99-3076, 99-3336, 99-3891, 99-3892, 01-2050 NOW, et al. v. Scheidler, et al.

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“[W]e cannot agree with the defendants’ contention that sec. 1964(a) is a purely ‘jurisdictional’ statute, despite the Ninth Circuit’s characterization of it in that way in Imagineering, Inc. v. Kiewit Pac. Co., 976 F.2d 1303, 1307 (9th Cir. 1992) (construing Wollersheim holding as jurisdictional). What sec. 1964(a) does is to grant district courts authority to hear RICO claims and then to spell out a non-exclusive list of the remedies district courts are empowered to provide in such cases. In that sense, sec. 1964(a) is strikingly similar to the statute the Supreme Court construed in Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 90 (1998). The statute at issue in Steel Co. provided that ‘[t]he district court shall have jurisdiction in actions brought under subsection (a) of this section against an owner or operator of a facility to enforce the requirement concerned and to impose any civil penalty provided for violation of that requirement.’ Id., quoting 42 U.S.C. sec. 11046(c). Noting that ‘”[j]urisdiction” … is a word of many, too many, meanings,’ the Court held that it would be ‘unreasonable to read [the statute] as making all the elements of the cause of action under subsection (a) jurisdictional, rather than as merely specifying the remedial powers of the court, viz., to enforce the violated requirement and to impose civil penalties.’ Id. This part of the Steel Co. holding supersedes any rationale to the contrary that the courts of appeals may have followed in earlier years. We find that it is applicable to RICO and that sec. 1964(a) both confers jurisdiction on the district courts and specifies certain remedial powers that the courts will have in cases brought before them.

“In this case, the plaintiffs presented ample evidence that the individual defendants and others associated with PLAN engaged in illegal conduct that directly threatened an important governmental interest. The evidence presented at trial showed that, at PLAN-sponsored events, protesters trespassed on clinic property and blocked access to clinics with their bodies, including at times chaining themselves in the doorways of clinics or to operating tables. At other times, protesters destroyed clinic property, including putting glue in clinic door locks and destroying medical equipment used to perform abortions. On still other occasions, protesters physically assaulted clinic staff and patients. In addition, defendant Scheidler, on behalf of defendants PLAL and PLAN, sent letters to class clinics threatening that they would be subjected to similar attacks if they did not cease performing abortions. In light of the protesters’ conduct at other PLAN events, the district court correctly concluded that these letters were not protected political speech but constituted true threats outside the protection of the First Amendment.”

Affirmed.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Coar, J., Wood, J.