Opinion ID: 2002541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constitutionality of sections 716.7 and 716.8.

Text: Chase made a timely objection to the statutory definition of criminal trespass contained in the instructions because he believed it to be unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. He argued that the legislature created the vagueness and overbreadth when it amended Iowa Code section 716.7(2)(a) (1981). That section in pertinent part had defined trespass as follows: a. Entering upon or in property without justification or without the implied or actual permission of the owner, lessee, or person in lawful possession with the intent to commit a public offense or to use, remove therefrom, alter, damage, harass, or place thereon or therein anything animate or inanimate. Subsection (2)(a) was revised and amended in 1981, see 1981 Iowa Acts ch. 205 § 1, so that the section now reads in pertinent part as follows: a. Entering upon or in property without the express permission of the owner,... with the intent to commit a public offense, to use, remove therefrom, alter, damage, harass, or place thereon or therein anything animate or inanimate, or to hunt, fish or trap on or in the property. This paragraph does not prohibit the unarmed pursuit of game or furbearing animals lawfully injured or killed which come to rest on or escape to the property of another. Iowa Code § 716.7(2)(a) (1983). Chase maintains that section 716.7 is overbroad and vague because the terms implied and without justification were deleted from the previous statute. He now argues that innocent conduct would allow a criminal conviction. We find no merit in these contentions. The principles that we apply when examining statutes under constitutional attack are well established, see State v. Sullivan, 298 N.W.2d 267, 270 (Iowa 1980), and need not be repeated here.
A statute is overbroad if it attempts to achieve a governmental purpose to control or prevent conduct that is constitutionally subject to state regulation by means which also tramp upon those actions ordinarily deemed to be within the area of protected freedom. State v. Lee, 315 N.W.2d 60, 61 (Iowa 1982). Defendant apparently argues that the amended statute now impinges upon protected freedoms by proscribing implied or justified intrusion on property. He argues that the present statute is now so broad that it would even prohibit a garbage collector from entering a homeowner's property for the purpose of collecting garbage. Since defendant has failed to demonstrate that a garbage collector has the right or protected freedom to enter upon property and to remove anything therefrom without express permission, we find his argument to be unpersuasive. Indeed, subsection (2) does make an exception to the general rule for hunters of game or furbearing animals under certain conditions. We do not find that section 716.7(2)(a) invades the area of protected freedoms. Lee, 315 N.W.2d at 61. Accordingly, we hold that defendant failed to meet the heavy burden of rebutting the presumed constitutionality of the statute. State v. Newman, 326 N.W.2d 788, 792 (Iowa 1982).
A statute is unconstitutionally vague when it fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of the conduct forbidden and thus encourages arbitrary and capricious arrests and convictions. Lee, 315 N.W.2d at 60. Although defendant alleges that this section is unconstitutionally vague, he does not now specify how it is vague nor did he do so during his objections to the instruction. Constitutional challenges must be specific. Lee, 315 N.W.2d at 61. We perceive no lack of fair notice of the conduct that is prohibited. We find the statute is not unconstitutionally vague.