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Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 41', '§ 103', '§ 103', '§ 103', '§ 103', '§ 103', '§ 103', '§ 103']

SEC'Y OF STATE OF MD. V. MUNSON CO., 467 U. S. 947 - Volume 467 - 1984 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 467 > SEC'Y OF STATE OF MD. V. MUNSON CO., 467 U. S. 947 (1984) > Full Text
BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, WHITE, MARSHALL, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 467 U. S. 970. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BURGER, C.J., and POWELL and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 467 U. S. 975.
In Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 444 U. S. 620 (1980), this Court, with one dissenting vote, concluded that a municipal ordinance prohibiting the solicitation of contributions by a charitable organization that did not use at least 75% of its receipts for "charitable purposes" was unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The issue in the present case is whether a Maryland statute with a like percentage limitation, but with provisions that render it more "flexible" than the
Section 103A et seq., Art. 41, Md.Ann.Code (1982), [Footnote 1] concern charitable organizations. Section 103D prohibits such an organization, in connection with any fundraising activity, from paying or agreeing to pay as expenses more than 25% of the amount raised. [Footnote 2] Munson in its complaint alleged that it
In its initial complaint, filed March 7, 1978, Munson took the position that its contracts with the FOP should not be subject to § 103A et seq. The Circuit Court dismissed that challenge for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The court concluded, however, that Munson could attack the statutes as an improper delegation of legislative authority, in
On the merits, the court concluded that Schaumburg required that the Maryland statute be ruled unconstitutional. It rejected the Secretary's argument that the statute was valid because it did not require a permit prior to solicitation, and imposed criminal penalties only for solicitation in violation of the statute. 294 Md. at 176-179, 448 A.2d at 944-945. The court also concluded that the flaws in the statute were not remedied by the provision authorizing a waiver of the 25% limitation whenever it would effectively prevent the charitable organization from raising contributions. Id. at 179-181, 448 A.2d at 945-946. The court found that the statutory authorization for an exemption from the percentage limitation is "extremely narrow." It did not remedy the flaw
Standing. The first element of the standing inquiry that Munson must satisfy in this Court is the "case" or "controversy" requirement of Art. III of the United States Constitution. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U. S. 106, 428 U. S. 112 (1976). [Footnote 4] Munson is a professional fundraising company. Because its contracts call for payment in excess of 25% of the funds raised for a given event, it is subject, under § 103L, to civil restraint and criminal liability. Prior to initiation of the present lawsuit, the Secretary informed Munson that, if it refused to comply with § 103D, it would be prosecuted. The parties stipulated before trial that the Montgomery County Chapter of the FOP was reluctant to enter into a contract with Munson because of the limitation imposed by § 103D. Munson has
United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. at 362 U. S. 22, and it assures the court that the issues before it will be concrete and sharply presented. [Footnote 5] See Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 369 U. S. 204 (1962). Munson is not a charity, and does not claim that its own First Amendment rights have been or will be infringed by the challenged statute. [Footnote 6] Accordingly, the Secretary insists that
Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. at 413 U. S. 612, quoting Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U. S. 479, 380 U. S. 486 (1965). See also Schaumburg, 444 U.S. at 444 U. S. 634 ("Given a case or controversy, a litigant whose own activities are unprotected may nevertheless challenge a statute by showing that it substantially
Besides challenging Munson's standing as a "noncharity" to bring its claim, the Secretary urges that Munson should not have standing to challenge the statute as overbroad because it has not demonstrated that the statute's overbreadth is "substantial." See Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. at 413 U. S. 615. The Secretary raises a point of valid concern. The Court has indicated that application of the overbreadth doctrine is "strong medicine" that should be invoked only "as a last resort." Id. at 413 U. S. 613. The Secretary's concern, however, is one that is more properly reserved for the determination
The flaw in the Village's assumption, as the Court recognized, was that there is no necessary connection between fraud and high solicitation and administrative costs. A number of other factors may result in high costs; the most important of these is that charities often are combining solicitation with dissemination of information, discussion, and advocacy of public issues, an activity clearly protected by the First Amendment and as to which the Village had asserted no legitimate interest in prohibiting. In light of the fact that the interest in protecting against fraud can be accommodated by measures less intrusive than a direct prohibition on solicitation, [Footnote 9] the Court concluded that the limitation was
