Opinion ID: 6327334
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Construing Section 18-9-111(1)(e)

Text: ¶18 When construing a statute, our aim is to ascertain and give effect to the General Assembly’s intent. Graves, ¶ 27, 368 P.3d at 326. We look to the plain meaning of a statute’s terms to determine whether they cover protected communications. Hickman, 988 P.2d at 642. ¶19 In construing the phrase “intended to harass” in subsection (1)(e), Hickman is instructive. The prosecution charged Hickman with witness retaliation. Hickman, 988 P.2d at 632. In examining the statute defining that offense, we concluded that the term “act of harassment” was unconstitutionally overbroad. Id. We noted that “[t]he term ‘harassment’ is synonymous with ‘vex,’ ‘trouble,’ or 11 ‘annoy,’” id. at 642 (quoting Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1986)), and that it was defined “as conduct that is directed at a specific person that ‘annoys, alarms, or causes substantial emotional distress and serves no legitimate purpose,’” id. (quoting Black’s Law Dictionary (7th ed. 1999)). We reasoned that this “broad meaning” applied to a wide range of protected communications, including forecasting a storm or engaging in political discourse. Id.; see also Bolles, 541 P.2d at 83 (explaining that although forecasting the weather or predicting political trends could alarm (i.e., harass) a person, those are still protected communications). ¶20 Fast forward two decades, and we see that modern definitions of the terms “harass” and “harassment” are not so different. Merriam-Webster defines the verb “harass” as to: “exhaust, fatigue”; “to annoy persistently”; and “to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for[,] especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal . . . conduct.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harass [https://perma.cc/5LTT-TZUE]. The definition of “harassment” in Black’s Law Dictionary means “[w]ords, conduct, or action (usu. repeated or persistent) that, being directed at a specific person, annoys, alarms, or causes substantial emotional distress to that person and serves no legitimate purpose; purposeful vexation.” (11th ed. 2019). As in Hickman, we conclude that this broad meaning of the term “harass” covers protected speech. 12