Bruce Wright v. City of St. Petersburg, Florida , 833 F.3d 1291 ( 2016 )


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  •                Case: 15-10315       Date Filed: 08/15/2016     Page: 1 of 17
    [PUBLISH]
    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
    ________________________
    No. 15-10315
    ________________________
    D.C. Docket No. 8:13-cv-02784-EAK-AEP
    BRUCE WRIGHT,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    versus
    CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA,
    Defendant-Appellee.
    ________________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Middle District of Florida
    ________________________
    (August 15, 2016)
    Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge, and REEVES, *
    District Judge.
    *
    Honorable Danny C. Reeves, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of
    Kentucky, sitting by designation.
    Case: 15-10315       Date Filed: 08/15/2016       Page: 2 of 17
    ED CARNES, Chief Judge:
    Bruce Wright obstructed a police investigation and resisted arrest in a city
    park in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was arrested for that unlawful conduct and the
    arresting officer issued him a “trespass warning” under City Ordinance § 20-30,
    which prohibited him from re-entering the park for one year. Wright contends that
    § 20-30 violates the First Amendment because it prevented him from re-entering
    the park to exercise his First Amendment rights. Wright is wrong. The unlawful
    behavior that led to his arrest and trespass warning was not protected expression.
    The City’s exclusion of him from the park for one year was lawful even though it
    had an incidental effect on his First Amendment rights during that year.
    I.
    Wright is an ordained minister, co-director of an addiction recovery
    program, and advocate for the poor and homeless.1 As part of his work he hands
    out flyers and offers counseling to people who might benefit from his recovery
    program. Of the City’s 142 parks, Wright prefers to use Williams Park in
    1
    Wright appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the City, so we
    view “the evidence and all factual inferences . . . in the light most favorable” to him. Gerling
    Glob. Reinsurance Corp. of Am. v. Gallagher, 
    267 F.3d 1228
    , 1233–34 (11th Cir. 2001). He
    contends that the district court erred in relying on disputed material facts to reach its legal
    conclusions, but that contention is beside the point since we review the grant of summary
    judgment de novo, CAMP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. v. City of Atlanta, 
    451 F.3d 1257
    , 1268
    (11th Cir. 2006), and determine for ourselves whether the evidence viewed favorably to him
    precludes the entry of summary judgment.
    2
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    downtown St. Petersburg for his ministerial outreach and advocacy work because
    many poor and homeless people visit it. He also organizes and attends
    demonstrations, ranging from “sleep-outs” for the homeless to human rights
    marches, which have been held in Williams Park and other public areas in the city
    (such as streets and sidewalks). There is no question that the First Amendment
    protects Wright’s ministerial outreach and political speech. See Snyder v. Phelps,
    
