Source: http://www.leagle.com/decision/1987933482US451_1915/CITY%20OF%20HOUSTON%20v.%20HILL
Timestamp: 2017-06-24 07:09:35
Document Index: 399073431

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 34', '§ 34', '§ 1983', '§ 22', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 6', 'Art. 5', '§ 3', '§ 4242', '§ 37', '§ 5', '§ 22', '§ 22', 'art:\n9', '§ 1', '§ 42', '§ 42', '§ 42', '§ 42', '§ 6', '§ 4248']

CITY OF HOUSTON v. HILL | 482 U.S. 451 (1987) | Leagle.com
Citing Case 482 U.S. 451 (1987)
Charles Alan Wright argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief were Michael A. Maness and Gerald M. Birnberg.*
The incident that sparked this lawsuit occurred in the Montrose area on February 14, 1982. Hill observed a friend, Charles Hill, intentionally stopping traffic on a busy street, evidently to enable a vehicle to enter traffic. Two Houston police officers, one of whom was named Kelley, approached Charles and began speaking with him. According to the District Court, "shortly thereafter" Hill began shouting at the officers "in an admitted attempt to divert Kelley's attention from Charles Hill." App. to Juris. Statement B-2.1 Hill first shouted: "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" After Officer Kelley responded: "[A]re you interrupting me in my official capacity as a Houston police officer?" Hill then shouted: "Yes, why don't you pick on somebody my size?" App. 40-41, 58, 71-74. Hill was arrested under Houston Code of Ordinances, § 34-11(a), for "wilfully or intentionally interrupt[ing] a city policeman . . . by verbal challenge during an investigation." App. 2. Charles Hill was not arrested. Hill was then acquitted after a nonjury trial in Municipal Court.2
Following his acquittal in the Charles Hill incident, Hill brought the suit in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas, seeking (1) a declaratory judgment that § 34-11(a) was unconstitutional both on its face and as it had been applied to him, (2) a permanent injunction against any attempt to enforce the ordinance, (3) an order expunging the records of his arrests under the ordinance, and (4) damages and attorney's fees under 42 U. S. C. §§ 1983 and 1988.
A panel of the Court of Appeals reversed. 764 F.2d 1156 (CA5 1985). The city's suggestion for rehearing en banc was granted, and the Court of Appeals, by a vote of 8-7, upheld the judgment of the panel. 789 F.2d 1103 (1986). The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court's conclusion that the ordinance was not vague, and that it "plainly encompasse[d] mere verbal as well as physical conduct." Id., at 1109. Applying the standard established in Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601 (1973), however, the Court of Appeals concluded that the ordinance was substantially overbroad. It found that "[a] significant range of protected speech and expression is punishable and might be deterred by the literal wording of the statute." 789 F. 2d, at 1110.
The city appealed, claiming that the Court of Appeals erred in holding the ordinance facially overbroad and in not abstaining until the ordinance had been construed by the state courts.6 We noted probable jurisdiction, 479 U.S. 811 (1986), and now affirm.
The elements of First Amendment overbreadth analysis are familiar. Only a statute that is substantially overbroad may be invalidated on its face. New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747, 769 (1982); Broadrick v. Oklahoma, supra. "We have never held that a statute should be held invalid on its face merely because it is possible to conceive of a single impermissible application . . . ." Id., at 630 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting). Instead, "[i]n a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct." Hoffman Estates v. The Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 494 (1982); Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 359, n. 8 (1983). Criminal statutes must be scrutinized with particular care, e. g., Winters v. New York, 333 U.S. 507, 515 (1948); those that make unlawful a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct may be held facially invalid even if they also have legitimate application. E. g., Kolender, supra, at 359, n. 8.
