United States DC Circuit

In an action claiming that certain regulations of the District of Columbia Department of Transportation governing the placement of posters in the District violated the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause, dismissal of the action for lack of standing is reversed where: 1) an affidavit by plaintiff's executive director plainly qualified, at the stage of a motion to dismiss, as a credible statement of intent to commit violative acts; and 2) Younger abstention was improper to the extent that plaintiff's suit challenged the constitutionality of other postering regulations that plaintiff had not been accused of violating, so long as the invalidity of the challenged regulation did not, presumably through inseverability, imply the invalidity of any regulation that plaintiff had been accused of violating.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/10/2009
• Decided 12/15/2009
• Published 12/15/2009

Judges

• Before:  GARLAND, Circuit Judge, and WILLIAMS and RANDOLPH, Senior Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States DC Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Carl Messineo argued the cause for appellants.   With him on the briefs was Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.


• For Appellees:
  
• David A. Hyden, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellee.   With him on the brief were Peter J. Nickles, Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Donna M. Murasky, Deputy Solicitor General.