Opinion ID: 3395195
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Void for Complexity

Text: As an alternative ground for affirming the district court, the captains ask us to find that the statutory scheme here is void for vagueness. We disagree with the captains’ argument. A statute is unconstitutionally vague if it “(1) ‘fails to provide people of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity 15 to understand what conduct it prohibits’ or (2) ‘authorizes or even encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.’” United States v. Shrader, 675 F.3d 300, 310 (4th Cir. 2012) (quoting Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 732 (2000)). The captains present only the first theory. In assessing the existence of fair notice, we consider “whether a statute’s prohibitions are set out in terms that the ordinary person exercising ordinary common sense can sufficiently understand and comply with.” Id. (internal quotation omitted). The captains’ vagueness argument contains an oddity and an irony. The oddity is that vagueness challenges usually target a particular word or phrase as critically deficient. 6 Here, however, the captains launch a broadside attack on the entire “statutory framework” as unconstitutionally “convoluted and confusing.” The irony is that this claimed convolution is mainly the product of the exceptionally novel (and ultimately unsupported) reading of the Lacey Act, Bass Act, and the Commission’s plan 6 See, e.g., Johnson v. United States, -- U.S. --, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015) (voiding “residual clause” in Armed Career Criminal Act); United States v. Shrader, 675 F.3d 300, 310-12 (4th Cir. 2012) (evaluating statutory terms “harass,” “intimidate,” and “course of conduct”); Martin v. Lloyd, 700 F.3d 132, 136 (4th Cir. 2012) (courts must place particular “phrases or words” in context when considering a vagueness challenge). 16 that the captains urged below. The Government’s theory in the indictments was straightforward: the Lacey Act criminalizes taking wildlife in violation of a federal regulation; a federal regulation under the Bass Act makes it illegal to fish for bass in federal waters; the captains fished for bass in federal waters; therefore, the captains committed Lacey Act crimes. To support their position, the captains tally the number of statutes, plans, and regulations they say must be consulted to divine whether their conduct was illegal. But counting the number of laws in a case is a poor way to decide a due process challenge: Our sister circuits have squarely held that regulatory complexity does not render a statute (or set of statutes) unconstitutionally vague. We recognize that putting together the pieces of this regulatory puzzle is not easy. To understand the crime with which Defendant was charged, one must look at four sources and read them together . . . . But a statute does not fail the vagueness test simply because it involves a complex regulatory scheme, or requires that several sources be read together, and Defendant has not directed us to a single case in which we have held otherwise. United States v. Zhi Yong Guo, 634 F.3d 1119, 1122 (9th Cir. 2011); see United States v. Griffith, 85 F.3d 284, 288 (7th Cir. 1996) (“The statutory structure involved is admittedly somewhat complicated—it takes three steps to get from state prostitution to federal money laundering. But complication is not tantamount to unconstitutional vagueness. Here, each step in the statutory 17 analysis is well-defined.”) (emphasis in original). We think the principle of law in these cases is sound. Moreover, a “statute need not spell out every possible factual scenario with ‘celestial precision’ to avoid being struck down on vagueness grounds.” United States v. Whorley, 550 F.3d 326, 334 (4th Cir. 2008). We hasten to add that the straightforward prohibition here— colloquially, “don’t fish for bass in federal waters”—has been on the books and readily comprehensible to those in the fishing industry (much less the general population) for over a quartercentury. 55 Fed. Reg. 40,181, 1990 WL 351745 (Oct. 2, 1990); see Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Addendum IV to Amend. 6 to the Interstate Fishery Mgmt. Plan, at p.5 § 2.3.3 (Oct. 2014) (“Federal waters . . . ha[ve] been closed to the harvest, possession and targeting of striped bass since 1990”). Further, “economic regulation is subject to a less strict vagueness test because its subject matter is often more narrow,” and because market participants “can be expected to consult relevant legislation in advance of action.” Vill. of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 498 (1982); see United States v. Sun, 278 F.3d 302, 309 (4th Cir. 2002). 18 The Lacey Act also contains a scienter requirement (two of them, in fact), thus forcing the Government to prove the captains’ knowledge. Any person who violates [inter alia, 16 U.S.C. § 3372(a)] by knowingly engaging in conduct that involves the sale or purchase of, the offer of sale or purchase of, or the intent to sell or purchase, fish or wildlife or plants with a market value in excess of $350, knowing that the fish or wildlife or plants were taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of, or in a manner unlawful under, any underlying law, treaty or regulation, shall be fined not more than $20,000, or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both. 16 U.S.C. § 3373(d)(1)(B). A “scienter requirement alone tends to defeat” vagueness challenges to criminal statutes. United States v. Jaensch, 665 F.3d 83, 90 (4th Cir. 2011); see Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 149 (2007) (“scienter requirements alleviate vagueness concerns”); Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U.S. 379, 395 & n.13 (1979) (recognizing “that the constitutionality of a vague statutory standard is closely related to whether that standard incorporates a requirement of mens rea”); United States v. McLean, 715 F.3d 129, 137 (4th Cir. 2013); United States v. Shrader, 675 F.3d 300, 311 (4th Cir. 2012); see also United States v. Lee, 937 F.2d 1388, 1394-95 (9th Cir. 1991) (sustaining Lacey Act conviction against vagueness challenge due 19 to scienter requirement). Consequently, we find no merit to the captains’ vagueness argument. 7