Western Mining Council v. WattWestern Mining Council v. Watt
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Anderson, Fletcher, East
Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment dismissing their claim with prejudice pursuant to
I. THE CASE
In 1976, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (“Act“),
Plaintiffs filed this action on November 2, 1977, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Act is unconstitutional in whole or in part, and seeking to enjoin the Secretary of the Interior from expending certain funds appropriated pursuant to the Act for law enforcement on the public lands. Plaintiffs allege that the Act violates the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution, the provisions of
On April 19, 1978, the District Court granted defendant‘s motion to dismiss pursuant to
II. JUSTICIABILITY AND STANDING
The jurisdiction of the federal courts is limited to the adjudication of “cases or controversies” by
The “case or controversy” requirement demands first that the issues be justiciable; i. e., they must “present a real and substantial controversy which unequivocally calls for the adjudication of ... rights.” Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 509, 81 S.Ct. 1752, 1759, 6 L.Ed.2d 989 (1961) (Brennan, J. concurring). A second case or controversy requirement is that the plaintiffs have standing to assert their claims. In Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343, the Supreme Court noted that the question of standing is in essence
“whether the litigant is entitled to have the court decide the merits of the dispute or of particular issues. This inquiry involves both constitutional limitations on federal-court jurisdiction and prudential limitations on its exercise.... In both dimensions it is founded in concern about the proper and properly limited role of the courts in a democratic society.” Id. at 498, 95 S.Ct. at 2205 (citations omitted).
Standing requires as a constitutional minimum that a plaintiff allege “such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions.” Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). The standing question focuses upon the party asserting the claim because “(t)he Art. III judicial power exists only to redress or otherwise to protect against injury to the complaining party, even though the court‘s judgment may benefit others collaterally. A federal court‘s jurisdiction therefore can be invoked only when the plaintiff himself has suffered ‘some threatened or actual injury resulting from the putatively illegal action ....’ Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. 614, 617, (93 S.Ct. 1146, 1148, 35 L.Ed.2d 536) (1973).” Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. at 2205. This constitutional dimension of the standing requirement is sometimes described as a requirement that the plaintiff allege “injury in fact.” Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 218, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 2930, 41 L.Ed.2d 706 (1974); Ass‘n of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 152, 90 S.Ct. 827, 829, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970).
Additionally, the courts have imposed standing limitations beyond those required by the Constitution. These prudential limitations arise from a concern that the courts not “be called upon to decide abstract questions of wide public significance even though other governmental institutions may be more competent to address the questions and even though judicial intervention may be unnecessary to protect individual rights.” Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 500, 95 S.Ct. at 2206. Thus, the courts have held that when the alleged harm is a “generalized” or “abstract” grievance shared by a large class of citizens, jurisdiction will not be exercised. See, e. g., Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. at 2205; Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War; United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166, 94 S.Ct. 2940, 41 L.Ed.2d 678 (1974); Ex Parte Levitt, 302 U.S. 633, 58 S.Ct. 1, 82 L.Ed. 493 (1937).
The case or controversy requirement applies to actions under the Declaratory Judgments Act,
Because standing and justiciability are limitations upon the exercise of the jurisdiction of the federal courts, we must consider these issues in regard to the various claims presented despite plaintiffs’ contention that the justiciability issue is not properly before us. Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 421, 89 S.Ct. 1843, 1848, 23 L.Ed.2d 404 (1969) (opinion of Marshall, J.); City of South Lake Tahoe v. California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 625 F.2d 231, 233 (9th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 619, 66 L.Ed.2d 502 (1980).
III. PROCEDURE AND PLEADING REQUIREMENTS
Before turning to plaintiffs’ individual claims, we note that the task of determining whether the justiciability and standing requirements are satisfied is somewhat complicated by the procedural posture of this case. On a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under
The liberal reading accorded complaints on 12(b)(6) motions is, moreover, subject to the requirement that the facts demonstrating standing must be clearly alleged in the complaint. Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. at 422, 89 S.Ct. at 1849; City of South Lake Tahoe v. California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 625 F.2d at 237 n.7. We cannot construe the complaint so liberally as to extend our jurisdiction beyond its constitutional limits. With these considerations in mind, we turn to plaintiffs’ claims.