    562 U.S. 443
    , 451–53, 
    131 S. Ct. 1207
    , 1215–16 (2011); Heffron v. Int’l Soc’y for
    Krishna Consciousness, Inc., 
    452 U.S. 640
    , 647, 
    101 S. Ct. 2559
    , 2563 (1981).
    On March 27, 2013, Officers Steven Laurenzi and Richard Targaszewski
    were patrolling Williams Park when they encountered Wright. They were
    speaking to a man who had an outstanding arrest warrant when Wright approached
    them from behind, told the officers to stop harassing the man, and asked what the
    man had done wrong. Laurenzi cautioned Wright not to interfere, told him several
    times to step back, and warned him that he would be arrested for obstructing an
    investigation if he did not back off. When Wright refused to back off and stop,
    Laurenzi arrested him. Targaszewski had to help Laurenzi handcuff Wright
    because he braced and tensed his arms. Wright was arrested for two counts of
    resisting an officer without violence or obstruction. He later pleaded guilty to that
    offense, and the trial court withheld adjudication.
    3
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    When Laurenzi arrested Wright he also issued him a “trespass warning” for
    Williams Park under City Ordinance § 20-30. That ordinance authorizes police
    officers, in their discretion, to issue trespass warnings “to any individual who
    violates any City ordinance or State law which was committed while on or within a
    City facility, building, or outdoor area, including municipal parks.” St. Petersburg,
    Fla. Code § 20-30(b). The ordinance does not apply to sidewalks. 
    Id. § 20-30(b)–
    (c). The written warnings ban the offender from re-entering the particular piece of
    property where he was arrested for a specified period of time, 
    id. § 20-30(b)–(e),
    and if he does re-enter that property during that period of time, he can be arrested
    for trespass, 
    id. § 20-30(f).
    The ordinance provides a process for offenders to
    appeal the warnings they receive to an independent hearing master, and then, if
    necessary, to seek review in the county circuit court (which has jurisdiction over
    appeals from “final administrative orders of local government code enforcement
    boards”). See 
    id. § 20-30(i);
    see also Fla. Stat. § 26.012(1). 2 Regardless of any
    appeal, § 20-30(g) empowers the City official who controls the property to
    “authorize an individual who has received a trespass warning to enter the property
    or premises to exercise his or her First Amendment rights if there is no other
    2
    The County Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County recently
    declared that § 20-30(i) and a portion of § 20-30(e) are void ab initio because their enactment
    violated provisions of Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law allowing for notice to the
    public and public comment. Both parties agree that the court’s decision does not impact this
    case.
    4
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    reasonable alternative location to exercise such rights or to conduct necessary
    municipal business.”
    Wright’s trespass warning under Ordinance § 20-30 prohibited him from re-
    entering Williams Park for one year. The prohibition made his ministerial
    outreach more difficult because he could no longer interact with people inside the
    park. The trespass warning also prevented him from attending a press conference
    on police brutality held inside the park the day after his arrest. Wright appealed his
    warning according to the procedures in the ordinance, and the hearing master
    denied his appeal, concluding that the warning had been lawfully issued. He
    appealed that denial to a three-judge panel of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in
    and for Pinellas County, which upheld that decision.
    On April 19, 2013, Wright applied to the City for a suspension of his
    trespass warning under § 20-30(g) for the entire day of May 1, 2013 so that he
    could participate in a workers’ rights rally. The City granted his request and
    allowed him to enter the park from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. “to lawfully exercise
    his First Amendment rights.” Wright did so, but he did not enter the park any
    other day while his trespass warning was in effect or apply for another suspension.
    In October 2013 Wright filed a complaint against the City under 42 U.S.C.
    § 1983, alleging that Ordinance § 20-30 violates the First and Fourteenth
    Amendments facially and as applied to him. The district court granted the City’s
    5
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    motion for summary judgment, concluding that § 20-30 is a reasonable regulation
    of the time, place, and manner of speech in the park. Wright appeals that
    judgment.
    II.   Discussion
    We review de novo the grant of summary judgment to the City. CAMP
    Legal Def. Fund, Inc. v. City of Atlanta, 
    451 F.3d 1257
    , 1268 (11th Cir. 2006).
    We also review de novo the constitutionality of ordinances. Café Erotica of Fla.,
    Inc. v. St. Johns Cty., 
    360 F.3d 1274
    , 1282 (11th Cir. 2004). We can “affirm for
    any reason supported by the record,” even if the district court did not rely on that
    reason. United States v. Chitwood, 
    676 F.3d 971
    , 975 (11th Cir. 2012).
    Wright raises three challenges. First, he contends that Ordinance § 20-30 as
    a whole violates the First Amendment on its face and as applied to him because it
    allows the City to exclude people from traditional public fora, including people
    who wish to engage in protected expression. Second, he contends that § 20-30(g),
    which gives a City official discretion to grant suspensions of a ban violates the
    First Amendment because it amounts to a prior restraint on speech in a traditional
    public forum. Third, he contends that § 20-30(g) is unconstitutionally vague under
    the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
    A.     First Amendment Challenge to Ordinance § 20-30
    6
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    To succeed on his facial challenge, Wright must show that Ordinance § 20-
    30 is “unconstitutional in all of its applications.” Wash. State Grange v. Wash.
    State Republican Party, 
    552 U.S. 442
    , 449, 
    128 S. Ct. 1184
    , 1190 (2008). There is
    an exception to that rule for facial challenges based on the overbreadth doctrine if
    the plaintiff can show that a “substantial number of [the statute’s] applications are
    unconstitutional, judged in relation to [its] plainly legitimate sweep.” 
    Id. at 449
    n.6, 128 S. Ct. at 1190 
    n.6 (quotation marks omitted). We have already held that
    § 20-30 is not facially unconstitutional under the overbreadth doctrine, Catron v.
    City of St. Petersburg, 
    658 F.3d 1260
    , 1269–70 (11th Cir. 2011), and we are bound
    by that decision.3 See Smith v. GTE Corp., 
    236 F.3d 1292
    , 1300 n.8 (11th Cir.
    2001) (“Under the well-established prior panel precedent rule of this Circuit, the
    holding of the first panel to address an issue is the law of this Circuit, thereby
    binding all subsequent panels . . . .”). If a plaintiff cannot show that a statute is
    unconstitutional in a substantial number of its applications, as overbreadth
    challenges require, he certainly cannot show that all applications of it are
    unconstitutional. See Wash. State 
    Grange, 552 U.S. at 449
    & 
    n.6, 128 S. Ct. at 3
               Wright argues that the version of Ordinance § 20-30 we addressed in Catron is different
    from the one we are addressing here. The City amended § 20-30 after Catron to add an appeal
    procedure (which has since been invalidated because of a problem in the enactment process), and
    it slightly revised the language of what is now § 20-30(g), the provision that governs suspension
    of trespass warnings. But officers’ authority to issue trespass warnings that exclude offenders
    from public property has not been changed since Catron, so that decision still controls. See
    
