Dombrowski v. Pfister
Dombrowski v. Pfister | |
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Holding | |
A court may enjoin enforcement of a statute that is so overbroad in its prohibition of unprotected speech that it substantially prohibits protected speech — especially if the statute is being enforced in bad faith.[1] | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Brennan, joined by Warren, Douglas, White, Goldberg |
Dissent | Harlan, joined by Clark |
Black and Stewart took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. I |
Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965), was a
Background
James A. Dombrowski was executive director of the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF), a civil rights advocacy group that promoted desegregation and African-American voting rights. State officials in Louisiana declared the SCEF a subversive or communist-front organization whose members were violating the Louisiana Subversive Activities and Communist Front Control Law. Louisiana officials seized and searched Dombrowski’s and two lawyers’ papers and indicted them.[1]
Dombrowski alleged that members of his organization, which consisted of a group of Southern liberals dedicated to fighting for civil rights for Blacks in the South, were subjected to continuous harassment, including arrests without intent to prosecute, and seizures of necessary internal documents. Furthermore, the State was threatening to use anti-subversion statutes to prosecute the organization.
The case was brought forth by Dombrowski after he was arrested and his offices were raided by authorities in October 1963. Dombrowski demanded all seized materials to be returned to him and $500,000 be paid in damages resulting from the arrest and search-and-seizure. However, a three-judge Federal district court dismissed the claim, stating that Dombrowski had failed to show evidence of irreparable damage and asserted the abstention doctrine, stating that State Courts had the right to refrain from ruling in Constitutional questions.
Decision
The Supreme Court overturned the earlier dismissal of the court below, making note of the "chilling effect" the ruling below would have had on First Amendment rights. Federal courts ordinarily should abstain from interfering in state litigation, even when constitutional issues are involved, according to the Supreme Court. They may intrude when a statute substantially chills free expression through overbroad application and when parties challenge a statute facially. Furthermore, when a statute is substantially overbroad, persons may challenge the entire statute and not just those aspects that apply to them. The Court found the Louisiana statutes to be void on their face and ordered the district court to grant the requested relief.[1]
Status as precedent
Several years later, the Supreme Court decided in
The Supreme Court in Younger conceded that bad faith prosecution like the pattern in Dombrowski would justify a federal court in issuing an injunction against state proceedings. However, since the announcement of Younger in 1971, the Supreme Court has never found an instance of alleged bad faith prosecution to, in fact, meet the requirements of this exception to the no-injunction rule.[6] As the commentator Erwin Chemerinsky stated, the bad-faith prosecution exception seems narrowly limited to facts like those in Dombrowski.[7] Other scholars have even asserted that the possible range of cases that would fit the Dombrowski model and allow an exception to the no-injunction rule is so limited as to be an "empty universe."[8]
References
- ^ a b c Peck, Leonard W. "Dombrowski v. Pfister (1965)". The First Amendment Encyclopedia presented by the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies. Archived from the original on July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ^ "UE Mourns Kinoy's Passing". ueunion.org. United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. September 30, 2003. Archived from the original on July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ISBN 9781634241434. Archived from the originalon July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ^ Erwin Chemerinsky, Federal Jurisdiction (5th ed. 2007), Aspen Publishers, p. 826-27
- ^ Chemerinsky, p. 826-27
- ^ Chemerinsky, p. 859
- ^ Chemerinsky, p. 860
- ^ Chemerinsky, p. 859-60
External links
- Text of Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965) is available from: Findlaw Justia Oyez (oral argument audio)