Opinion ID: 3052241
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Has otherwise established a continued

Text: pattern of unauthorized entry. This section shall not be utilized to impinge upon the lawful exercise of constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech or assembly. Cal. Penal Code § 626.8(a) (emphasis added). As an initial matter, California courts regularly construe arguably ambiguous statutes narrowly to avoid First Amendment problems. In doing so, California courts have enunciated the principle that “the court should construe the enactment so as to limit its effect and operation to matters that may be constitutionally regulated or prohibited.” People v. Superior Court (Anderson), 151 Cal. App. 3d 893, 895-96 (Ct. App. 1984) (quoting Welton v. City of Los Angeles, 18 Cal. 3d 497, 505-06 (1976)). For example, in In re Manuel G., 16 Cal. 4th 805, 814 (1997), the California Supreme Court considered a statute imposing criminal penalties on “[e]very person who attempts, by means of any threat or violence, to deter or prevent an executive officer from performing any duty imposed upon such officer by law . . . .” The court agreed with lower court decisions narrowly construing the statute: “To avoid the risk of punishing protected First Amendment speech, . . . the 8004 CENTER FOR BIO-ETHICAL v. L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF term ‘threat’ has been limited to mean a threat of unlawful violence used in an attempt to deter the officer.” Id. at 814-15; see also People v. Zimmerman, 15 Cal. App. 4th Supp. 7, 12 (Ct. App. 1993) (“A statute challenged for overbreadth is not void if its terms are reasonably susceptible to an interpretation consistent with the Constitution.”); City & County of San Francisco v. Eller Outdoor Adver., 192 Cal. App. 3d 643, 663 (Ct. App. 1987) (“It is the duty of the courts, wherever possible, to construe a statute in a manner which is reasonable, consistent with the statutory purpose, and eliminates doubts as to its constitutionality.”); Loska v. Superior Court, 188 Cal. App. 3d 569, 584 (Ct. App. 1986) (“In order to save the ordinance as a whole, we ‘construe the enactment so as to limit its effect and operation to matters that may be constitutionally . . . prohibited.’ ”) (alteration in original, quoting Welton, 18 Cal. 3d at 505). [8] Here, a narrowing construction is invited by the plain language of § 626.8: “This section shall not be utilized to impinge upon the lawful exercise of constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech or assembly.” The California legislature thus contemplated the possibility that § 626.8 might, if construed broadly, apply to constitutionally protected speech, and sought to prevent such an application. Further, the exclusionary clause is drafted expansively, barring applications that “impinge,” rather than “violate,” protected speech. Thus, the legislature seemingly meant to make the statute inapplicable where First Amendment rights are possibly affected, even if the statute could validly restrict those rights.11 11 The California legislature sometimes drafts First Amendment savings clauses more narrowly, so as merely to limit the statute to what is constitutionally permissible. For instance, California Penal Code § 420.1 provides that it “shall not apply to . . . any person who is engaging in activities protected by the California Constitution or the United States Constitution.” The same “shall not apply to” language is used in Penal Code §§ 602(o), 602.1, and 602.8. Similarly, Penal Code § 646.9(f)-(g) provides that “[c]onstitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of” certain terms in the statutory definition of the crime. This “shall not apply” and “is not included” language is narrower than the broad “shall not be used to impinge” language in the statute at issue here. We should give effect to this difference. CENTER FOR BIO-ETHICAL v. L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF 8005 [9] Finally, apart from the exclusionary clause, the language of § 626.8 suggests that it was intended to apply to manner rather than content of speech. Section 626.8 applies where the “presence” or “acts” of a person “interfere[s]” with the school’s activities or “disrupt[s] the school or its pupils.” The terms “presence” and “acts” indicate that § 626.8 is concerned with the physical aspects of a speaker’s behavior, not with the content of his speech. Similarly, the words “interfere” and “disrupt” are active verbs that focus on the behavior of the speaker, not on the reaction of the listeners. [10] As a whole, the language of § 626.8 does not evidence any intent to criminalize a person’s behavior based on a listener’s reaction to the content of his speech. We thus conclude that the California courts would construe § 626.8 to apply to speech only when the disruption caused by the speaker is caused by the manner of the speech. Controversial words and images that, because of their content, upset the listener and cause the listener to behave disruptively are not covered by the statute. [11] Under our narrow construction, § 626.8 does not apply to Plaintiffs’ conduct in driving their trucks around Dodson Middle School. That conduct was disruptive only because of the audience’s reaction to the content of the speech. Children became upset, a few boys talked about throwing rocks, other children stood in the middle of the street and slowed the entry of students into school, and at least one class spent time discussing the photos of fetuses instead of their prescribed school work. All of these reactions were triggered by the upsetting message on the truck — not by noise, or physical obstruction, or any other aspect of Plaintiffs’ activities. Construing § 626.8 as we do, the statute provided no basis to prohibit Plaintiffs from continuing to drive their vehicles around the school before classes began. [12] Section 626.8 was the only authority cited by Defendants in asking Plaintiffs to leave, and thus provided the only 8006 CENTER FOR BIO-ETHICAL v. L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF possible source of a significant governmental interest necessary to restrict Plaintiffs’ speech in a public forum. See Ward, 491 U.S. at 791-92. Misapplying a statute is not a significant governmental interest. Defendants have suggested no other significant governmental interest to justify restricting Plaintiffs’ speech. We therefore hold that the Deputy Sheriffs violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment right of free speech.