Massachusetts Welfare Rights Organization v. Robert F. Ott, Commissioner, 421 F.2d 525, 1st Cir. (1969)

421 F.
2d 525
MASSACHUSETTS WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
Robert F. OTT, Commissioner, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
No. 7392.
United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard October 6, 1969.
Decided November 6, 1969.
David M. Lipton, Chelsea, Mass., with whom Richard A. Seid, Boston,

Mass., was on brief, for plaintiffs-appellants.
James J. Marcellino, Deputy Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom Robert H.
Quinn, Atty. Gen., and Gregor McGregor, Deputy Asst. Atty, Gen., were
on brief, for defendants-appellees.
Before ALDRICH, Chief Judge, McENTEE and COFFIN, Circuit Judges.
ALDRICH, Chief Judge.
This is an appeal from a denial by the district court of a request for the
appointment of a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2281, and the
dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim of any nature. Since we
agree that dismissal was appropriate, it is unnecessary to consider separately
whether the alleged claims are justiciable by one judge, or three.
Plaintiffs are the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Organization, an

unincorporated association whose members are welfare recipients receiving
public assistance from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,1 and various
individuals receiving assistance who are members thereof. They purportedly
bring this action as a class suit on behalf of the other members of the
association, and all other persons receiving such assistance. The defendant Ott
is the Commissioner of Public Welfare and is in charge of the administration of
the public assistance program, and the other defendants are officials and
employees connected therewith. The complaint alleges that on March 11, 1969
"the Department"2 promulgated a regulation by which the named plaintiffs and

others had been "denied certain grants and services." It concludes that the
regulation,
3
"in not prescribing specific and narrow standards to achieve permissible

governmental objectives, is vague and overbroad, and deprives plaintiffs of
rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and First Amendments to the Constitution
of the United States including freedom of speech, assembly and to petition for
redress of grievances, by penalizing group efforts to apply for and obtain public
assistance."
Plaintiffs ask that the regulation be declared "unconstitutional on its face and as
applied, violating the Fourteenth and First Amendments to the Constitution of
the United States," and for injunctive relief. The record presents no separate
issues as to application.3
The attacked regulation commences with a three-paragraph introduction, the

last of which describes its asserted purpose. "In the event of demonstrations,
disturbances or sit-ins, the following procedures are to be followed. * * *" Six
paragraphs of procedures are set out, only three of which are complained of.
1. At any time an unusually large number of individuals enter a welfare service

office at the same time or the person in charge of the office knows definitely
that an unusually large number of individuals are to arrive in a group, a police
detail is to be requested from the local police authority by the person in charge
of the welfare service office.
2. When the conditions described in #1 above exist, the person in charge of the
office is to instruct all staff members that no supplementary or special grants
are to be authorized except for those individuals who are new applicants for
whom regular, continuing assistance payments have not yet been instituted.
3. The Department does not intend to permit its staff members to be subjected to
mass pressures or coercion or to make decisions under such conditions.
Therefore, when the circumstances described in #1 above are determined by the
person in charge to exist, no service is to be extended to members of the group
involved. If demands are presented by the group, the office head is to accept
them, informing the group or its spokesmen of Departmental policy in relation
to the particular requests made and about procedures established by this
memorandum. There should then be no necessity for prolonged discussion with
the group or its spokesman.
The balance, 4-6, state what is to be done in case the staff finds itself unable
to exclude uninvited persons from their inner offices, or are threatened with
bodily harm. Plaintiffs have no objection to these provisions but, on the
contrary, state that they are the appropriate and precise limits of proper
procedure. Hereafter in referring to the regulation, we speak only of 1-3.
10
Although there are differences between plaintiffs' cited cases and the one at bar,
we will assume that plaintiffs have the demanded "right to associate, [to speak]
and petition at a welfare service office," 4 and go directly to the heart of the
matter what are the corresponding rights of the state authority that is
conducting the legislatively prescribed business on the premises. The general
standard is very clear. "Even where municipal or state property is open to the
public generally, the exercise of First Amendment rights may be regulated so as
to prevent interference with the use to which the property is ordinarily put by
the State." Amalgamated Food Employees v. Logan Valley Plaza, Inc., 1968,
391 U.S. 308, 320, 88 S.Ct. 1601, 1609, 20 L.Ed.2d 603. The state cannot
"unwarrantedly abridge the right of assembly and the opportunities for the
communication of thought * * *" Cox v. New Hampshire, 1941, 312 U.S. 569,
574, 61 S.Ct. 762, 765, 85 L.Ed. 1049, quoted in Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham,
1969, 394 U.S. 147, 155, 89 S.Ct. 935, 22 L.Ed.2d 162. Protection of its
activities "may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly
and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms." NAACP v. Alabama ex rel.
Flowers, 1964, 377 U.S. 288, 307, 84 S.Ct. 1302, 1314, 12 L.Ed.2d 325. See
Note, Regulation of Demonstrations, 1967, 80 Harv.L. Rev. 1773, 1776-77.
11
Although plaintiffs' brief concedes the legitimacy of "procedures to insure