The city's principal argument is that the ordinance does not inhibit the exposition of ideas, and that it bans "core criminal conduct" not protected by the First Amendment. Brief for Appellant 12. In its view, the application of the ordinance to Hill illustrates that the police employ it only to prohibit such conduct, and not "as a subterfuge to control or dissuade free expression." Ibid. Since the ordinance is "contentneutral," and since there is no evidence that the city has applied the ordinance to chill particular speakers or ideas, the city concludes that the ordinance is not substantially overbroad.7
We disagree with the city's characterization for several reasons. First, the enforceable portion of the ordinance deals not with core criminal conduct, but with speech. As the city has conceded, the language in the ordinance making it unlawful for any person to "assault" or "strike" a police officer is pre-empted by the Texas Penal Code. Reply Brief for Appellant 10. The city explains, ibid., that "any species of physical assault on a police officer is encompassed within the provisions §§ 22.01, 22.02] of the Texas Penal Code,"8 and under § 1.08 of the Code, "[n]o governmental subdivision or agency may enact or enforce a law that makes any conduct covered by this code an offense subject to a criminal penalty." Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 1.08 (1974). See Knott v. State, 648 S.W.2d 20 (Tex. App. 1983) (reversing conviction obtained under municipal ordinance pre-empted by state penal code). Accordingly, the enforceable portion of the ordinance makes it "unlawful for any person to . . . in any manner oppose, molest, abuse or interrupt any policeman in the execution of his duty," and thereby prohibits verbal interruptions of police officers.9
Second, contrary to the city's contention, the First Amendment protects a significant amount of verbal criticism and challenge directed at police officers. "Speech is often provocative and challenging. . . . [But it] is nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest." Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4 (1949). In Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130 (1974), for example, the appellant was found to have yelled obscenities and threats at an officer who had asked appellant's husband to produce his driver's license. Appellant was convicted under a municipal ordinance that made it a crime " `for any person wantonly to curse or revile or to use obscene or opprobrious language toward or with reference to any member of the city police while in the actual performance of his duty.' " Id., at 132 (citation omitted). We vacated the conviction and invalidated the ordinance as facially overbroad. Critical to our decision was the fact that the ordinance "punishe[d] only spoken words" and was not limited in scope to fighting words that " `by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.' " Id., at 133, quoting Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518, 525 (1972); see also ibid. (Georgia breach-of-peace statute not limited to fighting words held facially invalid). Moreover, in a concurring opinion in Lewis, JUSTICE POWELL suggested that even the "fighting words" exception recognized in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), might require a narrower application in cases involving words addressed to a police officer, because "a properly trained officer may reasonably be expected to `exercise a higher degree of restraint' than the average citizen, and thus be less likely to respond belligerently to `fighting words.' " 415 U. S., at 135 (citation omitted).
This Houston ordinance, however, is not narrowly tailored to prohibit only disorderly conduct or fighting words,13 and in no way resembles the law upheld in Colten.14 Although we appreciate the difficulties of drafting precise laws, we have repeatedly invalidated laws that provide the police with unfettered discretion to arrest individuals for words or conduct that annoy or offend them.15 As the Court observed over a century ago, "[i]t would certainly be dangerous if the legislature could set a net large enough to catch all possible offenders, and leave it to the courts to step inside and say who could be rightfully detained, and who should be set at large." United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214, 221 (1876). In Lewis, JUSTICE POWELL elaborated the basis for our concern with such sweeping, dragnet laws:
The city has also urged us not to reach the merits of Hill's constitutional challenge, but rather to abstain for reasons related to those underlying our decision in Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941). In its view, there are certain limiting constructions readily available to the state courts that would eliminate the ordinance's overbreadth.16
Abstention is, of course, the exception and not the rule, Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 813 (1976), and we have been particularly reluctant to abstain in cases involving facial challenges based on the First Amendent.17 We have held that "abstention . . . is inappropriate for cases [where] . . . statutes are justifiably attacked on their face as abridging free expression." Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 489-490 (1965). "In such case[s] to force the plaintiff who has commenced a federal action to suffer the delay of state-court proceedings might itself effect the impermissible chilling of the very constitutional right he seeks to protect." Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U.S. 241, 252 (1967).
This ordinance is not susceptible to a limiting construction because, as both courts below agreed, its language is plain and its meaning unambiguous. Its constitutionality cannot "turn upon a choice between one or several alternative meanings." Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360, 378 (1964); cf. Babbitt v. Farm Workers, 442 U.S. 289, 308 (1979). Nor can the ordinance be limited by severing discrete unconstitutional subsections from the rest. For example, it cannot be limited to "core criminal conduct" such as physical assaults or fighting words because those applications are pre-empted by state law. See supra, at 460-461, and n. 10. The enforceable portion of this ordinance is a general prohibition of speech that "simply has no core" of constitutionally unprotected expression to which it might be limited. Smith v. Goguen, 415 U. S., at 578 (emphasis deleted). The city's proposed constructions are insufficient,18 and it is doubtful that even "a remarkable job of plastic surgery upon the face of the ordinance" could save it. Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, 394 U.S. 147, 153 (1969). In sum, "[s]ince `the naked question, uncomplicated by [ambiguous language], is whether the Act on its face is unconstitutional,' Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433, 439 (1971), abstention from federal jurisdiction is not required." Hawaii Housing Authority, supra, at 237.
