Nationalist v. City of Boston

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Nationalist v. City of Boston

Opinion

USCA1 Opinion




December 19, 1994 [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

____________________

No. 94-1827

THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

CITY OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

Defendant, Appellee.


____________________

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge] ___________________

____________________

Before

Torruella, Chief Judge, ___________
Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge, ____________________
and Stahl, Circuit Judge. _____________

____________________

Richard Barrett on brief for appellant. _______________
Albert W. Wallis, Claudia Billings McKelway, Krisna Basu on brief _________________ _________________________ ___________
for appellee.


____________________


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Per Curiam. Pursuant to Local Rule 83.5.3 of the United

States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, an

application for admission to the court pro hac vice requires, ___ ___ ____

inter alia, that a member of the bar enter an appearance and move _____ ____

the applicant's admission. Richard Barrett, a leader of and

attorney for the Nationalist Movement, failed to comply with this

requirement and the Movement appeals the resulting summary

dismissal of its lawsuit. Barrett asserted below and on appeal

that his diligent efforts to secure local counsel proved

unsuccessful, attributing this failure to the Nationalist

Movement's controversial views. He argues that, under these

circumstances, dismissing his lawsuit for failure to comply with

Rule 83.5.3 violates several constitutional provisions.

After careful consideration of the briefs, we are uncertain

whether appellant was, in fact, unable to locate local counsel to

move his admission pro hac vice. In order to protect the ___ ___ ____

integrity of these proceedings, and to avoid the needless

adjudication of serious questions of law based upon what might be

an inaccurate factual premise, we vacate the district court's

judgment of dismissal and remand for a hearing to determine

whether appellant, after diligent effort, was unable to find any

local counsel, and whether any local counsel can now be located.

If local counsel is found the lawsuit could proceed, in

which case we assume the court would address the question of the

continued viability of appellant's claims in light of the fact

that the parade took place, albeit in an allegedly restricted


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form. If the district court determines that Barrett engaged in

diligent but unavailing efforts to find local counsel and it

again dismisses the suit, appellant, of course, would be free to

appeal again. If the district court finds that Barrett

misrepresented his efforts to locate local counsel, or that he

declined any offer by local counsel to appear, it may consider

whatever sanctions, including those described by Fed. R. Civ. P.

11, it deems appropriate.

No costs.




































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Reference

Status
Published