IV. SPECIFIC CLAIMS
A. Fourth Amendment Claim
To satisfy the standing requirement, plaintiffs must allege some threatened or actual injury resulting from the application of the statute to them. Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. at 617, 93 S.Ct. at 1148. The injury must be both “real” and “immediate.” O‘Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 494, 94 S.Ct. 669, 675, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). Plaintiffs have failed to allege that
B. Vagueness Claims
Plaintiffs challenge
Plaintiffs interpret these statutes as meaning “that the defendant or his delegates has a free hand to make criminal any activity which the Secretary may choose to deem ‘unnecessary or undue degradation of the lands’ and such activity is made a crime before the Secretary or his delegate has even described it.” On the basis of this interpretation, plaintiffs contend that these statutes are unconstitutionally vague.
We are not required to accept plaintiffs’ legal conclusion that these statutes authorize spontaneous criminal lawmaking. Hiland Dairy, Inc. v. Kroger Co. The language of
The complaint also alleges that because the Secretary has “declared that digging in the ground constitutes unnecessary or undue degradation of the lands,” plaintiffs are prevented from engaging in mining and doing certain assessment work required to retain their mining claims, presumably because they fear prosecution under the allegedly vague provisions of the Act. Plaintiffs argue that litigants are not required to subject themselves to possible criminal prosecution before seeking relief from an allegedly unconstitutional statute where actual interference with protected rights is alleged. Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 93 S.Ct. 739, 35 L.Ed.2d 201 (1973).
In Rincon Band of Mission Indians v. County of San Diego, 495 F.2d 1 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1008, 95 S.Ct. 328, 42 L.Ed.2d 283 (1974), this Court held that in an action for declaratory judgment, a general threat of enforcement, absent any arrests for violation of a county gambling ordinance, was “insufficient to meet the case or controversy requirements” of
The Secretary‘s alleged statement that “plaintiffs cannot dig in the ground” is not a sufficiently specific threat of prosecution to confer standing upon plaintiffs. The statement, which is characterized neither as a regulation nor an order, presents at most a possibility that plaintiffs may eventually be prosecuted for violating regulations issued pursuant to the Act. Such a hypothetical threat is insufficient to satisfy either the “case or controversy requirement” of
The alleged inability of plaintiffs to mine their claims and do their assessment work appears to be the result of fears of prosecution based on their own patently erroneous interpretation of the Act. Plaintiffs cannot, however, create a justiciable case or controversy simply by misreading statutes and claiming as injury fears born of their own error.
Plaintiffs Western Mining Council and its chapters allege that the Act impairs the ability of their members to pay dues, and therefore threatens their existence as trade associations. This allegation is apparently based9 upon the contention that the Act and the Secretary‘s purported statement prevent the members from mining their claims by placing them in fear of criminal prosecution. Because such fears are not reasonably attributable to either the Act or the Secretary‘s statement, the alleged injury suffered by the trade associations is not sufficient to give them standing. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 511, 95 S.Ct. at 2211.
C. Impairment of Contract
Plaintiffs allege that, by virtue of the Mining Law of 1872,10 the government offered to convey title to the mining claims upon plaintiffs’ performance of certain conditions. Plaintiffs contend that by accepting that offer they entered into “contracts” with the government, and that the 1976 Act violates the Fifth Amendment due process clause by imposing new burdens and conditions upon those contracts.11
Specifically, plaintiffs contend that
The mere existence of a statute, which may or may not ever be applied to plaintiffs, is not sufficient to create a “case or controversy” within the meaning of Article III, Jensen v. National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA), 512 F.2d 1189, 1191 (9th Cir. 1975), and is thus insufficient to satisfy the “actual controversy” requirement of the Declaratory Judgment Act. Plaintiffs here have alleged nothing more.
Sections 1735(a) and 1761 through 1764 are similarly not exclusively, or even primarily, applicable to owners of unpatented mining claims. The mere possibility that the Secretary may act in an arguably unconstitutional manner pursuant to one or more of those statutes is insufficient to establish the “real and substantial controversy” required to render a case justiciable under Article III. See Poe v. Ullman. Nor is such a possibility sufficient to meet the Article III standing requirement of “threatened or actual injury.” See Warth v. Seldin; O‘Shea v. Littleton.