The city relies heavily on its claim that the state courts have not had an opportunity to construe the statute. Even if true, that factor would not in itself be controlling. As stated above, when a statute is not ambiguous, there is no need to abstain even if state courts have never interpreted the statute. Harman, supra, at 534. For example, we have declined to abstain from deciding a facial challenge to a state statute when the suit was filed in federal court just four days after the statute took effect. Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U.S. 491 (1985). But in any event, the city's claim that state courts have not had an opportunity to construe the statute is misleading. Only the state appellate courts appear to have lacked this opportunity. It is undisputed that Houston's Municipal Courts, which have been courts of record in Texas since 1976, have had numerous opportunities to narrow the scope of the ordinance.19 There is no evidence that they have done so.20 In fact, the city's primary position throughout this litigation has been "to insis[t] on the validity of the ordinance as literally read." 789 F. 2d, at 1107. We have long recognized that trial court interpretations, such as those given in jury instructions, constitute "a ruling on a question of state law that is as binding on us as though the precise words had been written into the ordinance." Terminiello, 337 U. S., at 4. Thus, where municipal courts have regularly applied an unambiguous statute, there is certainly no need for a federal court to abstain until state appellate courts have an opportunity to construe it.
The possibility of certification does not change our analysis.21 The certification procedure is useful in reducing the substantial burdens of cost and delay that abstention places on litigants. Where there is an uncertain question of state law that would affect the resolution of the federal claim, and where delay and expense are the chief drawbacks to abstention, the availability of certification becomes an important factor in deciding whether to abstain. E. g., Bellotti v. Baird, 428 U.S. 132 (1976). Nevertheless, even where we have recognized the importance of certification in deciding whether to abstain, we have been careful to note that the availability of certification is not in itself sufficient to render abstention appropriate. Id., at 151. It would be manifestly inappropriate to certify a question in a case where, as here, there is no uncertain question of state law whose resolution might affect the pending federal claim. As we have demonstrated, supra, at 468-469, this ordinance is neither ambiguous nor obviously susceptible of a limiting construction.22 A federal court may not properly ask a state court if it would care in effect to rewrite a statute.23 We therefore see no need in this case to abstain pending certification.
I join the Court's opinion and its judgment except that I do not agree with any implication — if one exists — see ante, at 461-462, that Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518 (1972), and Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130 (1974), are good law in the context of their facts, or that they lend any real support to the judgment under review in this case. I dissented in Gooding and Lewis, see 405 U. S., at 534, and 415 U. S., at 136, in the conviction that the legislation there under consideration was related to "fighting words," within the teaching and reach of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942). I am still of that view, and I therefore disassociate myself from any possible suggestion that those cases are controlling authority here. The Houston ordinance before us, however, as is evident from its very language, and as the Court demonstrates, ante, at 462-463, 465, is far more broad and more offensive to First Amendment values and is susceptible of regular application to protected expression.
The challenged ordinance does not contain an explicit intent requirement. Both parties acknowledge, however, that the Texas Penal Code requires imputation of some culpability requirement. See Brief for Appellant 28-30; Brief for Appellee 31. Texas Penal Code Ann. § 6.02(b) (1974) provides: "If the definition of an offense does not prescribe a culpable mental state, a culpable mental state is nevertheless required unless the definition plainly dispenses with any mental element."1 The nature of this imputed mental state has a direct effect on the constitutional issue presented by this case. The Court apparently assumes that the requisite intent can be provided by a person's intent to utter words that constitute an interruption. But it would be plausible for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to construe the intent requirement differently. For example, that court could conclude that conviction under the ordinance requires proof that the person not only intended to speak, but also intended to interfere with the officer's performance of his duties.