    Catron, 658 F.3d at 1270
    .
    7
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    1190 & n.6; see also United States v. Martinez, 
    736 F.3d 981
    , 991 (11th Cir. 2013)
    (Carnes, C.J., concurring) (stating that the difference between a regular facial
    challenge and an overbreadth challenge is “having to show that all applications of
    the statute are unconstitutional and having to show that a substantial number of
    them are”) (emphasis added), vacated on other grounds, Martinez v. United States,
    
    135 S. Ct. 2798
    (2015). It follows that Wright’s facial challenge fails.
    His as applied challenge does not fare any better. Wright contends that
    Ordinance § 20-30 impinges on First Amendment rights because it restricts his
    access to a traditional public forum where he wants to engage in expressive
    activity. The “rights of the state to limit expressive activity are sharply
    circumscribed” in traditional public fora such as city parks and streets. Perry Educ.
    Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 
    460 U.S. 37
    , 45, 
    103 S. Ct. 948
    , 954–55
    (1983). A law that restricts access to traditional public fora for expressive activity
    is subject to “First Amendment scrutiny.” McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U.S. ___,
    
    134 S. Ct. 2518
    , 2526, 2529–30 (2014). If the restrictions are content-neutral and
    prescribe the time, place, and manner of expression, they must be narrowly tailored
    and leave open alternative means of communication. 
    Perry, 460 U.S. at 45
    , 103 S.
    Ct. at 954–55. If the restrictions are not content neutral, they must survive strict
    scrutiny. 
    Id. 8 Case:
    15-10315    Date Filed: 08/15/2016    Page: 9 of 17
    We reject Wright’s contention that Ordinance § 20-30 must be treated as a
    restriction on access to a traditional public forum for expressive activity, which
    would subject it to First Amendment scrutiny. The Supreme Court has explained
    that, in the context of legal remedies, First Amendment scrutiny applies “only
    where it was conduct with a significant expressive element that drew the legal
    remedy in the first place . . . or where [an ordinance] based on a nonexpressive
    activity has the inevitable effect of singling out those engaged in expressive
    activity.” Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc., 
    478 U.S. 697
    , 706–07, 
    106 S. Ct. 3172
    ,
    3177 (1986) (emphasis added).
    In Arcara the state sought to close an adult bookstore under New York’s
    Public Health Law because the bookstore doubled as a site of prostitution and
    illicit sexual acts. 
    Id. at 698–702,
    106 S. Ct. at 3173–75. The storeowners argued
    that the closure “impermissibly burden[ed] [their] First Amendment protected
    bookselling activities.” 
    Id. at 705,
    106 S. Ct. at 3177. But because the illegal
    activity that prompted the closure “manifest[ed] absolutely no element of protected
    expression,” and the statute did not “inevitably single out bookstores or others
    engaged in First Amendment protected activities for the imposition of its burden,”
    the Supreme Court held that the closure did not implicate the First Amendment and
    as a result was not unconstitutional. 
    Id. at 705,
    707, 106 S. Ct. at 3176
    –77. The
    Court reasoned that First Amendment scrutiny of a law is not justified just because
    9
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    the law has an incidental effect of burdening protected speech or expression. 
    Id. at 705–06,
    106 S. Ct. at 3177. For example, the Court explained, a “thief who is sent
    to prison might complain that his First Amendment right to speak in public places
    has been infringed because of the confinement, but we have explicitly rejected a
    prisoner’s claim to a prison environment least restrictive of his desire to speak to
    outsiders.” 
    Id. at 706,
    106 S. Ct. at 3177. By the same token, Wright also could
    have been incarcerated for his unlawful conduct, see Fla. Stat. § 843.02; 
    id. § 775.082(4)(a),
    which for the duration of his incarceration would have prevented
    him from engaging in expressive conduct in any of the City’s many public parks.
    The Arcara decision provides the proper framework for analyzing Ordinance
    § 20-30.4 Simply because the trespass warning incidentally burdened Wright’s