Finally, plaintiffs allege that under
In Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 518, 95 S.Ct. at 2215, the Supreme Court said: “It is the responsibility of the complainant clearly to allege facts demonstrating that he is a proper party to invoke judicial resolution of the dispute and the exercise of the court‘s remedial powers.” Plaintiffs have not alleged that the Secretary has, in fact, implemented or threatened to implement such a plan, and it is not at all clear that every possible plan which might be implemented under the Act would affect plaintiffs’ mining claims. Thus, plaintiffs again fall short of satisfying the requirements of
D. Substantive Due Process Claim
Sections 1744(a) and (b) set forth requirements that owners of unpatented mining claims file for record with the Bureau of Land Management, and certain other offices, various documents relating to intentions to retain mining claims, performance of assessment work and descriptions of the location of the claims.13 Section 1744(c) provides that failure to comply with these requirements “shall be deemed conclusively to constitute an abandonment of the mining claim.”14 Plaintiffs allege that the filing requirements of
Unlike the other challenged provisions of the Act, the filing requirements of
Thus, if the individual plaintiffs here fail to file, they will lose their interests in their unpatented mining claims. Because an unpatented mining claim is a unique form of property which created in the owners a possessory interest in the land, Best v. Humboldt Placer Mining Co., 371 U.S. 334, 335-36, 83 S.Ct. 379, 381-382, 9 L.Ed.2d 350 (1963), the loss of such an interest would constitute a substantial injury. We believe that the allegations in this regard indicate a sufficiently real and immediate threat of injury to give rise to a justiciable, actual controversy,15 and present a sufficiently immediate threat of injury to the individual plaintiffs to give them standing to challenge these provisions.16
Nonetheless, plaintiffs’ allegations that the filing requirements are arbitrary and unreasonable are not sufficient to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Although statutes which are “clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, having no substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare” violate the Fifth Amendment‘s due process clause, Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395, 47 S.Ct. 114, 121, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926),17 the assertion that the filing requirements are arbitrary and unreasonable is an erroneous legal conclusion which we are not obliged to accept as true for purposes of ruling on a 12(b)(6) motion. Hiland Dairy v. Kroger.
The reasonableness of the provisions of
“Although the Committee considered ... proposals (to completely amend the Mining Law) to be beyond the scope of S. 507, as ordered reported, the Committee did address a particular procedural problem concerning the registration of mining claims a problem which is particularly frustrating to the public land manager. The source of this problem is what is often termed ‘stale claims.’ There is no provision in the 1872 Mining Law, as amended, requiring notice to the Federal government by a mining claimant of the location of his claim. The Mining Law only required compliance with local recording requirements, which usually means simply an entry in the general county land records. Consequently, Federal land managers do not have an easy way of discovering which Federal lands are subject to either valid or invalid mining claim locations. According to some estimates, there are presently more than 6,000,000 unpatented claims in the public lands, excluding national forests, and more than half of the units of the National Forest System are reputedly covered by mining claims. Of course, the vast majority of these claims will never be pursued, and do not directly interfere with land management. They do, however, create significant uncertainty regarding the actual extent of valid locations. Furthermore, as unpatented mining locations can be bought and sold, they have become the basis for many unauthorized occupancies on the public lands. These claims constitute a cloud on the title of a large portion of the Federal lands.
“Subsection (a) would establish the recording system so necessary for Federal land planners and managers. It would require that all mining claims under the 1872 Mining Law, as amended, be recorded by the claimants with the Secretary within two years after the enactment of S. 507, as ordered reported, or within 30 days of the location of the claim, whichever is later. Any claim not recorded is to be conclusively presumed abandoned and will be void.
“This recording requirement is not intended to supersede nor displace the existing recording requirements under State law. As such, its purpose is to advise the Federal land managing agency, as proprietor, of the existence of mining claims. The agency is not intended to be the official recording office for all ancillary documents (i. e., wills, mechanic‘s liens, conveyances, tax liens, court judgments, etc.). The county public records would remain, as before, the official repository of such recorded documents. S.Rep.No.94-583, 94th Cong. 2nd Sess. at 64, 65 (1975).” Id. at 313. (Emphasis omitted.)