efficient operation of a welfare service office," it does not address itself to what
those problems may be, or how they are to be met, except negatively. "[T]he
Department's methods are simply not relevant to any abuse." The regulation
"fails to distinguish between protected and unprotected conduct." We think both
accusations demonstrably erroneous.
12
The first question is what does the regulation look to as a possible abuse. To
begin with, it applies only when "an unusually large number of individuals
enter a welfare service office at the same time, or are known definitely by the
person in charge as about to arrive, for the purpose of "demonstrations,
disturbances or sit-ins."5 Pausing here, plaintiffs argue that the words
"unusually large number" are vague and indefinite. We do not accept this
contention, finding it difficult to imagine what better language could give the
person in charge of the office the necessary discretion to determine the advent
of a large cohesive group that might create special problems. Even if, although
plaintiffs suggest none, more specific language could be devised, this is not a
criminal statute. Less exactitude is required when no criminal sanctions are

involved. See Winters v. New York, 1948, 333 U.S. 507, 515, 68 S.Ct. 665, 92
L.Ed. 840; Amsterdam, Note, The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine in the
Supreme Court, 1960, 109 U.Pa.L.Rev. 67, 69-70, n. 16. The question requiring
consideration is not vagueness but whether the regulation is overbroad in terms
of what is to be guarded against or, as plaintiffs put it, the abuse.
13
As to plaintiffs' first objection, the requesting a police detail, we are quite

unprepared to say that it is unreasonable to alert the police to a possible need to
handle a large crowd bent on demonstrations, disturbances or sit-ins.
14
We turn to the required conduct, or, more exactly, proposed abstention from
conduct, of the welfare officials themselves. As plaintiffs concede, the purpose
of a welfare office is to permit "welfare personnel to discuss [with applicants]
their needs for money and services." Obviously they do something more. They
make individual decisions as a result of such discussions. Paragraph 3 of the
regulation states, "The Department does not intend to permit its staff members
to be subjected to mass pressures or coercion or to make decisions under such
circumstances." Accordingly, 2 and 3 provide for the temporary restriction
of services: none to the members of the group while the group remains, and no
decisions to make supplementary or special grants to non-members of the group
who are already receiving regular payments.
15
It seems unthinkable that plaintiffs should assert, as they did in oral argument,6
that they have the absolute right to have the welfare employees exercise their
judgment and pass upon discretionary matters while under the immediate
pressure of a large crowd of demonstrators. Cf. Cox v. Louisiana, 1965, 379
U.S. 559, 85 S.Ct. 476, 13 L.Ed. 2d 487 (Statute forbidding picketing near a
courthouse with intent to influence a judge is constitutional). It is such extreme
claims as this that tend to bring even legitimate reliance upon free speech into
public disfavor. The Department had every right to have its employees make
decisions free from pressure and coercion.
16
We would have more sympathy with plaintiffs' position had they argued that
the regulation does not attempt to distinguish between services requiring the
exercise of judgment, and those purely ministerial.7 We will not, however,
adopt that position. In the first place, it may be of great practical difficulty to
tell whether a particular applicant is seeking discretionary service requiring
judgment, or is merely seeking something entirely routine. If the employees
attempted to draw a distinction, applicants who were in a protesting frame of
mind might initiate their requests as being routine, and then change over,
causing undue complications. We would, however, go further. When criminal
penalties are not involved, as a matter of housekeeping the Department should

