Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/27/841.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 02:48:07+00:00

Document:
W. Michael Mayock for Defendant and Appellant.
Brown, Weston & Sarno, Fleishman, Brown, Weston & Rohde, David M. Brown and G. Randall Garrou as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant.
Burt Pines, City Attorney, George C. Eskin, Chief Assistant City Attorney, Rand Schrader, Laurie Harris and S. Thomas Todd, Deputy City Attorneys, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Under the California Constitution, may a city pass an ordinance which requires only picture arcades to close between the hours [27 Cal. 3d 844] of 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. in order to prevent the possibility of masturbation by any of their customers?
 The operation of a picture arcade has been held to be an activity which is protected by the First Amendment. (EWAP, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 97 Cal.App.3d at p. 184; People v. Perrine, supra, 47 Cal.App.3d at p. 257.) The fact that a picture arcade is a profit-oriented business (see Welton v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 18 Cal.3d at pp. 503-504; Bigelow v. Virginia (1975) 421 U.S. 809, 818 [44 L. Ed. 2d 600, 609, 95 S.Ct. 2222]), or that it may exhibit pictures which are offensive or lacking in social worth is not relevant. (See Welton v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 504; Cohen v. California (1971) 403 U.S. 15, 24-26 [29 L. Ed. 2d 284, 293-294, 91 S. Ct. 1780]; N.A.A.C.P. v. Button (1963) 371 U.S. 415, 444-445 [9 L. Ed. 2d 405, 424-425, 83 S. Ct. 328].) As the Supreme Court stated in Cohen v. California, supra, 403 U.S. at page 25 [29 L.Ed.2d at page 294], "We cannot lose sight of the fact that, in what otherwise might seem a trifling and annoying instance of individual distasteful abuse of a privilege, [the] fundamental societal values [of the First Amendment] are truly implicated. That is why '[wholly] neutral [statements] ... come under the protection of free speech as fully as do Keats' poems or Donne's sermons,' ...."
The government may deal directly with masturbation in public picture arcades by persons who know or should know of the presence of others who may be offended by such conduct by arresting and prosecuting them. (Pryor v. Municipal Court (1979) 25 Cal. 3d 238 [158 Cal. Rptr. 330, 599 P.2d 636].) Respondent concedes that this alternative would be less restrictive of First Amendment rights, but argues that the closing-hours requirement is necessary because of the limited number of police available during the early morning hours.
A similar claim was made in Skaggs v. City of Oakland (1936) 6 Cal. 2d 222 [57 P.2d 478]. The government tried to justify an ordinance restricting deliveries of bakery goods to those times when food and sanitary [27 Cal. 3d 848] inspectors might reasonably be expected to be on duty. The court rejected that argument and observed that "it is not a valid exercise of police power to restrict unnecessarily a lawful occupation conducted in a reasonable manner, merely that it may accord with the convenience of inspectors." (Id., at p. 224; accord Justesen's F.S., Inc., v. City of Tulare, supra, 12 Cal.2d at p. 332; see also Schneider v. State, supra, 308 U.S. at p. 164 [84 L.Ed. at p. 166]; Stanley v. Georgia (1969) 394 U.S. 557, 567-568 [22 L. Ed. 2d 542, 550-551, 89 S. Ct. 1243].) The same reasoning applies with even greater force where First Amendment rights are involved.
The record before this court fails to show either that criminal activity is particularly acute at picture arcades or that it is prevalent between the hours of 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. (Cf. Brix v. City of San Rafael, supra, 92 Cal.App.3d at p. 51, fn. 2.) If merely stating a laudable purpose were sufficient to justify a restriction on free expression, the government could justify closing picture arcades or other establishments at any hour of the day. Moreover, the police commissioner's report submitted by respondent states that portions of the ordinance that do not directly curtail First Amendment interests should by themselves reduce masturbation in picture arcades. fn. 6 In addition, the government may require that a licensed manager be present to supervise the premises. (People v. Perrine, supra, 47 Cal. App. 3d 252.) In short, the government has not shown that the closing-hours requirement is necessary or that it is the least restrictive means available to curb anticipated masturbation.
It first should be noted what the ordinance is not. It is not an attempt at censorship. The city is not seeking to control or regulate, directly or indirectly, the moving pictures which are being shown. It is apparent from the official hearings that the pictures exhibited in arcades in Los Angeles County are not "Mickey Mouse cartoons," or ballet portrayals, or travelogues, but movies which generate sexual excitement in patrons. Nevertheless, for 17 hours of every 24 defendant's commercial offering may be shown without any restraint whatever.