organization from raising contributions," 294 Md. at 180, 448 A.2d at 946, and of no avail to an organization whose high fundraising costs were attributable to legitimate policy decisions about how to use its funds, rather than to inability to raise funds. Under the Court of Appeals' interpretation, the Secretary has no discretion to determine that reasons other than financial necessity warrant a waiver. The statute does not help the charity whose solicitation costs are high because it chooses, as was stipulated here, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 39a, to disseminate information as a part of its fundraising. Thus, the organizations that were of primary concern to the Court in Schaumburg, those whose high costs were due to "information dissemination, discussion, and advocacy of public issues,'" [Footnote 11] 444 U.S. at 444 U. S. 635, quoting from
This is not such a case. [Footnote 13] Here there is no core of easily identifiable and constitutionally proscribable conduct that the
statute prohibits. While there no doubt are organizations that have high fundraising costs not due to protected First Amendment activity and that, therefore, should not be heard to complain that their activities are prohibited, this statute cannot distinguish those organizations from charities that have high costs due to protected First Amendment activities. The flaw in the statute is not simply that it includes within its sweep some impermissible applications, but that, in all its applications, it operates on a fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs are an accurate measure of fraud. [Footnote 14] That the statute in some of its applications actually prevents the misdirection of funds from the organization's purported charitable goal is little more than fortuitous. [Footnote 15]
Where, as here, a statute imposes a direct restriction on protected First Amendment activity, [Footnote 16] and where the defect
Finally, the fact that the statute regulates all charitable fundraising, and not just door-to-door solicitation, does not remedy the fact that the statute promotes the State's interest only peripherally. The distinction made in Schaumburg was between regulation aimed at fraud and regulation aimed at something else in the hope that it would sweep fraud in
See nn. 2 and | 2 and S. 947fn8|>8, supra. And the State's own highest court, interpreting the reach of § 103D, apparently found no basis for a presumption that advocacy and education expenses would be exempted. In any event, while the notion of a pro rata allocation sounds appealing, it ignores the "reality," recognized by the Court in Schaumburg, that solicitation is intertwined with protected speech. See 444 U.S. at 444 U. S. 632. Written materials, for example, no doubt serve both purposes. A public official would have to be charged with the responsibility of determining how expenses should be allocated, which publications should be licensed, and which restricted by the statute. See n. 2 and S. 947fn12|>12, infra.
Respondent unquestionably has "standing" in a jurisdictional sense. The Court appears to be unanimous on the "case" or "controversy" issue. [Footnote 2/1] The case-or-controversy requirement, of course, relates only to the jurisdiction of this
If we were persuaded that there is no Art. III "standing" in this case, we would have a duty to dismiss the writ of certiorari and allow the judgment of the Maryland Court of Appeals to remain in effect. No Member of the Court, however, argues that we must follow that course. Since every Member of the Court has expressed an opinion concerning the constitutionality of the Maryland law, it is difficult to perceive the relevance of the fact that the Framers of Art. III of the Federal Constitution elected not to give the federal judiciary a "roving commission" to render advisory opinions. Post at 467 U. S. 976. [Footnote 2/3] In all events, there is little real dispute concerning standing in the jurisdictional sense.
Once it is determined that Munson may assert the First Amendment rights of its clients, it follows that Munson may challenge the statute on any ground that they might assert. Munson does not argue that the statute would be unconstitutional as applied to the Fraternal Order of Police, even though on this record a successful challenge on that ground would appear to redress Munson's injury. Instead, it attacks the statute on overbreadth grounds. The fact that this case comes to us from a state court is relevant to our consideration of the merits of the overbreadth challenge to some extent as well. We need not construe the statute for ourselves, compare post at 467 U. S. 984, and n. 5; the state court has authoritatively done so. That construction greatly aids an informed analysis of the merits of the First Amendment overbreadth question. The state court's judgment that the illegitimate sweep of the state statute is substantial in relationship to its legitimate applications surely merits serious
New York v. Ferber, 458 U. S. 747,
767 (1982). [Footnote 3/1] This commitment is in keeping with the fact that the courts in our federal system do not have a roving commission "to survey the statute books and pass judgment on laws before the courts are called upon to enforce them." Younger v. Harris, 401 U. S. 37, 401 U. S. 52 (1971). The Constitutional Convention specifically rejected a proposal to have Members of the Supreme Court render advice concerning pending legislation. See 1 M. Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, p. 21 (1911). And through the "case or controversy" requirement of Art. III, all federal courts are restricted to the resolution of concrete disputes between the parties before them. Musings as to possible applications of a statute to third parties in hypothetical situations may be fitting for the classroom and the statehouse, but they are neither wise nor permissible in the courtroom.
