Opinion ID: 524995
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Presentment of the Issue of Facial Validity

Text: 91 Concerning the facial invalidity of the Rule, the majority finds that Moore has presented to this Court only one argument: that the Rule is invalid because of the overbreadth doctrine. As a consequence, the majority does not believe that Moore has presented an argument that the Rule is a prior restraint. Moore's briefs are not extensive concerning the facial invalidity of the Rule. 5 However, Moore has properly presented the issue of whether this Rule is an unconstitutional prior restraint at a sufficient level of generality to put the City on notice of the argument. Moore refers to the problems inherent in a prior restraint when he discusses the city's discretion and the muzzling effect of the Rule. Moore also generally attacks the district court's decision, which, I should add, also considers the Rule with respect to its prior restraint feature. 92 As I will discuss in Part II-C infra, confusion necessarily results from the linguistic overlap of the generic, descriptive use of the term overbroad with the First Amendment Doctrine of substantial overbreadth. 6 The district court's use of the word overbroad is ambiguous regarding whether the court used the term in its generic sense, specific doctrinal sense, or both senses. Presented with an entangled area of constitutional jurisprudence, Moore probably has attacked the district court's disposition in a less than analytically ideal manner. Given the confusing nature of these jurisprudentially tangled threads of analysis, however, which I shall discuss more fully infra, I cannot agree with the majority that Moore's alleged error in analytical precision should foreclose this court from reviewing the district court's decision concerning the facial validity of the Rule. 93 In my view, because of the complexities of this area, common law-like assignments of error are not necessary for an issue to be properly presented to the appellate court. Moore has attacked the Rule on its face, requesting specific injunctive relief in the process concerning the facial status of the Rule. The use of the ambiguous term overbroad, 7 which Moore appears to have used in its generic, descriptive mode, coupled with the discussion in his briefs that the rule contains no guidelines for the exercise of the chief's discretion in deciding what speech to authorize, and that Moore is and has been denied authorization to make any public statements concerning city business (including future statements of any sort), should be enough to present the entangled problems of: (a) a prior restraint; (b) the legal doctrine of substantial overbreadth; and (c) the descriptive notion of a overbroad rule. I believe we are fully entitled to consider all relevant issues in Moore's case as they may relate to the district court's judgment that the Rule is facially constitutional. A prior restraint, enshrined in a written rule, should not live on because able advocacy becomes imperfect as a result of judicial and jurisprudential confusion. 94