be allowed to sweep more broadly in circumscribing potentially disruptive
situations. Once there is a disturbance it might well be as difficult for the
employees to assess its potential as it would be to make ultimate decisions
connected with their work. We say this in the light of the fact that, after all, this
is not a serious restraint. The temporary suspension of all services to the group
lasts only so long as it is engaged in "demonstrations, disturbances, or sitins."
No disqualification carries over after the demonstration has ceased. Conversely,
the demonstration is not interfered with in any other way; there is even an
express provision that any petition presented shall be accepted.8 We cannot
think it unreasonable that the Department should offer to an applicant the
choice of demonstrating or receiving immediate services, but not both. Plaintiffs
cannot expect us to uproot doctrines of overbroadness applicable to criminal
sanctions and apply them here.
17
Nor is it any answer for plaintiffs to say, "[T]he group's purpose may be to
assist or advise rather than intimidate." We are not clear whether they mean
advise the applicant, or the welfare employees. It would hardly seem that an
unusually large crowd of demonstrators is needed simply to advise an
applicant. If plaintiffs mean advise the staff, the Department has a right not to
want its employees "advised" by a large group while they are presently engaged
in other matters just as much as it has not to have them, to use plaintiffs' word,
intimidated.
18
Finally, although plaintiffs do not specifically raise it, a demonstration might be

conducted that did not relate to the local office at all. It does not follow that it
would not be disturbing. We believe the Department's housekeeping
prerogatives can reasonably extend thereto.
19
Further discussion is not called for. What we have already said disposes of
plaintiffs' contention that the regulation does not distinguish between protected
and unprotected conduct. It does, to an entirely reasonable extent. We find
insupportable any contention that the regulation interferes with plaintiffs'
constitutional rights. There being, in our opinion, no substantial question
presented for either a three-judge court, or a single judge, the complaint was
properly dismissed.
Notes:
1
Mass.G.L. c. 18; 42 U.S.C. 601-609
We will assume that plaintiffs use the phrase "the Department" to mean the
Commissioner pursuant to statutory authorization
Although plaintiffs allege that on specified dates certain plaintiffs were denied
services on the basis of the March 11 policy, there are no allegations about the
size of the group involved, the activities they engaged in, the nature of the
services sought, or the motives of state officials
We will not, however, accept the correctness of plaintiffs' assertion that,

because it is municipal property, their rights are governed by Gregory v.
Chicago, 1969, 394 U.S. 111, 89 S.Ct. 946, 22 L.Ed.2d 134. A welfare office is
not to be equated with a public street
We believe that this introductory paragraph is fairly to be taken as qualifying

the scope of the regulation. Consequently, if the only activity of the crowd was
organizational recruiting, and there were no demonstrations or disturbances, the
directive would not apply
See, also, the quotation from their brief,supra, that the regulations "are simply
not relevant."
The latter was apparently the situation in Brown v. Louisiana, 1966, 383 U.S.
131, 86 S.Ct. 719, 15 L.Ed.2d 637, where the only service requested by the
demonstrators was the location of a book
It may be observed that in Brown v. Louisiana,supra, the demonstrators were

arrested and removed.

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421 F.

MASSACHUSETTS WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

David M. Lipton, Chelsea, Mass., with whom Richard A. Seid, Boston,

Plaintiffs are the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Organization, an

"the Department"2 promulgated a regulation by which the named plaintiffs and

"in not prescribing specific and narrow standards to achieve permissible

The attacked regulation commences with a three-paragraph introduction, the

1. At any time an unusually large number of individuals enter a welfare service

Although plaintiffs' brief concedes the legitimacy of "procedures to insure

criminal statute. Less exactitude is required when no criminal sanctions are

As to plaintiffs' first objection, the requesting a police detail, we are quite

penalties are not involved, as a matter of housekeeping the Department should

Finally, although plaintiffs do not specifically raise it, a demonstration might be

Mass.G.L. c. 18; 42 U.S.C. 601-609

We will not, however, accept the correctness of plaintiffs' assertion that,

We believe that this introductory paragraph is fairly to be taken as qualifying

It may be observed that in Brown v. Louisiana,supra, the demonstrators were

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