Labor/Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

This appeal arises after fourteen years of litigation concerning public transit in Los Angeles County. In 1994, the Labor/ Community Strategy Center and other Los Angeles County community organizations and local residents, known collectively as the “Bus Riders Union” or “BRU,” brought a civil rights class action against the County’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, charging the MTA with unlawfully discriminating against “inner-city and transit dependent bus riders” in its allocation of public transportation resources. The case did not go to trial; rather, in 1996, the parties agreed to, and the district court approved, a consent decree that committed MTA to implementing “a detailed plan to improve bus service.” See Labor/Community Strategy Ctr. v. L.A. County Metro. Trans. Auth., 263 F.3d 1041 , 1043 (9th Cir.2001) ("Labor/ Community ”). The district court’s jurisdiction over the decree was explicitly set to expire in ten years.

Shortly before the tenth anniversary of the decree, BRU moved to extend the duration of the decree on the grounds that MTA had allegedly failed to comply with the decree’s overcrowding provisions. BRU *1117 also sought civil contempt sanctions…

dissenting:

I respectfully dissent.

The defendants simply did not comply, substantially or otherwise, with the Consent Decree’s requirements for relieving the overcrowding on buses. The Consent Decree and the associated orders from the Special Master spell out in detail the method by which the parties agreed to measure bus overcrowding and define performance targets that MTA is required to meet. Critically, the Decree also expressly prohibits MTA from seeking to modify the Decree for changed circumstances because of the difficulty meeting targets as set out in the Decree. See Consent Decree § II.A.4 (“The failure of MTA to meet target load factors shall not be deemed a changed or unforeseen factual condition for purposes of seeking a modification of this Consent Decree by MTA”).

Yet, it is just such a modification that MTA has in effect granted to itself, and that the majority is willing to countenance. Unable to comply with the load factor targets defined in the Decree, MTA devised its own measure of compliance and then announced that it had met that measure. The district court went along, without explaining why the defendants were entitled to rewrite a provision to which they…

Karen M. Lockwood (argued), Howrey LLP, Washington, DC, Ethan B. Andelman, Howrey LLP, San Francisco, CA, Katherine M. Basile, Howrey LLP, East Palo Alto, CA, Richard A. Marcantonio, Angelica K. Jongco, Public Advocates, Inc., San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Caroline H. Mankey (argued), Patricia L. Glaser, James S. Schreier, Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil, & Shapiro, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, Raymond G. Fortner, Jr., County Counsel, Charles M. Safer, Assistant County Counsel, Office of the Los Angeles County Counsel, Los Angeles, CA, for the defendants-appellees.

Before MARY M. SCHROEDER, BARRY G. SILVERMAN, and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges.

SILVERMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises after fourteen years of litigation concerning public transit in Los Angeles County. In 1994, the Labor/Community Strategy Center and other Los Angeles County community organizations and local residents, known collectively as the "Bus Riders Union" or "BRU," brought a civil rights class action against the County's Metropolitan Transit Authority, charging the MTA with unlawfully discriminating against "inner-city and transit dependent bus riders" in its allocation of…