    First Amendment activities does not mean that Ordinance § 20-30 is subject to
    First Amendment scrutiny, since “every civil and criminal remedy imposes some
    4
    Wright’s arguments to the contrary are unpersuasive. He argues that McCullen should
    apply instead of Arcara. In McCullen the Court held that First Amendment scrutiny applied to a
    statute that restricted access to sidewalks and streets around abortion clinics, but unlike that
    statute, Ordinance § 20-30 does not “categorically 
    exclude[],” 134 S. Ct. at 2526
    , people from
    city parks. Instead, a trespass warning issues only when someone violates city or state law. The
    ordinance prohibited Wright from entering Williams Park only after he broke the law while in
    the park. Arcara, not McCullen, is on point.
    Wright also argues that Arcara cannot apply here because that case involved a
    commercial establishment, which is not regulated the way that traditional public fora are. That
    misses the point. The question is whether First Amendment scrutiny applies to a law imposing a
    sanction on unlawful conduct when the law also happens to incidentally affect First Amendment
    activities. That was also the question in Arcara, and the answer the Supreme Court gave was no.
    The answer is the same here.
    10
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    conceivable burden on First Amendment protected activities.” 
    Id. at 706,
    106 S.
    Ct. at 3177. 5 Like the public health statute in Arcara, Ordinance § 20-30 sanctions
    unlawful conduct. 
    Id. at 699–700,
    707, 106 S. Ct. at 3173
    –74, 3177 (“The
    legislation providing the closure sanction was directed at unlawful conduct having
    nothing to do with books or other expressive activity.”). It also applies not just to
    people who are entering a city park to exercise their First Amendment rights but
    also to every other person who enters city property for any reason — runners,
    picnic-lunchers, and drug dealers. See Code § 20-30(b). And there is no evidence
    that the ordinance had the “inevitable effect of singling out” Wright or anyone else
    engaged in expressive activities, just as the New York Public Health Law in Arcara
    was not aimed at booksellers and did not inevitably single them out. 
    Arcara, 478 U.S. at 707
    , 106 S. Ct. at 3177; cf. Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minn.
    Comm’r of Revenue, 
    460 U.S. 575
    , 577–79, 581–82, 
    103 S. Ct. 1365
    , 1367–70
    (1983) (holding that a statute imposing a special tax on ink and paper that applied
    only to newspapers was subject to First Amendment scrutiny because it “singled
    5
    For similar reasons we reject Wright’s claim that Ordinance § 20-30 is an unlawful
    prior restraint. The trespass warning allowed Wright to continue his expressive activities in
    other public areas. See 
    Arcara, 478 U.S. at 705
    & 
    n.2, 106 S. Ct. at 3177
    & n.2. And the
    trespass warning was not “imposed on the basis of an advance determination that [Wright’s
    expressive conduct was] prohibited — indeed, [Wright’s trespass warning] ha[d] nothing to do
    with any expressive conduct at all.” 
    Id. 11 Case:
    15-10315     Date Filed: 08/15/2016    Page: 12 of 17
    out the press for special treatment,” even though it was targeted at a non-
    expressive activity).
    Another reason that the application of Ordinance § 20-30 to Wright does not
    violate the First Amendment is that he cannot show that he received the trespass
    warning because he engaged in conduct with “a significant expressive element” or
    conduct that was “intimately related to expressive conduct protected under the First
    Amendment.” 
    Arcara, 478 U.S. at 706
    & 
    n.3, 106 S. Ct. at 3177
    & n.3; see Clark
    v. Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence, 
    468 U.S. 288
    , 293 n.5, 
    104 S. Ct. 3065
    , 3069
    n.5 (1984) (“[It] is the obligation of the person desiring to engage in assertedly
    expressive conduct to demonstrate that the First Amendment even applies.”).
    Wright pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence or obstruction and
    was issued a trespass warning as a penalty for that offense. That is undisputed.
    There is no evidence in the record that Wright was arrested as a pretext for
    suppression of speech protected by the First Amendment. See 
    Arcara, 478 U.S. at 707
