Planet Aid v. City of St. Johns

782 F.3d 318

PLANET AID, a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.CITY OF ST. JOHNS, MI, a Michigan municipal corporation, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 14–1680.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued March 5, 2015.

Decided and Filed April 6, 2015.

ARGUED:Mary Massaron, Plunkett Cooney, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Appellant. Daniel P. Dalton, Dalton & Tomich, PLC, Detroit, MI, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:Mary Massaron, Plunkett Cooney, Bloomfield Hills, MI, for Appellant. Daniel P. Dalton, Dalton & Tomich, PLC, Detroit, MI, for Appellee.

Before: GRIFFIN and STRANCH, Circuit Judges; and STEEH, District Judge.^*

OPINION

GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge.

In this First Amendment case, defendant City of St. Johns, Michigan appeals the district court's order preliminarily enjoining the enforcement of the City's Ordinance # 618 which bans outdoor, unattended charitable donation bins. We hold that the ordinance is a content-based regulation of protected speech, and that Planet Aid has demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of its constitutional claim. Accordingly, and for the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's preliminary injunction.

I.

Plaintiff Planet Aid is a nonprofit charitable organization established in Massachusetts. Its purpose is to “work to strengthen and organize communities, reduce poverty and promote small enterprise development, support sustainable local food production, improve access to training and quality education, and increase health awareness and encourage healthy lifestyles.” To that end, Planet Aid solicits donations of clothing and shoes through its unattended, outdoor donation bins. Planet Aid distributes the items collected from the bins to organizations in other countries.

With the consent of the property owners, Planet Aid places its donation bins on the property of private businesses. It chooses locations that are “easily visible and accessible by individuals looking to deposit donations in the bins.” According to Planet Aid, its “representatives generally visit each of its donation bins on a weekly basis in order to collect the donated goods and avoid bin overflow and goods accumulating outside the bins.” Its bins are labeled with contact information so members of the public can report to Planet Aid if the bins are full.

In December 2012, the City did not have an ordinance regulating charitable donation bins. At that time, Planet Aid placed two of its donation bins on private property within the City: one at a former Save–a–Lot grocery store at 1001 S. BR U.S. Highway 27, and the other at a Marathon gas station at 711 West State Street.

On January 14, 2013, the City sent Planet Aid a letter claiming that the “clothing donation containers have been found to create a nuisance as people leave boxes and other refuse around the containers.” It directed Planet Aid to remove the bins by January 23. The letter stated further that if the bins were not removed by January 23, the City would remove them.

In response to the letter, Planet Aid's attorney, Dan Dalton, emailed the City's attorney, John Salemi. Dalton asked Salemi whether Planet Aid could “retain its boxes in St. Johns' [sic] until the matter appears for ordinance review before the planning commission/City Council.” Salemi replied that he would discuss the request with City officials and get back to Dalton. On January 18, 2013, Dalton again emailed Salemi inquiring whether City officials had made a decision and asking whether the bins “are to be removed by the 23rd ... or if they can stay until an ordinance is enacted addressing the issue?” Salemi responded that “the city manager is firm in his belief that these boxes are both a public nuisance and a violation of our zoning ordinances re [sic] accessory uses. They need to be removed.” In answer to Dalton's question of whether there was an appeals process, Salemi replied that Planet Aid would not “have standing to appeal even if there were” because the bins “aren't on [Planet Aid's] property.” The City subsequently removed the bins and transported them to a City facility where they were later collected by Planet Aid.

Almost a year later, the City Council addressed the issue of regulating charitable donation bins at its December 9, 2013, meeting. According to the minutes, the planning commission had recommended a “total prohibition” of charitable donation bins. The proposed ordinance (Ordinance # 618) implemented this recommendation, but included a grandfather clause because, according to Salemi, the City wished to exempt the already-operational Lions Club Recycling Center from any new regulation. At the meeting, Mayor Beaman “said other communities had people dropping off their trash” at donation bins and asked the Director of Public Works, Steve Rademacher, whether there was a problem with the St. Johns Planet Aid bins. Rademacher responded that trash drop offs at the two bins had “very seldom” occurred.

