JOHN R. TUNHEIM, District Judge.
On June 23, 2010, plaintiff Twin Cities Pride initiated this action and moved for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction against defendant Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board ("MPRB"). Twin Cities Pride sought to exclude intervenor defendant Brian Johnson, an evangelical Christian, from Loring Park during the Twin Cities Pride Festival, the purpose of which is to celebrate gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender culture. Johnson has a history of attending the Festival, handing out Bibles, and discussing his anti-gay religious views with patrons of the Festival. This Court denied the relief sought, citing the competing First Amendment rights of Twin Cities Pride and Johnson. At the hearing on Twin Cities Pride's request for injunctive relief, the Court granted Johnson permissive intervenor status, noting that it would reassess Johnson's status at later proceedings. Johnson now moves for summary judgment on the original complaint. Because Twin Cities Pride sought and received leave to amend the complaint since Johnson filed for summary judgment, the Court denies the motion as moot. Furthermore, since the amended complaint has removed all reference to Johnson and instead seeks a broader remedy from the MPRB, the Court dismisses Johnson from the lawsuit as the MPRB can adequately represent his interests.
The Twin Cities Pride Festival has been held in Loring Park for thirty-three of its thirty-eight years. It attracts attendees from the entire Upper Midwest. For the last fifteen years, Johnson has attended the Festival to discuss his views of Christianity and homosexuality. For the first four years of his attendance, Johnson walked around the Festival and engaged with attendees. For the next eleven years, Johnson obtained a permit for a booth to espouse his views. In 2009, Johnson was denied a permit for a booth so he returned to walking through the Festival, discussing his views, and distributing Bibles. At that Festival, he was arrested by the police and removed.
In 2010, Twin Cities Pride initiated this action to enjoin Johnson from returning to the Festival. This Court denied Twin Cities Pride's motion for a temporary restraining order, holding that Twin Cities Pride was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim. Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Pride/Twin Cities v. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Bd., 721 F.Supp.2d 866, 870-71 (D. Minn. 2010). The Court found that tension existed between Twin Cities Pride's right to tailor the expressive content of the Festival and Johnson's right to express his personal views in a public forum. Id. at 871-73. In the end, the Court found that the relief Twin Cities Pride requested of the MPRB, enjoining Johnson from distributing literature or holding signage, was not narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest. Id. at 875.
The Court noted that in a traditional public forum, reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of protected speech must be "justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech, . . . narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and . . . leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information." Id. at 874 (citing Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791 (1989) (internal quotation marks omitted)). The Court did observe that a potential compromise existed:
Id. at 875 n.2 (internal citations omitted).
Twin Cities Pride and MPRB subsequently engaged in settlement discussions through the fall of 2010,
"It is well-established that an amended complaint supercedes an original complaint and renders the original complaint without legal effect." In re Wireless Tel. Fed. Cost Recovery Fees Litig., 396 F.3d 922, 928 (8
At the same time, some courts recognize that "defendants should not be required to file a new motion [for summary judgment] simply because an amended pleading was introduced while their motion was pending." 6 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller, and Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1476 at 558 (3d ed. 2010); see, e.g., Jordan v. City of Phila., 66 F.Supp.2d 638, 641, n.1 (E.D. Pa. 1999) (allowing a motion to dismiss based on the original complaint to proceed since the amended complaint suffered the same deficiencies as the original). In the instant case, however, Johnson had an opportunity to request leave to file an amended summary judgment motion at the hearing where the motion to amend the complaint was granted and chose not to do so.
The Federal Rules delineate two types of intervention: intervention of right and permissive intervention. Fed. R. Civ. P. 24. Permissive intervention is granted at the court's discretion. Id. 24(b). The Court granted Johnson's motion for permissive intervention. Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Pride/Twin Cities, 721 F. Supp. 2d at 869 n.1. However, at the motion hearing for the temporary restraining order the Court affirmed its right to revisit the issue at additional proceedings.
While a rare action, courts have been known to revoke intervenor status, and dismiss a defendant from a case who had been allowed to intervene, when the underlying circumstances of a case had changed. "That the Court has the power and authority to conduct such a review of intervention status is clear: intervention does not carry with it an absolute entitlement to continue as a party until termination of the suit." Tasby v. Wright, 109 F.R.D. 296, 298 (N.D. Tex. 1985).
In Morgan v. McDonough, the First Circuit considered whether the district court had acted improperly in dismissing an intervening party from a school desegregation action. 726 F.2d 11 (1
Even intervenors of right can have their status in a case change over time as the case evolves. "When a party that has been granted intervention as of right no longer meets the requirements for such intervention, a court properly dismisses that party from the case." Coal. to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of Univ. of Mich., 539 F.Supp.2d 960, 968 (E.D. Mich. 2008); see also Rosado v. Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp., 758 A.2d 916, 927, n.15 (Conn. Ct. App. 2000) ("A court also has the authority to dismiss intervenors once their interest in the matter has expired. Federal cases illustrate that intervention as of right does
There are three requirements for intervention as a matter of right: 1) the putative intervenor must have an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action, 2) the disposition of the action threatens to impair or impede the putative intervenor's ability to protect that interest,
Even without the presumption that the government will adequately represent the interests of its citizens, "[t]he controlling rule here is that representation is adequate if there is no collusion between the representative and an opposing party; if the representative does not have or represent an interest adverse to the applicant; or if the representative does not fail in the fulfillment of his duty." Liddell v. Caldwell, 546 F.2d 768, 771 (8
Based on the foregoing, and all the files, records, and proceedings herein,
1. Intervenor Brian Johnson is
2. Johnson's Motion for Summary Judgment [Docket No. 41] is
3. Twin Cities Pride's Motion to Strike Pleading [Docket No. 80] is