Opinion ID: 2516621
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is RCW 9A.44.115 unconstitutionally overbroad?

Text: Both Glas and Sorrells contend that RCW 9A.44.115 is overbroad because it sweeps within its prohibitions constitutionally protected free speech. See City of Tacoma v. Luvene, 118 Wash.2d 826, 827 P.2d 1374 (1992); City of Seattle v. Webster, 115 Wash.2d 635, 641, 802 P.2d 1333 (1990). A third party challenge to a law as overbroad is permissible if the law in question chills or burdens constitutionally protected conduct. Luvene, 118 Wash.2d at 840, 827 P.2d 1374. Courts will permit such a challenge because of the importance of fundamental constitutional rights. Id. (citing State v. Motherwell, 114 Wash.2d 353, 370-71, 788 P.2d 1066 (1990)). Thus, an enactment may be invalidated for overbreadth where it would be unconstitutional as applied to others, even if not as applied to the litigant. Id. This is an exception to the general rule that a litigant cannot rely on hypothetical conduct to argue the unconstitutionality of a statute. State v. Lundquist, 60 Wash.2d 397, 374 P.2d 246 (1962). A law is overbroad if it sweeps within its prohibitions constitutionally protected free speech activities. The First Amendment overbreadth doctrine may invalidate a law on its face only if the law is `substantially overbroad.' In determining overbreadth, `a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct.' Criminal statutes require particular scrutiny and may be facially invalid if they `make unlawful a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct ... even if they also have legitimate application.' Webster, 115 Wash.2d at 641, 802 P.2d 1333 (quoting City of Seattle v. Huff, 111 Wash.2d 923, 925, 767 P.2d 572 (1989)). Glas argues that according to the trial court opinion, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, the following activities could be considered a violation of the statute:

Glas Pet. for Review at 11. The trial court in Glas found that the photographs at issue were hostile intrusions that violated the privacy interest and expectation of the women and that the pictures were taken to arouse or gratify sexual desire on an internet web site. 106 Wash.App. at 899, 27 P.3d 216. However, the statute does not criminalize hostile intrusions of a person's privacy interests. Rather, it criminalizes the viewing, photographing or filming of another person, for sexual arousal or gratification, when the person is in a place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of safety from casual or hostile intrusion or surveillance. RCW 9A.44.115. Thus, the statute does not require that the viewing or filming be intrusive or hostilethis relates to the expectation of privacy. Nor does the statute require that the viewing or filming be of a part of a person's body normally concealed. The Court of Appeals joined the trial court in concluding that taking pictures up a woman's skirt constituted a hostile intrusion. RCW 9A.44.115(1)(b)(ii). This interpretation reads a limitation into the statute that is simply not present. The place referenced in the statute is one where a person may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion. It is the physical location that is at issue, not the nature of the intrusion. Once the place is defined, then the conduct occurring to a person within that place is criminalized. Additionally, both the trial court and the Court of Appeals seem to overlook the Legislature's reference to a casual intrusion and instead focus on a hostile intrusion, a distinction apparently necessary to apply the statute to a public place. According to the trial court's interpretation of the statute necessary to convict Glas, as affirmed by the Court of Appeals, any viewing of a person at a mall, or another public place, based on sexual motivation would be punishable. This follows because the statute defines views as the intentional looking upon of another person for more than a brief period of time, in other than a casual or cursory manner, with the unaided eye or with a device designed or intended to improve visual acuity. RCW 9A.44.115(1)(d). In light of the statutory definition of view, the lower courts' interpretation of the statute would sweep constitutionally protected conduct within the statute's penumbra because it could encompass simply looking at someone appreciatively or desirously in a public place, such as a restaurant or a bar. Additionally, if the statute is read as the trial court and the Court of Appeals interpret, then the statute would criminalize photographing a person on a public street, regardless of the pose, if the purpose of the photograph was to gratify or arouse sexual desire. These acts provide but a few examples of the potential overbreadth of RCW 9A.44.115. However, we need not determine that the statute is unconstitutional for overbreadth if we follow the construction previously outlined. A statute that regulates behavior will not be invalidated unless the overbreadth is ``both real and substantial in relation to the [statute's] plainly legitimate sweep.'' Luvene, 118 Wash.2d at 839-0, 827 P.2d 1374 (quoting Webster, 115 Wash.2d at 641, 802 P.2d 1333 (quoting City of Seattle v. Eze, 111 Wash.2d 22, 31, 759 P.2d 366 (1988) (quoting O'Day v. King County, 109 Wash.2d 796, 804, 749 P.2d 142 (1988)))). Furthermore, [a] statute or ordinance will be overturned only if the court is unable to place a sufficiently limiting construction on a standardless sweep of legislation. Luvene, 118 Wash.2d at 840, 827 P.2d 1374 (citing Webster, 115 Wash.2d at 641, 802 P.2d 1333). We need merely interpret the plain language of the statute as written to render it constitutional. Accordingly, we hold that RCW 9A.44.115 is not unconstitutionally overbroad.