Nevertheless, the St. Johns City Council voted to adopt Ordinance # 618 at its January 27, 2014, meeting. The ordinance added a new article, Article 5.518, to the St. Johns Zoning Ordinance.

Section 5.518(1)(a) of the ordinance defines a “[d]onation box” as “[a]n outdoor, unattended receptacle designed with a door, slot, or other opening that is intended to accept donated goods or items.” Section 5.518(1)(b) describes the purpose of the ordinance as follows:

It is the intent of this section to prohibit donation boxes to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the city by preventing blight, protecting property values and neighborhood integrity, avoiding the creation and maintenance of nuisances and ensuring the safe and sanitary maintenance of properties. Unattended donation boxes in the city may become an attractive nuisance for minors and/or criminal activity. It is also the intent of this section to preserve the aesthetics and character of the community by prohibiting the placement of donation boxes.

The following sections contain a substantive prohibition: “No person, business or other entity shall place, use or allow the installation of a donation box within the City of St. Johns.” (5.518(1)(c)) and a grandfather clause: “A donation box that exists on the effective date of this ordinance shall not be subject to the prohibition contained herein.” (5.518(1)(d)).

On February 14, 2014, Planet Aid filed a five-count complaint in the district court, alleging, among other things, that Ordinance # 618 violated Planet Aid's First Amendment rights because it infringed on Planet Aid's protected speech of charitable solicitation and giving.¹ The complaint sought both declaratory and injunctive relief. The City answered the complaint, denying liability.

Planet Aid also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction. The district court's order granting plaintiff's motion is the subject of this appeal.

In the district court and on appeal, Planet Aid argued that its speech regarding charitable giving is protected by the First Amendment and that the ordinance is a content-based restriction subject to strict scrutiny. In opposing the motion and in this appeal, the City conceded a level of First Amendment protection regarding Planet Aid's speech, but argued that Planet Aid's bins are analogous to outdoor advertising signs, and that Ordinance # 618 is therefore a content-neutral time, place, and manner restriction that passes constitutional muster.

After holding oral argument, the district court granted plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. The district court concluded that “Planet Aid's operation of donation bins to solicit and collect charitable donations qualifies as protected speech under the First Amendment” and that Ordinance # 618 was subject to strict scrutiny. The court held that

Plaintiff, in arguing that the ordinance fails strict scrutiny because it implements an overly broad, prophylactic ban on all bins so the City can avoid dealing with hypothetical nuisances or other issues that may arise with certain bins in the future, has borne its burden of proving a substantial likelihood of succeeding on the merits of its free speech claim.

The City appeals.

II.

In reviewing a district court's decision on a motion for a preliminary injunction, we “evaluate the same four factors that the district court does: (1) whether the movant has a strong likelihood of success on the merits; (2) whether the movant would suffer irreparable injury without the injunction; (3) whether issuance of the injunction would cause substantial harm to others; and (4) whether the public interest would be served by issuance of the injunction.” Kentucky v. U.S. ex rel. Hagel, 759 F.3d 588, 600 (6th Cir.2014) (internal quotation marks omitted).

We review “the District Court's legal rulings de novo (including its First Amendment conclusion), and its ultimate conclusion [regarding whether to issue a preliminary injunction] for abuse of discretion.” Platt v. Bd. of Comm'rs on Grievances & Discipline of Ohio Supreme Court, 769 F.3d 447, 454 (6th Cir.2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). Findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. N.A.A.C.P. v. City of Mansfield, Ohio, 866 F.2d 162, 166 (6th Cir.1989) ; see also City of Pontiac Retired Emps. Ass'n v. Schimmel, 751 F.3d 427, 430 (6th Cir.2014) (en banc) (also noting that we review “for abuse of discretion, however, the district court's ultimate determination as to whether the four preliminary injunction factors weigh in favor of granting or denying preliminary injunctive relief.”). In other words, “when we look at likelihood of success on the merits, we independently apply the Constitution, but we still defer to the district court's overall balancing of the four preliminary-injunction factors.” Platt, 769 F.3d at 454.

III.

In this case, as the parties agree, the determination of whether Planet Aid is likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim controls the question of the...