    n.4, 106 S. Ct. at 3178 
    n.4 (rejecting a claim of pretextual enforcement
    because there was no evidence in the record that “the closure of [the] bookstore
    was sought under the public health nuisance statute as a pretext for the suppression
    of First Amendment [activity].”). Like the illegal sexual activity that prompted the
    closure of the bookstore in Arcara, Wright’s arrest for obstruction and resisting
    arrest “manifest[ed] absolutely no element of protected expression.” 
    Id. at 705,
    12
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    17 106 S. Ct. at 3176
    ; see also Doe v. City of Lafayette, 
    377 F.3d 757
    , 760, 764 (7th
    Cir. 2004) (en banc) (upholding a ban indefinitely prohibiting a convicted sex
    offender from every city park because the conduct that drew the ban — entering a
    park to find children — “contain[ed] no more of an expressive element than the
    activity at issue in Arcara and therefore deserves no protection under the First
    Amendment”).
    Wright argues that his exclusion from Williams Park, of all parks,
    impermissibly burdened his First Amendment activities. As we have explained,
    any burden was incidental and even that incidental burden was mitigated by the
    fact that the ordinance allowed him to enter the sidewalks around Williams Park
    even while his trespass warning was in effect. See Code § 20-30(b)–(c). He was
    also free to enter the 141 other public parks in St. Petersburg (13 of which are in
    the downtown area) during that time. See Arcara, 478 U.S. at 
    705, 106 S. Ct. at 3177
    (stating that any incidental burden that the closure imposed on the bookstore
    owners’ First Amendment activities was “mitigated by the fact that [they]
    remain[ed] free to sell the same materials at another location”); see also Adderley
    v. Florida, 
    385 U.S. 39
    , 47–48, 
    89 S. Ct. 242
    , 247 (1966) (rejecting the assumption
    that “people who want to propagandize protests or views have a constitutional right
    to do so whenever and however and wherever they please”). And Ordinance § 20-
    30(g) also allowed Wright to apply for a suspension of his trespass warning
    13
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    whenever he wished to re-enter Williams Park to engage in First Amendment
    activities, which he did on one occasion.
    First Amendment scrutiny “has no relevance to [Ordinance § 20-30, which
    is] directed at imposing sanctions on nonexpressive activity.” 
    Arcara, 478 U.S. at 707
    , 106 S. Ct. at 3177. Wright’s arguments to the contrary fail.
    B.      First Amendment Challenge to Ordinance § 20-30(g)
    Wright separately challenges § 20-30(g) of the Ordinance, which allows the
    City to suspend a trespass warning and permit the offender back onto the property
    so that he can exercise his First Amendment rights or “conduct necessary
    municipal business.” A suspension, that subsection says, “shall not be
    unreasonably denied.” Code § 20-30(g). Wright contends that § 20-30(g) violates
    the First Amendment facially and as applied to him because it is a censorial prior
    restraint on speech. 6 We consider only Wright’s as-applied challenge, because if
    § 20-30(g) can be validly applied to Wright, then it is not unconstitutional in all of
    its applications. See Wash. State 
    Grange, 552 U.S. at 449
    , 128 S. Ct. at 1190.
    6
    Wright also raises a Fourteenth Amendment vagueness challenge against Ordinance
    § 20-30(g). That challenge misses its mark because Ordinance § 20-30(g) does not prohibit
    conduct or impose punishment or sanction, but instead allows offenders to re-enter the property
    they are otherwise banned from. Cf. FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 567 U.S. ___, 132 S.
    Ct. 2307, 2317 (2012) (“A conviction or punishment fails to comply with due process if the
    statute or regulation under which it is obtained fails to provide a person of ordinary intelligence
    fair notice of what is prohibited, or is so standardless that it authorizes or encourages seriously
    discriminatory enforcement.”) (quotation marks omitted).
    14
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    “A prior restraint on expression exists when the government can deny access
    to a forum for expression before the expression occurs.” United States v.
    Frandsen, 
    212 F.3d 1231
    , 1236–37 (11th Cir. 2000); see also 
