Opinion ID: 2975947
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Facial Invalidation

Text: Once a statute is deemed overly broad, the last consideration is the remedy. The remedy could be facial invalidation or, as recognized by the partial dissent, the remedy could be severing the constitutionally problematic portion of the statute. See Ferber, 458 U.S. at 769 n.24 (“[I]f the federal statute is not subject to a narrowing construction and is impermissibly overbroad, it nevertheless should not be stricken down on its face; if it is severable, only the unconstitutional portion is to be invalidated.”); see also Denver Area Educ. Telecomms. Consortium, Inc., 518 U.S. at 767 (plurality); United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs, 402 U.S. 363, 370-74 (1971). While we would like to agree with the dissent and save this statute through severing, we do not believe we can and hence hold that the statute is facially invalid. Severing this statute is not possible under the Supreme Court’s caselaw. This case does not present a situation where adding a time period contemplated by Congress would alleviate the constitutional infirmity. See Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs, 402 U.S. at 370-74. Nor do we have a case where the parties before us represent the full extent of the overly broad applications of the statute. See Brockett, 472 U.S. at 503-05. Nor is this statute one where a particular subsection could be excised, leaving in place the vast majority of Congress’s scheme. See Denver Area Educ. Telecomms. Consortium, Inc., 518 U.S. at 767-68 (plurality). Instead, saving this statute requires more extensive editing, and we believe ourselves unable to intrude into Congress’s domain in such a manner. Severing, rather than rewriting, cannot be done in a manner that would adequately address Congress’s expressed concerns. The partial dissent’s suggested severing shows the difficulty of trying to so edit this statute; the recommended severing would greatly impair the scheme Congress created. For example, it is clear that Congress wanted to regulate publishers because it wanted to stop the repeated publication of images that depict minors. See, e.g., Ferber, 458 U.S. at 759 & n.10. If publishers were required to keep records as well, they could not publish photographs of individuals unless they had records reflecting that the individuals are not minors. Under the partial dissent’s proposition, however, no publisher, commercial or otherwise, would be covered by the statute. Instead, only those who create the depiction and pay the depicted individuals would have to keep records. Congress acted when this statute was construed to be as constrained in the manner the partial dissent proposes, and it disapproved. Before the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-248, tit. V, §§ 501-507, 120 Stat. 587, 623-31 (2006), the statute could be fairly interpreted to have the limited coverage proposed by the partial dissent, but the Department of Justice regulations explained that the coverage was as extensive as the current statute. The Tenth Circuit invalidated the regulations, holding that the statute only covered those who had contact with the depicted performers. Sundance Assocs., Inc. v. Reno, 139 F.3d 804, 808 (10th Cir. 1998). Congress responded by amending the statute to cover all the activities, including publishing, that the previous regulations had covered. Senator Hatch stated that the Tenth Circuit’s interpretation of the statute was incorrect, and that Congress had all along intended the scope of the statute to be No. 06-3822 Connection Distributing Co., et al. v. Keisler Page 16 as extensive as interpreted by the regulations. See 152 Cong. Rec. S7809, S7896 (daily ed. July 19, 2006) (statement of Senator Hatch). The partial dissent’s attempt to constrain the reach of the statute has another consequence of which Congress would disapprove; it only allows for regulation of creators of images who have a commercial relationship with those depicted. In the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, one of the specific findings Congress made when amending § 2257 was that “[a] substantial interstate market in child pornography exists, including not only a multimillion dollar industry, but also a nationwide network of individuals [who] openly advertising their desire to exploit children and to traffic in child pornography. Many of these individuals distribute child pornography with the expectation of receiving other child pornography in return.” Pub. L. No. 109-248, tit. V, § 501(1)(B), 120 Stat. 587, 623. These individuals in underground networks operating via the Internet are unlikely to be paying the children depicted when they create images of them. Indeed, as we detailed when discussing the proper construction of this statute, there are innumerable situations where the individual is not acting with commercial motives, and is therefore unlikely to either be paying the children depicted or being paid to arrange for the participation of the children. See supra p.10-12 (providing examples of surreptitious creation of images as well as creation with the consent of a parent). While someone could rely on the term “managing” to cover individuals using unpaid performers, we do not believe there is a way to interpret “managing” to cover these noncommercially-motivated people, but not a married couple. Finally, Congress’s interest in aiding prosecutions for production and possession of child pornography would not be well-vindicated by the partial dissent’s formulation. Congress wanted the provenance of all sexually explicit images of children. An important purpose of these records was to make it easier for prosecutors to prove that the image possessed by a defendant was in fact a child, an element that is required in every prosecution. Problems proving that the individual depicted is a child are encountered regardless of whether the individual depicted was in some way compensated. We think that there are many ways Congress can modify this statute to alleviate First Amendment concerns while at the same time ensuring that the statute covers the vast majority of situations with which it is concerned. Doing so, however, requires greater creativity in formulating and a freer hand in rewriting than we have, a hand which is limited to severing phrases. This case is very similar to United States v. National Treasury Employees Union, 513 U.S. 454 (1995). The Supreme Court there held that severing was not possible because the potential fixes were not themselves previously adjudicated nor clearly identified from the legislative history, and therefore the severed statute would present difficult constitutional questions that may not be presented if Congress was to draft the legislation. 513 U.S. at 478-79. Because we have no clear guidance from Congress and the constitutional rules are unclear, we do not believe we can use severing to save the statute’s constitutionality while at the same time vindicating Congress’s intent. See id. at 479 n.26 (“Drawing a line between a building and sidewalks with which we are intimately familiar, based on settled First Amendment principles, is a relatively simple matter. In contrast, drawing one or more lines between categories of speech covered by an overly broad statute, when Congress has sent inconsistent signals as to where the new line or lines should be drawn, involves a far more serious invasion of the legislative domain.” (citation omitted)); see also Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of N. New Eng., 546 U.S. 320, 329-30 (2006) (unanimous) (“[M]aking distinctions in a murky constitutional context, or where line-drawing is inherently complex, may call for a ‘far more serious invasion of the legislative domain’ than we ought to undertake.” (quoting National Treasury Employees Union, 513 U.S. at 479 n.26)). We therefore find the statute facially invalid. No. 06-3822 Connection Distributing Co., et al. v. Keisler Page 17