But we are not without means of obtaining an authoritative construction. Last year the Texas voters amended the Texas Constitution to provide that the "court of criminal appeals [has] jurisdiction to answer questions of state law certified from a federal appellate court." Tex. Const., Art. 5, § 3-c. See Tex. Rule App. Proc. 214 (implementing this aspect of the constitutional provision). As JUSTICE O'CONNOR explained recently, "[s]peculation by a federal court about the meaning of a state statute in the absence of prior state court adjudication is particularly gratuitous when . . . the state courts stand willing to address questions of state law on certification from a federal court." Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U.S. 491, 510 (1985) (concurring). The Court repeatedly has emphasized the appropriateness of certification in cases presenting uncertain questions of state law. In such cases, certification can " `save time, energy, and resources and hel[p] build a cooperative judicial federalism.' " Bellotti v. Baird, 428 U.S. 132, 150-151 (1976) (quoting Lehman Brothers v. Schein, 416 U.S. 386, 391 (1974)).2
Pullman abstention is inappropriate unless the state courts "provid[e] the parties with adequate means to adjudicate the controverted state law issue." Field, Abstention in Constitutional Cases: The Scope of the Pullman Abstention Doctrine, 122 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1071, 1144 (1974). See 17 C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4242, p. 468 (1978). Cf. Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S., at 501 (abstaining because the "law of Texas appears to furnish easy and ample means for determining the Commission's authority").5 It is not clear that Texas law affords a remedy by which Hill could obtain a state court interpretation of the ordinance. The only apparent means of securing such a ruling would be through an action for a declaratory judgment. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 37.001 et seq. (1986) (authorizing courts to grant declaratory judgments). But Texas law treats declaratory judgment actions as civil cases. Thus, they are appealable to the Texas Supreme Court rather than the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. See, e. g., United Services Life Ins. Co. v. Delaney, 396 S.W.2d 855 (Tex. 1965). Moreover, because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has exclusive appellate jurisdiction to decide questions of Texas criminal law, see Tex. Const., Art. V, § 5, the Texas Supreme Court has held, with narrow exceptions, that injunctive or declaratory relief against criminal statutes is not available in civil cases. See Texas Liquor Control Board v. Canyon Creek Land Corp., 456 S.W.2d 891, 894-896 (Tex. 1970). Thus, it is quite unlikely that a declaratory or injunctive action would bring Hill any determination of the meaning of the ordinance — either from a trial or an appellate court. In short, the only sure ways for the ordinance to be interpreted are by certification, see supra, at 473-475, and by appeals of criminal convictions under the ordinance. Neither of these routes provides Hill a means to obtain relief sufficient to justify Pullman abstention.
FootNotes * Alvin Bronstein, David Goldstein, Burt Neuborne, James Harrington, and Bruce Griffiths filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
1. Hill testified that his "motivation was to stop [the officers] from hitting Charles." App. 37, 40. See n. 2, infra. He also explained: "I would rather that I get arrested than those whose careers can be damaged; I would rather that I get arrested than those whose families wouldn't understand; I would rather that I get arrested than those who couldn't spend a long time in jail. I am prepared to respond in any legal, nonaggressive or nonviolent way, to any illegal police activity, at any time, under any circumstances." Id., at 29.
2. The District Court stated that Hill "shout[ed] abuses" at the officers, App. to Juris. Statement B-2 (emphasis added). As the Court of Appeals held, however, there is "no evidence to support the district court's finding that Raymond [Hill] `shout[ed] abuses' at Officer Kelley." 789 F.2d 1103, 1105 (CA5 1986). See App. 73-74 (testimony of Officer Kelley that Hill did not use "abusive" language).
3. A conviction under the ordinance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $200. App. to Juris. Statement B-1.
4. The facts of Hill's other three arrests as found by the District Court are as follows. On August 31, 1975, Hill intentionally interrupted two Houston police officers as they made a traffic arrest. During the arrest, Hill wrote down license plate numbers, and then walked to within an arm's length of one of the officers on the side nearest the officer's revolver. The officer asked Hill to leave, but Hill instead moved closer. Hill was arrested, tried, and found not guilty.
5. These charges are summarized in an appendix to the opinion of the Court of Appeals, 789 F. 2d, at 1113-1114. The court noted that "[appellee] offered evidence of over 200 arrests that had been made for violation of the ordinance between November 1981 and March 1982. Violations are apparently so frequent that the City uses a printed form to report charges." Id., at 1107. The form, entitled "Complaint: Interrupting a Policeman," contains the preprinted charge of "wilfully or intentionally interrupt[ing] a city policeman" that is followed by a blank in which the officer fills in a description of the basis for the charge. Id., at 1108-1109. While noting that the majority of those arrested are charged with conduct that is "patently unlawful," the Court of Appeals observed that "[i]n many instances . . . the malefactor is described [in the handwritten portion] as having done nothing more offensive to the public order than speaking or failing to remain silent." Id., at 1109. Over a third of these arrests were never prosecuted. Id., at 1110.