    id. at 1237
    (holding
    that a federal regulation that permitted “public assemblies, meetings, gatherings,
    demonstrations, parades, and other public expressions of views” in national parks
    “only if the park superintendent issue[d] a permit in advance of the activity” was a
    prior restraint) (quotation marks and alteration omitted). Prior restraints generally
    occur in the context of licensing or permitting schemes. See, e.g., id.; see also
    Forsyth Cty. v. Nationalist Movement, 
    505 U.S. 123
    , 130, 
    112 S. Ct. 2395
    , 2401
    (1992) (“[An] ordinance requiring a permit and a fee before authorizing public
    speaking, parades, or assemblies in . . . a traditional public forum is a prior restraint
    on speech.”) (citations and quotation marks omitted); Shuttlesworth v. City of
    Birmingham, 
    394 U.S. 147
    , 149–51, 
    89 S. Ct. 935
    , 937–38 (1969) (holding that an
    ordinance that made it unlawful to organize or hold “any parade or procession or
    other public demonstration” on city streets without securing a permit from the city
    commission was a prior restraint) (quotation marks omitted). Because laws that
    impose prior restraints on speech raise fears of government censorship, see
    Thomas v. Chi. Park Dist., 
    534 U.S. 316
    , 320–21, 
    122 S. Ct. 775
    , 778–79 (2002),
    they face a “strong presumption against their constitutionality,” 
    Frandsen, 212 F.3d at 1237
    . To pass constitutional muster “a law subjecting the exercise of First
    15
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    Amendment freedoms to the prior restraint of a license must contain narrow,
    objective, and definite standards to guide the licensing authority.” Forsyth 
    Cty., 505 U.S. at 131
    , 112 S. Ct. at 2401 (quotation marks omitted).
    Section 20-30(g) did not impose a prior restraint on Wright’s speech. Unlike
    cases involving permit requirements for expressive activity in places where the
    speaker has a lawful right to engage in it, see, e.g., 
    Shuttlesworth, 394 U.S. at 149
    50, 89 S. Ct. at 937
    –38; 
    Frandsen, 212 F.3d at 1233
    , Wright had no right to be in
    Williams Park for one year after he received a trespass warning as a result of
    breaking the law in that park. Unlike prior restraints that preemptively restrict
    speech, § 20-30(g) offered a way in which Wright could engage in speech or other
    First Amendment activities in one place where he would otherwise not be
    permitted to be present. It is the opposite of a censorial prior restraint because it
    allows more speech, not less; it allows speech in more locations, not fewer.
    Because of the discretion it gives to City officials, Wright raises the specter
    of § 20-30(g) of the ordinance being used in a way that discriminates against
    applicants on the basis of the content of their speech. See 
    Catron, 658 F.3d at 1269
    n.9 (noting that § 20-30(g) “may suffer” from the “problem[ ] of too much
    discretion,” but declining to reach that issue). It is undisputed, however, that his
    request for a suspension under that provision is the only one the City has ever
    received, which rules out the possibility of past discrimination, and he points to no
    16
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    evidence to show that selective enforcement is a realistic possibility in the future.
    A discriminatory enforcement claim can be brought only if a pattern of selective
    enforcement appears. See 
    Thomas, 534 U.S. at 325
    , 122 S. Ct. at 781 (stating that
    it would be unconstitutional if officials waived park permit requirements for
    favored speakers while denying permits for disfavored speakers, but that “this
    abuse must be dealt with if and when a pattern of unlawful favoritism appears”).
    That has not happened.
    III.   Conclusion
    The City of St. Petersburg Ordinance § 20-30 does not violate the First
    Amendment on its face, and neither is it unconstitutional as applied to Wright. It
    did not inevitably single him out based on his expressive activity, and he did not
    receive his trespass warning because he was engaged in expressive conduct
    protected by the First Amendment. Nor is § 20-30(g) of the ordinance an unlawful
    prior restraint on speech; it actually permits more speech, not less.
    AFFIRMED.
    17
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 15-10315