The Topaz opinion noted that in addition to terminating dormant and unpursued mining claims, the purposes of the Act include land use planning and management, the identification of lands subject to valid locations and invalid locations, and the identification of unauthorized occupancies. The legislative history of
Similarly, we reject plaintiffs’ conclusion that the provisions of
E. Procedural Due Process Claim
The complaint also contains an allegation that the Secretary has interpreted
The complaint nowhere alleges that any of the plaintiffs have unpatented mining claims located after October 21, 1976. Nor does it allege that they have filed or recorded any of their claims located on or before October 21, 1976. Thus, plaintiffs’ allegations are insufficient to show that
F. Article IV, Section 3, Claims
The Act declares that it is the policy of the United States to retain the public lands in federal ownership unless it is determined through land use planning procedures that disposal of a particular parcel will serve the national interest.
Section 1701(a)(13) provides that it is the policy of the United States that the federal government should, on a basis equitable to both the federal and local taxpayers, provide for payments to compensate states and local governments for burdens created as a result of the immunity of federal lands from state and local taxation. Plaintiffs contend that this section also violates
Plaintiffs allege that they are both federal and state taxpayers as well as citizens. We, therefore, analyze their standing to challenge these provisions in each of these capacities.
In Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968), the Supreme Court held that federal taxpayers have standing to challenge federal statutes only if certain “nexus” requirements are met:
“The nexus demanded of federal taxpayers has two aspects to it. First, the taxpayer must establish a logical link between that status and the type of legislative enactment attacked. Thus, a taxpayer will be a proper party to allege the unconstitutionality only of exercises of congressional power under the taxing and spending clause of
Art. I, § 8 , of the Constitution. It will not be sufficient to allege an incidental expenditure of tax funds in the administration of an essentially regulatory statute. This requirement is consistent with the limitation imposed upon state-taxpayer standing in federal courts in Doremus v. Board of Education, 342 U.S. 429, (72 S.Ct. 394, 96 L.Ed. 475) (1952). Secondly, the taxpayer must establish a nexus between that status and the precise nature of the constitutional infringement alleged. Under this requirement, the taxpayer must show that the challenged enactment exceeds specific constitutional limitations imposed upon the exercise of the congressional taxing and spending power and not simply that the enactment is generally beyond the powers delegated to Congress byArt. I, § 8 . When both nexuses are established, the litigant will have shown a taxpayer‘s stake in the outcome of the controversy and will be a proper and appropriate party to invoke a federal court‘s jurisdiction.” Id. at 102-03, 88 S.Ct. at 1953-1954.
Plaintiffs have failed to meet these nexus requirements. The provisions of
Similarly, the complaint is insufficient to satisfy Flast‘s second requirement, because it contains no allegations that these provisions of the Act exceed a specific constitutional limitation on the congressional taxing and spending power. Not every provision of the Constitution which directs or prohibits some action by Congress constitutes a sufficiently specific limitation on the
We hold that the provisions of
Nor does plaintiffs’ status as state taxpayers give them standing to challenge the federal retention and reimbursement policies of
In the instant context of a state taxpayer challenge to federal statutes, the policies of the standing doctrine demand that plaintiffs allege some injury which is more definite and individual than the higher state taxes allegedly suffered here. Apparently as a prudential matter,21 the Supreme Court has held that “when the asserted harm is a ‘generalized grievance’ shared in substantially equal measure by all or a large class of citizens, that harm alone normally does not warrant exercise of jurisdiction.” Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. at 2205; citing Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War; United States v. Richardson; Ex Parte Levitt, 302 U.S. at 634, 58 S.Ct. at 1. Accord, Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, 438 U.S. 59, 80, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2634, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978). Similarly, in Flast v. Cohen, the court noted that standing requirements exist so that courts will not be asked to adjudicate “generalized grievances about the conduct of government or the allocation of power in the Federal System.” 392 U.S. at 106, 88 S.Ct. at 1956.
