## Facts

- James Mabe owned a gift shop on Seawall Boulevard on Galveston’s beachfront.
- Customers and visitors complained to Mabe about the lack of public restroom facilities on or near the beachfront.
- Mabe repeatedly appeared before the Galveston City Council and the Galveston Park Board of Trustees to complain about the restroom shortage, but he believed the problem was not being addressed.
- In midsummer 1984, Mabe printed and distributed roughly 2,000 pamphlets to the public.
- The pamphlets apologized for the lack of public restrooms and identified the City Council and Park Board members, listing their home telephone numbers.
- The phone numbers Mabe printed were publicly available in the Galveston telephone directory; some also appeared in materials published by the Park Board.
- After distribution, some City Council and Park Board members received calls at their homes about the restroom issue, including calls late at night and early in the morning.
- The City of Galveston and the Park Board sought a temporary injunction in state court to stop further distribution, alleging the pamphlets violated the officials’ privacy.
- Mabe opposed the injunction, arguing (1) the City and Park Board lacked standing to assert individual officials’ privacy rights and (2) an injunction would violate his free-speech rights.
- The trial court granted a temporary injunction barring Mabe from publishing or distributing any written list coupling the officials’ names with their home telephone numbers, and Mabe appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the City of Galveston and the Park Board had standing to seek injunctive relief based on the alleged invasion of individual officials’ personal privacy.
2. Whether a temporary injunction barring distribution of pamphlets addressing a public issue and listing officials’ publicly available home telephone numbers constitutes an unlawful prior restraint on protected speech.

## Decision

- The court of appeals reversed the temporary injunction.
- The court held the City and Park Board lacked standing to sue to protect the personal privacy interests of individual council and board members.
- The court further concluded the injunction operated as an improper prior restraint on Mabe’s speech concerning public affairs and public officials.
- The requested injunctive relief was denied, and the injunction was dissolved.

## Legal Principles

- Standing requires a plaintiff to assert its own legally protectable interest; a governmental entity generally cannot sue to enforce personal privacy interests belonging to individual officials.
- Prior restraints—court orders that forbid speech before it occurs—are strongly disfavored, especially when directed at speech about governmental conduct and public issues.
- The claimed privacy interest in contact information is weaker where the information is already available in public sources (such as a telephone directory or official publications).
- Mere annoyance or inconvenience to public officials from constituent contact, without a showing justifying suppression of protected expression, does not support injunctive relief aimed at political advocacy.

## Conclusion

In *Mabe v. City of Galveston*, the court of appeals reversed a temporary injunction that barred a businessman from distributing pamphlets about the lack of beachfront restrooms that listed council and park board members’ home phone numbers, holding that the City and Park Board could not litigate the officials’ personal privacy claims and that the injunction was an improper prior restraint on protected speech.


Mabe v. City of Galveston, 687 S.W. 2d 769 (1985)