Citation Numbers: 833 F.3d 1291

Filed Date: 8/15/2016

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 1/12/2023

Authorities (20)

CAMP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. v. City of Atlanta , 451 F.3d 1257 ( 2006 )

Gerling Global Reinsurance Corp. of America v. Gallagher , 267 F.3d 1228 ( 2001 )

Catron v. City of St. Petersburg , 658 F.3d 1260 ( 2011 )

United States v. Frandsen , 212 F.3d 1231 ( 2000 )

chester-smith-individually-and-on-behalf-of-all-others-similarly-situated , 236 F.3d 1292 ( 2001 )

cafe-erotica-of-florida-inc-a-florida-corporation-cafe-erotica-we , 360 F.3d 1274 ( 2004 )

Snyder v. Phelps , 131 S. Ct. 1207 ( 2011 )

United States v. Chitwood , 676 F.3d 971 ( 2012 )

John Doe v. City of Lafayette, Indiana , 377 F.3d 757 ( 2004 )

Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party , 128 S. Ct. 1184 ( 2008 )

Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ... , 101 S. Ct. 2559 ( 1981 )

Adderley v. Florida , 87 S. Ct. 242 ( 1966 )

Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham , 89 S. Ct. 935 ( 1969 )

Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. , 106 S. Ct. 3172 ( 1986 )

Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement , 112 S. Ct. 2395 ( 1992 )

Thomas v. Chicago Park District , 122 S. Ct. 775 ( 2002 )

McCullen v. Coakley , 134 S. Ct. 2518 ( 2014 )

Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n , 103 S. Ct. 948 ( 1983 )

Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of ... , 103 S. Ct. 1365 ( 1983 )

Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence , 104 S. Ct. 3065 ( 1984 )

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