The increase in state taxes allegedly suffered by plaintiffs is at best a highly generalized injury. A great many federal statutes potentially affect the level of state taxes. Here, plaintiffs’ interest in the effect of the retention and reimbursement policies on state taxes is shared in somewhat differing degrees by the taxpayers of all states which contain public lands. We hold that this interest is insufficient to give plaintiffs standing to challenge the constitutionality of
G. Article I, Section 8, Claim
The Act permits the Secretary to contract with local officials for law enforcement services on the public lands, and to provide law enforcement training so that the contractual responsibilities may be met.
Plaintiffs allege that these sections fall within the ambit of
The complaint fails to specify which sections of the Act contain these allegedly “unlimited appropriations.” However, the Act does contain at least one appropriation authorization in
Thus, with regard to this claim, plaintiffs appear to have satisfied the literal terms of the Flast nexus requirements for taxpayer standing, inasmuch as they have challenged a congressional exercise of the spending power and have alleged that the Act violates the specific limitation on that power contained in
Nonetheless, plaintiffs have failed to state a cognizable claim. It is clear that the
The inclusion of the two year appropriations limitation in
V. CONCLUSION
The allegations in support of plaintiffs’ various claims are either insufficient to satisfy the justiciability and standing requirements or inadequate to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. We, therefore, affirm the District Court‘s dismissal of the complaint with prejudice.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
“The Secretary shall issue regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this Act with respect to the management, use, and protection of the public lands, including the property located thereon. Any person who knowingly and willfully violates any such regulation which is lawfully issued pursuant to this Act shall be fined no more than $1,000 or imprisoned no more than twelve months, or both. Any person charged with a violation of such regulation may be tried and sentenced by any United States magistrate designated for that purpose by the court by which he was appointed....”
“The use, occupancy, or development of any portion of the public lands contrary to any regulation of the Secretary or other responsible authority, or contrary to any order issued pursuant to any such regulation, is unlawful and prohibited.”
“The Secretary, with respect to the public lands, shall promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this Act and of other laws applicable to the public lands, and the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to lands within the National Forest System, shall promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this Act.... Prior to the promulgation of such rules and regulations, such lands shall be administered under existing rules and regulations concerning such lands to the extent practical.”
“The promulgation of such rules and regulations shall be governed by the provisions of chapter 5 of title 5 (of the United States Code), without regard to section 553(a)(2).”
“New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
“The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.”
“When the Secretary determines that assistance is necessary in enforcing Federal laws and regulations relating to the public lands or their resources he shall offer a contract to appropriate local officials having law enforcement authority within their respective jurisdictions with the view of achieving maximum feasible reliance upon local law enforcement officials in enforcing such laws and regulations. The Secretary shall negotiate on reasonable terms with such officials who have authority to enter into such contracts to enforce such Federal laws and regulations. In the performance of their duties under such contracts such officials and their agents are authorized to carry firearms; execute and serve any warrant or other process issued by a court or officer of competent jurisdiction; make arrests without warrant or process for a misdemeanor he has reasonable grounds to believe is being committed in his presence or view, or for a felony if he has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony; search without warrant or process any person, place, or conveyance according to any Federal law or rule of law; and seize without warrant or process any evidentiary item as provided by Federal law. The Secretary shall provide such law enforcement training as he deems necessary in order to carry out the contracted for responsibilities. While exercising the powers and authorities provided by such contract pursuant to this section, such law enforcement officials and their agents shall have all the immunities of Federal law enforcement officials.”
“The Secretary may authorize Federal personnel or appropriate local officials to carry out his law enforcement responsibilities with respect to the public lands and their resources. Such designated personnel shall receive the training and have the responsibilities and authority provided for in paragraph (1) of this subsection.”
“Nothing in this section shall prevent the Secretary from promptly establishing a uniformed desert ranger force in the California Desert Conservation Area established pursuant to section 1781 of this title for the purpose of enforcing Federal laws and regulations relating to the public lands and resources managed by him in such area. The officers and members of such ranger force shall have the same responsibilities and authority as provided for in paragraph (1) of subsection (c) of this section.”
“There are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal years 1977 through 1981 not to exceed $40,000,000 for the purpose of this section, such amount to remain available until expended.”