin federal officers.
Their position, in short, is that no court may entertain a civil suit against a
federal officer to enjoin his interference with the exercise of rights protected by
the first amendment. If the defendants' frontal and total attack were to succeed
they would, of course, have no interest in anything we might have said in Spock
v. David, supra, on the merits of the first amendment claim, since they would
be free to do as they pleased regardless. But we are past that point. In Spock v.
David, 469 F.2d at 1051, we expressly declined to follow Goldsmith v.
Sutherland, 426 F.2d 1395 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 960, 91 S.Ct. 353,
27 L.Ed.2d 270 (1970). The rights here in issue are intangible, but they are no
more incapable of valuation in money than is pain and suffering, or reputation,
or the intangible value of a proper selective service classification, or the
intangible value of the right to be tried by a civilian rather than a military
tribunal. See Sedivy v. Richardson, 485 F.2d 1115 (3d Cir. 1973). We have
approved valuation of the good will of a trademark, for jurisdictional amount
purposes, by looking at the amount spent in advertising the mark. Schering
Corporation v. Sun Ray Drug Co., 320 F.2d 72, 76 (3d Cir. 1963). The
testimony that means of communication alternative to those of which the
plaintiffs would be deprived by the continuance of the challenged bar orders
would cost in excess of $10,000 was sufficient, for purposes of 1331, to
quantify the value of the rights here sought to be protected. The finding of the
district court that such alternative means would cost in excess of $10,000 is
amply supported by the record.
The defendants urge that the plaintiffs did not offer proof of the cost of
relatively inexpensive alternative techniques of communication such as opening
a storefront in Wrightstown, New Jersey, adjacent to one of the entrances to the
reservation, and that the district court did not discuss such alternatives. But the
defendants offered no evidence as to the availability or cost of the suggested
laternatives, or as to their communicative effectiveness compared to the barred
activities. They cannot on appeal suggest that the district court's finding, based
on the evidence which was presented, was clearly erroneous. There is federal
question jurisdiction under 1331.
11
Since on the record made in the district court jurisdictional amount was the
only matter not governed by the law of the case announced in Spock v. David,
supra, we affirm. While we have not repeated in this opinion the discussion of
the merits of the first amendment claim set forth in our earlier opinion, we
deem it appropriate to note that nothing said there and nothing set forth in the
district court's injunction3 should be construed as limiting the authority of the
military officials at Fort Dix to restrict access by non-military personnel
generally to any part of the reservation, or to issue bar notices to and evict
persons from even the open areas of the reservation for unlawful activities.
12
See Cortright v. Resor, 325 F.Supp. 797, 810 (E.D.N.Y.), rev'd on other
grounds, 447 F.2d 245, 250-251 (2d Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 965, 92
S.Ct. 1172, 31 L.Ed.2d 240 (1972)
The right of the candidate plaintiffs to campaign and the right of the candidate
and pamphleteer plaintiffs to distribute literature shall be subject to such
restrictions as to time, place and numbers of persons involved as shall be shown
by defendants to be necessary to prevent interference with the military mission
of the Base and the flow of military and civilian traffic
Defendants are further enjoined from enforcing Fort Dix Regulation 210-27
insofar as it requires prior submission and approval of materials to be
distributed on the Base. In addition, defendants are enjoined from enforcing
Defendants are enjoined from issuing bar notices and letters to plaintiffs based
on the constitutionally protected activity described in this order. The order of
this Court shall not be construed to prevent defendants from issuing bar notices
and evicting persons from Fort Dix for other unlawful activity.'
Appendix at 291a-92a (Final Order of the District Court).