6. The city also claims that the Court of Appeals engaged in improper factfinding. The city notes that the District Court found that the ordinance had not been unconstitutionally applied, and argues that the Court of Appeals erred in reviewing Hill's evidence and concluding that it showed a potential for unconstitutional application. Such a conclusion was foreclosed, according to the city, by the "clearly erroneous" standard of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a). Brief for Appellant 40.
This argument is without merit. An independent review of the record is appropriate where the activity in question is arguably protected by the Constitution. NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 915-916, n. 50 (1982). Moreover, the Court of Appeals accepted as "not challenged on appeal" the District Court's finding that the ordinance had not been unconstitutionally applied to Hill or to the reporters, 789 F. 2d, at 1107, 1110. The disagreement between the lower courts was therefore limited to a question of law — whether the ordinance on its face was substantially overbroad. In concluding that the ordinance was overbroad, the Court of Appeals did not err in reviewing evidence ignored by the District Court concerning the application of the ordinance, and in concluding that this evidence demonstrated a significant potential for unconstitutional application of the ordinance.
7. The city's threshold argument that Hill lacks standing is without merit. The basis for the argument is the District Court's finding that the ordinance has been constitutionally applied to Hill in the past. This finding is irrelevant, however, to the question of Hill's standing to seek prospective relief. Hill has shown "a genuine threat of enforcement" of the ordinance against his future activities, Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 475 (1974). Compare, e. g., n. 1, supra (testimony of Hill's willingness to interrupt officers in the future), with Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103 (1969) (intervening event rendered unlikely any future application of statute to appellee); see also App. to Juris. Statement B-3, n. 1 (District Court finding that Hill "is a gay rights activist who claims that the Houston police have `systematically' harassed him `as the direct result' of his sexual preferences"). Moreover, although we have never required that a plaintiff "undergo a criminal prosecution" to obtain standing to challenge the facial validity of a statute, Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 188 (1973), the fact that Hill has already been arrested four times under the ordinance lends compelling support to the threat of future enforcement. We therefore agree with the Court of Appeals that "Hill's record of arrests under the ordinance and his adopted role as citizen provocateur" give Hill standing to challenge the facial validity of the ordinance. 789 F. 2d, at 1107. Cf. Ellis v. Dyson, 421 U.S. 426 (1975).
8. One who assaults or strikes either a police officer or "any person summoned to aid in making the arrest" may be arrested and prosecuted either under Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.01 (1974 and Supp. 1987), which renders unlawful any provocative contact with (or assault or threatened assault against) any person, or under Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.02 (1974), which renders unlawful conduct causing bodily injury to a peace officer. These sections provide in pertinent part:
9. It is this portion of the ordinance to which Hill directed his constitutional challenge, see ¶¶ 6 and 27 of his complaint. Record 138, 144-145.
10. To the extent the ordinance could be interpreted to ban fighting words, it is pre-empted by Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 1.08 (1974), which preempts municipal laws that prohibit conduct subject to penalty under the Code, see supra, at 460-461, and by § 42.01, the State's comprehensive disorderly conduct provision. Subsection § 42.01(a)(1), which makes unlawful "abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language" only if "by its very utterance [it] tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace," prohibits the use of fighting words. The "practice commentary" in the annotated Code confirms that this section is designed to track the "fighting words" exception set forth in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942). Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 42.01, pp. 124-125 (1974 and Supp. 1987).
11. JUSTICE POWELL suggests that our analysis of protected speech sweeps too broadly. But if some constitutionally unprotected speech must go unpunished, that is a price worth paying to preserve the vitality of the First Amendment. "[I]f absolute assurance of tranquility is required, we may as well forget about free speech. Under such a requirement, the only "free" speech would consist of platitudes. That kind of speech does not need constitutional protection.' " Spence v. Washington, 418 U.S. 405, 416 (1974) (Douglas, J., concurring) (citation omitted).
