Opinion ID: 2785103
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Every person who intentionally disturbs or

Text: disquiets any assemblage of people met for religious 16 CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES political-meetings exception, § 59, was notably different from today’s § 18340. Section 59, under the headnote “Disturbance of public meetings, misdemeanor,” stated, using a structure and a standard very similar to § 403: Every person who willfully disturbs or breaks up any public meeting of electors or others, lawfully being held for the purpose of considering public questions, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Cal. Penal Code § 59 (1874). This section is not the historical predecessor of the current political meetings exception, Elections Code § 18340, however. Section 18340 derived from a different section of the original 1872 Penal Code, specifically § 58. That section was not, in 1872, exempted from coverage under § 403. Section 58 had the heading “Preventing public meetings” and stated: Every person who, by threats, intimidations, or unlawful violence, willfully hinders or prevents electors from assembling in public worship at a tax-exempt place of worship, by [noise,] profane discourse, rude or indecent behavior, or by any unnecessary noise, either within the place where the meeting is held, or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the meeting, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. The current statute also contains sections (b)–(f), which provide additional details on penalties for violation of § 302. CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES 17 meeting for the consideration of public questions, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Cal. Penal Code § 58 (1874). This is identical to the language in current Elections Code § 18340, exempted from § 403. In short, §§ 58 and 59 both applied to “public meetings for the consideration of public questions,” but the two sections had different standards for a misdemeanor. Under § 58, it was a misdemeanor to hinder such a meeting “by threats, intimidations, or unlawful violence,” while under § 59, it was a misdemeanor simply to “willfully disturb[] or break[] up” such a meeting. Only § 59 was referred to and excluded from the coverage of § 403; § 58 was not mentioned in § 403 at all. How did it happen that the original 1872 version of § 403 referred to the now-extinct Cal. Penal Code § 59 (“Disturbance of public meetings”) but the current version of § 403 refers to a section identical to the 1872 version of § 58 (“Preventing public meetings”)? The first step in this shift occurred in 1905 when § 59 of the Penal Code was amended and its text wholly replaced with § 41 of the Purity in Elections Act,7 which had been passed in 1893. The amended § 59 had the headnote “Force, violence or restraint used to influence votes” in place of the original headnote “Disturbance of public meetings, misdemeanor,” and it contained lengthy prohibitions on voting intimidation and 7 The full title was “An Act to promote the purity of elections by regulating the conduct thereof, and to support the privilege of free suffrage by prohibiting certain acts and practices in relation thereto, and providing for the punishment thereof.” 1893 Cal. Stat. 12. 18 CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES interference. Cal. Penal Code § 59 (1905).8 Although § 59 8 The amended § 59 stated, in full: It is unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by himself or any other person in his behalf, to make use of, or threaten to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint, or to inflict or threaten the infliction, by himself or through any other person, of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, or in any manner to practice intimidation upon or against any person, in order to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting at any election, or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or persons at any election, or on account of such person or persons at any election, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election. And it is unlawful for any person, by abduction, duress, or any forcible or fraudulent device or contrivance whatever, to impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere with the free exercise of the elective franchise by any voter; or to compel, induce, or prevail upon any voter either to give or refrain from giving his vote at any election, or to give or refrain from giving his vote for any particular person or persons at any election. It is not lawful for any employer, in paying his employees the salary or wages due them, to inclose their pay in “pay envelopes” upon which there is written or printed the name of any candidate, or any political mottoes, devices, or arguments containing threats, express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of such employees. Nor is it lawful for any employer, within ninety days of any election, to put up or otherwise exhibit in his factory, workshop, or other establishment or place where his workmen or employees may be working, any hand-bill or placard containing any threat, notice, or information, that in case any particular ticket of a political party, or organization, or candidate shall be elected, work in his place or establishment will lease, in whole or in part, or CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES 19 no longer had anything to do with public meetings, § 403’s exclusion of § 59 was not modified to reflect the change in the function of § 59. The amendment of § 59 thus rendered § 403’s exclusion of meetings covered by § 59 nonsensical, as § 59 was concerned not with meetings at all but with voting interference. This problem was likely due to an error by the legislature in failing to consider the effect of the amendment of § 59 on § 403 and failing to amend § 403 accordingly. The error was noticed by Deering editors as early as 1915, but the legislature did not take any steps to amend § 403 at that time.9 In 1939, Penal Code §§ 58 and 59, among others, were repealed as part of the adoption of California’s first Elections Code. Section 58 (“Preventing public meetings”) became Elections Code § 5004, and § 59 (“Force, violence, or restraint used to influence vote”) was split among Elections his place or establishment be closed up, or the salaries or wages of his workmen or employees be reduced, or other threats, express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of his workmen or employees. This section applies to corporations as well as individuals, and any person or corporation violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and any corporation violating this section shall forfeit its charter. Cal. Penal Code § 59 (1905). 9 In the 1915 edition of the California Penal Code, although the statutory text of § 403 still referred to § 59, the Deering’s annotations now pointed to a Penal Code § 58, which had not previously been associated with § 403 in any way. Similarly, the Deering’s annotations pertaining to § 58, and not to § 59, referred to § 403. Cal. Penal Code §§ 403, 58, 59 (Deering 1915). 20 CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES Code §§ 11581, 11582, 11584–86. See Cal. Elec. Code §§ 11581–82, 11584–86 (Deering Supp. 1939). Finally, in 1949, the California Special Crime Study Commission on Criminal Law and Procedure reported that “[a] study of the code indicates that the reference to Section 59 of the Penal Code contained in Section 403 should have been to Section 58 which is now Section 5004 of the Elections Code,” and recommended amending § 403. SPECIAL CRIME STUDY COMMISSION, FINAL REPORT ON CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE, Recommendation 13, at 23–24 (1949). In accordance with this recommendation, § 403 was amended, and its reference to Penal Code § 59 was replaced with a reference to Elections Code § 5004, the successor to Penal Code § 58 and predecessor to § 18340. 1949 Cal. Stat. 2119; Cal. Penal Code § 403 (1955). Since 1949, § 403 has not been amended substantively.10 Thus, § 18340, which is currently exempted from coverage by § 403, is the successor section to § 58, which was not the original exemption. The substance of § 59, the original exemption from § 403, no longer exists in any form in the California Codes. 10 A mysterious legislative comment appeared in 1976, stating that the Elections Code section (then § 12046, now § 18340) “is needed to prevent conduct which would prevent a meeting from taking place at all, including verbal threats, etc. since Penal Code 403 does not deal with verbal behavior.” Cal. Elec. Code § 29440 (Deering 1977). This comment contradicts all other indications of the legislative purpose of the exceptions to § 403 and also contradicts the Kay court’s 1970 interpretation of § 403 as very much covering “verbal behavior,” as is clear in its extended First Amendment analysis. We therefore give this comment little weight. CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES 21 In the face of this tortuous history of § 403 and its exceptions, one thing remains clear. The original version of § 403 was enacted with the intent to exempt political meetings from coverage by § 403. This intent was reaffirmed in 1949, when the legislature, after careful consideration, chose to exclude from § 403’s coverage a statutory section as close as possible to the original exception, with the result that the revised version of § 403 excluded the same meetings as had the original version of the statute: political and religious meetings. As to political meetings, however, unlike general meetings and religious meetings, the legislature established a higher threshold for unlawful conduct than the original exception had done. The amended political-meetings statute made it a misdemeanor to hinder or prevent such meetings by “threats, intimidations, or unlawful violence,” but not to “disturb or break up” such meetings by non-violent means.