The very power of the judiciary to declare a law unconstitutional depends upon a "flesh-and-blood" dispute in which the application of the law comes into conflict with the superior authority of the Constitution. As Chief Justice Marshall explained in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U. S. 178 (1803):
As to Munson and other professional fundraisers who are not themselves engaged in speech activities, § 103D, read in conjunction with § 103F, is merely an economic regulation controlling the fees the firm is permitted to charge. A similar regulation governing, for example, the fees charged by an employment agency would be judged and approved under the minimum rationality standard traditionally applied to economic regulations. See, e.g., Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn., 436 U. S. 447, 436 U. S. 460 (1978); Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U. S. 483 (1955). Of course, a ceiling on the fees charged by professional fundraisers may have an incidental and indirect impact on protected expression -- as would, for example, a ceiling placed on the fees charged by literary agents -- in that marginal producers could be forced out of the market. In other words, price controls might tend to make these services less available, much as rent control is thought to make rental housing less available. But such an indirect
Even if limitations on the fees charged by professional fundraisers were subjected to heightened scrutiny, however, those limitations serve a number of legitimate and substantial governmental interests. They insure that funds solicited from the public for a charitable purpose will not be excessively diverted to private pecuniary gain. In the process, they encourage the public to give by allowing the public to give with confidence that money designed for a charity will be spent on charitable purposes. The legislature could conclude that fees charged by professional fundraisers must be kept within moderate limits to coincide with the contributors' expectations that their contributions will go primarily to the charitable purpose. There is an element of "fraud" in soliciting money "for" a charity when in reality that charity will see only a small fraction of the funds collected. [Footnote 3/2] But even if a fundraiser were to fully disclose to every donor that half of the money collected would be used for "expenses," so that there could be no question of "fraud" in the common law sense of that word, the State's interest is not at an end. The statute, as the Court concedes, is also directed against the incurring of excessive costs in charitable solicitation even where the costs are fully disclosed to both potential donors and the charity. Such a law protects the charities themselves from being overcharged by unscrupulous professional fundraisers.
The Court today echoes the concern of Schaumburg that some charities will incur fundraising costs higher than the 25% limitation not because the costs are essential to fundraising, but because the charity seeks to raise funds in a manner that serves other educational and advocacy goals. See ante at 467 U. S. 963-964. Unlike Schaumburg, however, it is not at all clear that the Court's concern is well founded in this case. In baldly claiming that advocacy organizations "remain barred by the statute from carrying on those protected First Amendment activities," ante at 467 U. S. 964, the Court simply ignores or slights some crucial differences between this statute and the ordinance at issue in Schaumburg.
Thus, unlike the ordinance in Schaumburg, the costs of receptions, picnics and other social events at which advocacy organizations seek converts are not included in the fundraising calculus. Nor are costs associated with printing and mailing advocacy literature. Again, the statute is more
See also United States v. Raines, 362 U. S. 17, 362 U. S. 21 (1960); Carmichael v. Southern Coal & Coke Co., 301 U. S. 495, 301 U. S. 513 (1937); Yazoo & M. V. R. Co. v. Jackson Vinegar Co., 226 U. S. 217, 226 U. S. 219-220 (1912); Supervisors v. Stanley, 105 U. S. 305, 105 U. S. 311-315 (1882); Austin v. The Aldermen, 7 Wall. 694, 74 U. S. 698-699 (1869).
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