12. This conclusion finds a familiar echo in the common law. See, e. g., The King v. Cook, 11 Can. Crim. Cas. Ann. 32, 33 (B. C. County Ct. 1906) ("Cook . . . a troublesome, talkative individual, who evidently regards the police with disfavour and makes no secret of his opinions on the subject. . . [told] some persons in a tone of voice undoubtedly intended for [the officer's] ears, that the arrested man was not drunk and the arrest was unjustifiable. Now up to this point he had committed no crime, as in a free country like this citizens are entitled to express their opinions without thereby rendering themselves liable to arrest unless they are inciting others to break the law; and policemen are not exempt from criticism any more than Cabinet Ministers"); Levy v. Edwards, 1 Car. & P. 40, 171 Eng. Rep. 1094 (Nisi Prius 1823) (where constable breaks up fight between two boys and proceeds to handcuff one of them, third party who objects by telling constable " `you have no right to handcuff the boy' " has done no wrong and may not be arrested); cf. Ruthenbeck v. First Criminal Judicial Court of Bergen Cty., 7 N. J. Misc. 969, 147 A. 625 (1929) (vacating conviction for saying to police officer "You big muttonhead, do you think you are a czar around here?"). See generally Note, Obstructing A Public Officer, 108 U. Pa. L. Rev. 388, 390-392, 406-407 (1960) ("[C]onduct involving only verbal challenge of an officer's authority or criticism of his actions. . . operates, of course, to impair the working efficiency of government agents. . . . Yet the countervailing danger that would lie in the stifling of all individual power to resist — the danger of an omnipotent, unquestionable officialdom — demands some sacrifice of efficiency . . . to the forces of private opposition. . . . [T]he strongest case for allowing challenge is simply the imponderable risk of abuse — to what extent realized it would never be possible to ascertain — that lies in the state in which no challenge is allowed").
13. To the extent the ordinance did extend to disorderly conduct, it would be pre-empted by Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 42.01 (1974 and Supp. 1987), the comprehensive state disorderly conduct provision. See n. 10, supra.
14. The ordinance challenged in Colten v. Kentucky stated:
15. See, e. g., Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 360-361 (1983) (identification requirement unconstitutional because it accords police "full discretion"); Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 575 (1974) ("Statutory language of such a standardless sweep allows policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predilections . . . [thereby] entrusting lawmaking `to the moment-to-moment judgment of the policeman on his beat' "), quoting Gregory v. Chicago, 394 U.S. 111, 120 (1969) (Black, J., concurring); Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 170 (1972) (vagrancy ordinance "furnishes a convenient tool for `harsh and discriminatory enforcement by local prosecuting officials, against particular groups deemed to merit their displeasure' "), quoting Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 97-98 (1940); Coates v. Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 615-616 (1971) (statute prohibiting "annoying" conduct "contains an obvious invitation to discriminatory enforcement"). Like many of the ordinances in these cases, Houston's effectively grants police the discretion to make arrests selectively on the basis of the content of the speech. Such discretion is particularly repugnant given "[t]he eternal temptation . . . to arrest the speaker rather than to correct the conditions about which he complains." Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 65 (1971) (Douglas, J., dissenting).
16. The city did not raise the abstention issue until after it had lost on the merits before the panel of the Court of Appeals. After rehearing en banc, neither the majority nor the dissent addressed abstention. The city's tardy decision to urge abstention is remarkable given its acquiescence for more than three years to federal adjudication of the merits and its insistence before the District Court and the panel that the ordinance was both unambiguous and constitutional on its face. These circumstances undercut the force of the city's argument, but do not bar us from considering it. Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433 (1971); Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941).
17. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 486-487 (1965); Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 404 (1974); Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360, 378-379 (1964); NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 433 (1963); but cf. Babbitt v. Farm Workers, 442 U.S. 289 (1979).
18. The city suggests that the statute would be constitutional if construed to apply only to (1) intentional interruptions by (2) "physical, rather than verbal, acts" during (3) an officer's attempts to make "arrests and detentions." Brief for Appellant 30-31. These proposals are either at odds with the ordinance's plain meaning, or do not sufficiently limit its scope. First, speech does not necessarily lose its constitutional protection because the speaker intends it to interrupt an officer, nor would an intent requirement cabin the excessive discretion the ordinance provides to officers. Second, given the pre-emption of the first part of the statute, discussed infra, limiting the ordinance to "physical acts" would be equivalent to invalidating it on its face. Third, there is no reasonable way to read the plain language of the ordinance as limited to arrests and detentions; even if there were, such a limitation would not significantly limit its scope.