Unfortunately, I must be explicit in order to emphasize the reality of the police problem which prompted adoption of the ordinance in question. An investigative officer during official hearings described picture arcades operating in Los Angeles County as "money making machinery houses of masturbation," in which body and seminal fluids were excreted on walls, floors and patrons' clothing, causing odors and health, hygiene, sanitary, and police problems that were substantial and continuing. The ordinance was designed to lessen these physical effects by reducing the daily number of hours from 24 to 17 with the closure during the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning when presumably both patronage would be lowest, and available police supervision diminished. The time limitations are not unreasonably burdensome.
The majority insists that "The operation of a picture arcade has been held to be an activity which is protected by the First Amendment." [27 Cal. 3d 852] (Ante, p. 846.) I fully agree. However, it is noteworthy that both authorities cited and relied on by the majority in support of the foregoing generality fully recognize that limitations on the manner of operation of picture arcades are entirely proper and in no way violative of First Amendment rights. Thus, the Perrine court reviewing this very ordinance upheld a provision which requires that the arcade "'shall have a responsible person on the premises to act as manager.'" (47 Cal. App. 3d 252, 259.) Similarly, in EWAP, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles (1979) 97 Cal. App. 3d 179, 189 [158 Cal. Rptr. 579], the court upheld, against a challenge that freedom of expression was infringed, another provision of this same ordinance which prohibited picture booths which are either partially or fully enclosed. This restriction was determined to be a valid exercise of the city's police power "to reasonably regulate and license arcades for purposes of health, safety and public welfare. [Citations.]" In short, notwithstanding the First Amendment claims asserted, California law is that a man's picture booth is not his castle. A manner regulation of another sort was sustained in Antonello v. City of San Diego (1971) 16 Cal. App. 3d 161, 166 [93 Cal. Rptr. 820] (regulation of the internal construction of picture arcades).
Similar considerations should support the validity of reasonable time restrictions contained in the same ordinance. The same public interest identified in Perrine has equal application to the propriety of the brief closure hours herein presented. As previously noted the hours from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. are a particularly appropriate subject for closure regulations. It is during the early morning hours that opportunities for lewd and disruptive conduct increase as available police supervision decreases.
"We cannot say that the closing hours imposed on plaintiffs' business are arbitrary or unreasonable. The county could justifiably conclude that public dancing and public entertainment 'at such late hours would tend to attract and congregate evilly disposed persons at hours when the [county] would be least prepared with police to guard against the acts of such persons.' [Citation.] The county could also conclude that during a portion of the 24-hour day the desires of those who seek to present public entertainment around the clock should yield to the wishes of those who seek peace and quiet in the small hours of the morning."
The ordinance before us fairly balances the conflicting interests, private and public. The regulatory hand over the protected First Amendment rights is very light indeed. In my view, under well established authority, [27 Cal. 3d 854] the ordinance is a valid exercise of a city's police power in imposing reasonable restrictions on the time of exercise of First Amendment rights. I would affirm the judgment.
FN 1. All code references hereinafter are to the Los Angeles Municipal Code unless otherwise specified.
Section 103.101 deals primarily with the issuance, revocation and suspension of police commission permits to operate arcades. Violation of its provisions is made a misdemeanor by section 11.00, subdivision (m).
FN 2. Article I, section 2 of the California Constitution provides: "Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press."
This section is more protective of speech than the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. (Wilson v. Superior Court (1975) 13 Cal. 3d 652, 658 [119 Cal. Rptr. 468, 532 P.2d 116].) This court therefore only addresses the question whether the challenged subdivision is consistent with the California Constitution. Nevertheless, in keeping with convention, the free speech rights at stake will be referred to as First Amendment rights.
FN 3. Appellant attacks only the facial validity of section 103.101, subdivision (g). Therefore, no transcript of the actual trial was made a part of the record before this court.
EWAP, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles (1979) 97 Cal. App. 3d 179 [158 Cal. Rptr. 579], involved two other subdivisions of section 103.101. In that case, the court held that subdivision (c)(4) was an invalid prior restraint on freedom of expression in that it denied a permit to any applicant who had knowingly allowed lewd conduct at any picture arcade within the preceding two years. The court upheld subdivision (i), which required the interior of picture arcades to be visible upon entrance and prohibited enclosed or concealed booths.
FN 4. Where the ordinance singles out for regulation a First Amendment protected activity, the ordinance must also be content-neutral. (E.g., Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975) 422 U.S. 205 [45 L. Ed. 2d 125, 95 S. Ct. 2268].) The appellant has not challenged the present ordinance as content-based. Therefore, this court does not address the issue of the ordinance's content neutrality.
FN 8. Because appellant's freedom of expression claim has merit, his equal protection and preemption arguments are not reached.

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