Court Opinion

ID: 9744792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:16:17.465038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:51.756081
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I dissent. Although I agree with the appellate court that the statute unreasonably restricted the rights of persons under 18, I am of the opinion that it was invalid for reasons not mentioned either by the appellate court or the majority. The statute proscribed the presence of persons less than 18 years of age at enumerated places and times “unless accompanied and supervised by a parent, legal guardian or other responsible companion at least 21 years of age approved by a parent or legal guardian or unless engaged in a business or occupation which the laws of this State authorize a person less than 18 years of age to perform: ***.” In Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391, 70 L. Ed. 322, 328, 46 S. Ct. 126, 127, in holding an Oklahoma statute invalid the Supreme Court said: “That the terms of a penal statute creating a new offense must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties, is a well-recognized requirement, consonant alike with ordinary notions of fair play and the settled rules of law. And a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, violates the first essential of due process of law.” The vice of this statute is that “men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning” and that it left to. the subjective determination of the arresting officer the questions whether the minor was being “supervised” and whether the companion over 21 was “responsible.” Furthermore, the police officer was left free to determine whether the “responsible companion” was responsible in the sense that he was trustworthy or that he must answer to the parent or legal guardian. Had there been two young men 21 years of age in the car at the time of the incident, the arresting officer, without any standards, would have been free to determine whether they were “responsible companions” and whether the defendants were being “supervised.” The statistics cited by the majority are, of course, interesting but are utterly without value insofar as the crucial question presented is concerned, i.e., how many of these offenses are committed between 12:01 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. the remainder of the week. The majority’s construction of the exception for minors engaged in a business or occupation is that it “necessarily includes getting to and from the job.” (66 Ill. 2d at 41.) Once again the arresting officer, without statutory standards, must subjectively determine whether this construction required the minor to travel by the shortest and most direct route and whether a stop for food or refreshment was permissible. Furthermore, no provision was made for minors emancipated by marriage or other means, and unquestionably the junior class of almost every high school in the State, en masse, violated this statute at least once each year. I am aware that the welfare of minors is of concern to the General Assembly, but enactment of a statute so vague as to violate due process is not the method of achieving its goals. I would affirm the judgment of the appellate court. MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WARD joins in this dissent.