19. The ordinance has been in force, in substantially the same language, for over 30 years. 789 F. 2d, at 1111. The Houston police arrest on average 1,000 persons per year under the ordinance. Brief for Appellee 14, 35 (citing Record).
20. Indeed, Hill introduced evidence in the District Court that Houston's Municipal Courts have declined to employ limiting constructions in jury instructions. Brief for Appellee 35 (citing Record 104-105, plaintiff's Exhibits 3, 4, 5).
21. Under Texas law, either this Court or a United States court of appeals may certify a question of Texas criminal law "which may be determinative of the cause then pending and as to which it appears to the certifying court that there is no controlling precedent in the decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeals." Tex. Rule App. Proc. 214.
22. JUSTICE POWELL argues that the unsettled question of the effect on this ordinance of § 6.02(b) of the Texas Penal Code, which requires "a culpable mental state" as an element of any offense, creates sufficient ambiguity to require certification. He suggests that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals might limit convictions under the ordinance to cases in which there was a finding of "inten[t] to interfere with the officer's performance of his duties" justifies certification, and argues that such a limit would "narrow the focus of the constitutional question" before us. Post, at 474. As JUSTICE POWELL implicitly concedes, however, there is no possibility that such an intent requirement would eliminate the excessive discretion the ordinance affords to the police in choosing whom to arrest; even with such a requirement, the ordinance would remain unconstitutionally overbroad. Moreover, the meaning and application of such an intent requirement is not self-evident, and could raise independent questions of vagueness or of overbreadth. This is therefore a case where certification "would not only hold little hope of eliminating the issue of [overbreadth] but also would very likely pose other constitutional issues for decision, a result not serving the abstention- [or certification-]justifying end of avoiding constitutional adjudication." Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U. S., at 378.
23. It would also be inappropriate for a federal court to certify the entire constitutional challenge to the state court, of course, for certified questions should be confined to uncertain questions of state law. See 17 C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4248, pp. 529-530 (1978).
1. At least one Texas appellate court has concluded that this section applies to municipal ordinances. See Pollard v. State, 687 S.W.2d 373, 374 (Tex. App. 1985) (pet. ref'd, Pollard v. State, No. 05-83-01161 Cr. (Jan. 29, 1986)).
2. This case demonstrates two advantages of certification over the more traditional Pullman abstention procedure. First, certification saves time by sending the question directly to the court that is empowered to provide an authoritative construction of the statute. Second, certification obviates the procedural difficulties that may hinder efforts to obtain declaratory judgments from state trial courts. See infra, at 476-477.
3. Cf. Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, 370 U.S. 294, 374 (1962) (Harlan, J., dissenting in part and concurring in part); Gillespie v. United States Steel Corp., 379 U.S. 148, 170 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring). See also Longshoremen v. Davis, 476 U.S. 380, 403 (1986) (REHNQUIST, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment).
4. The Court concludes that Pullman abstention is inappropriate for two reasons. First, it suggests that this Court should be "particularly reluctant to abstain in cases involving facial challenges based on the First Amendment." Ante, at 467. The Court supports this conclusion with a citation to Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965). I see nothing in that case that supports such a broad principle. The Dombrowski Court declined to abstain because "the interpretation ultimately put on the [challenged state] statutes by the state courts is irrelevant," id., at 490, and because "no readily apparent construction suggest[ed] itself as a vehicle" for curing the constitutional problem with the statute, id., at 491. Both of these rationales are straightforward applications of the general rule that Pullman abstention is appropriate only when determination of an uncertain question of state law would obviate the need for the federal court to decide a substantial question of federal constitutional law.
5. I note that the adequacy of state procedures is examined much more strictly in cases seeking Pullman abstention than in cases seeking Younger abstention. Compare, e. g., Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 14-17 (1987).
6. The first definition of "challenge" in the 1980 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary is "[a] call to engage in a contest or fight." The Court implies that municipalities can punish an attempt to interfere with police officers only if it "physically obstruct[s] the officer's investigation," ante, at 463, n. 11, or if it constitutes "fighting words" within the meaning of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), see ante, at 464, n. 12. This implication troubles me because, as I have indicated in the text supra this page, there can be many situations where a State — in the public interest — should have the right to punish speech directed at police officers that does not fall within either of these exceptions.