Title: Town of Lantana v. Pelczynski

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

303 So. 2d 326 (1974)
TOWN OF LANTANA, Petitioner,
v.
Jim PELCZYNSKI, Respondent.
No. 45193.

Supreme Court of Florida.
November 13, 1974.
Charles W. Musgrove, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
John L. Parker, Jr., West Palm Beach, for respondent.
DEKLE, Justice.
This cause is before us on certiorari granted to review the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, in Town of Lantana v. Pelczyski, reported at 290 So. 2d 566 (Fla.App.4th 1974), which purportedly conflicts with this Court's decision in Ex Parte Hawthorne, 116 Fla. 608, 156 So. 619 (1934).
The issue before us is the constitutionality of Lantana Town Ordinance 8-20 which provides:
Respondent was charged and convicted in municipal court for violation of the ordinance. On appeal, the circuit court held and we agree that this ordinance violates Art. I, §§ 4 and 9, of the Constitution of Florida and the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The district court agreed with the circuit court's judgment reported at 39 Fla. Supp. 76, holding the ordinance unconstitutional; petition for writ of certiorari was accordingly denied.
We are not unmindful of the decision of this Court in 1934, Ex Parte Hawthorne, supra, in which we upheld a statute comparable to the Lantana ordinance now in question. However, subsequent to this Court's decision in Ex Parte Hawthorne, the U.S. Supreme Court in Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214, 86 S. Ct. 1434, 16 L. Ed. 2d 484 (1966), decided that an Alabama statute comparable to the Lantana ordinance and the statute challenged in Ex Parte Hawthorne was invalid; the state law announced in Ex Parte Hawthorne must therefore yield to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in its interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.
There is no question that the State has the power and the duty to insure free and fair elections. Mills v. Alabama, supra; The Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241, 94 S. Ct. 2831, 41 L. Ed. 2d 730, decided June 25, 1974, Justice White's concurring opinion. Specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States in Mills v. Alabama stated:
Justice White in his concurring opinion in Tornillo, supra, likewise concedes the important interest of the State in ensuring free and fair elections.
In determining that the Alabama statute in question was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court in Mills opined:
The U.S. Supreme Court has directly coupled the freedom of the press with responsibility of the press, saying in Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 356, 365, 66 S. Ct. 1029, 90 L. Ed. 1295 (1946) (as restated and quoted in Miami Herald v. Tornillo, supra, in Mr. Justice White's concurring opinion), "freedom of the press is not a freedom from responsibility for its exercise... ." This is a responsibility which the press itself has acknowledged as a proper safeguard of the great trust invested in it by the constitution.
We have examined with interest the thorough consideration of the authorities in Judge Walden's able dissent; it reflects reasoned distinctions, but these do not rule out the possible mischief to a free exchange of expression from all sides, which could result from the restrictive ordinance in question; it is this restriction which is constitutionally impermissive. The Lantana ordinance outlaws not only false statements but true statements as well, those that would be helpful and fair, as well as any which might be harmful and prejudicial. The ordinance constitutes a clear incursion on First Amendment rights. Having so determined, it becomes unnecessary to reach the question of vagueness.
Accordingly, we hold the ordinance unconstitutional on the authority of Mills v. Alabama, supra, and affirm the judgment of the district court.
It is so ordered.
ADKINS, C.J., and ROBERTS, ERVIN, BOYD and OVERTON, JJ., concur.