Court Opinion

ID: 9595245
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:37:20.992923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:22.916037
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part)— This ordinance is overbroad without a narrowing construction. I concur in the majority's judgment on the other points raised. I write separately to urge a limiting construction and to expand on some points raised in the briefs.
I
Evaluation of an overbreadth claim requires the court to decide whether the ordinance before it sweeps within its prohibitions conduct protected by the First Amendment. See majority, at 640-41 (citing Seattle v. Huff, 111 Wn.2d 923, 925, 767 P.2d 572 (1989)). The First Amendment protects solicitation for charitable organizations, Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 444 U.S. 620, 632-33, 63 L. Ed. 2d 73, 100 S. Ct. 826, reh'g denied, 445 U.S. 972 (1980); musical performances, Goldstein v. Nantucket, 477 F. *648Supp. 606 (D. Mass. 1979); handing out literature, Martin v. Struthers, 319 U.S. 141, 87 L. Ed. 1313, 63 S. Ct. 862 (1943); and collecting signatures for a petition, Alderwood Assocs. v. Washington Envtl. Coun., 96 Wn.2d 230, 239-40, 635 P.2d 108 (1981). Since a person carrying out one of these activities may intend to cause a pedestrian to go around him or her, the ordinance broadly regulates a substantial amount of First Amendment conduct. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how it would be applied to any conduct not involving free speech.
The majority suggests that the intent requirement narrows the scope of the ordinance and thereby saves it from overbreadth challenge. Majority, at 641. The intent requirement does not save this ordinance absent a limiting construction.
Criminal intent saved the ordinance at issue in Seattle v. Slack, 113 Wn.2d 850, 784 P.2d 494 (1989), because the prostitution loitering ordinance at issue in Slack required intent to solicit prostitution. Slack, 113 Wn.2d at 856. The intent to solicit prostitution was basically incompatible with First Amendment activity because solicitation of sex for money is not protected speech. Slack, 113 Wn.2d at 856 (citing State v. Carter, 89 Wn.2d 236, 241, 570 P.2d 1218 (1977)).
Specific intent does not always save ordinances from overbreadth challenges, however. One can intend to cause others to take evasive action while engaging in protected First Amendment speech. For example, a person may approach someone on a street to seek a signature on a petition. The majority does not confront the question of whether such an action could permissibly result in a conviction for intentionally causing another to take evasive action. Instead, the majority states that the "ordinance does not prohibit innocent intentional acts which merely consequentially . . . cause others to take evasive action." (First italics mine.) Majority, at 641-42. While this statement is a reasonable interpretation of the ordinance, it leaves the reader uncertain as to how much protected *649activity might be swept within the confines of the ordinance. This construction makes it quite clear that a person standing on the side of a sidewalk could not violate the ordinance because a pedestrian strayed from his path and then had to take evasive action. It leaves unanswered the question of whether a person seeking a signature could approach someone directly under this ordinance. It likewise does not help the trial court decide whether Webster's begging is constitutionally protected conduct or not.
In order to know whether this ordinance is substantially overbroad, we must know whether begging, the conduct to which it seems to be aimed, is constitutionally protected speech. Analysis of this question not only contributes to the overbreadth inquiry, it will aid trial courts in applying this ordinance to begging in a constitutional manner. I believe that begging is constitutionally protected speech, but that it is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, like other speech. Admitting the constitutional status of begging does not involve giving beggars an unlimited right to harass potential donors. Because begging involves constitutionally protected speech, the legislation at issue requires a limiting construction in order to be upheld.
Three appellate courts have addressed the question of whether begging is constitutionally protected. See Ulmer v. Municipal Court, 55 Cal. App. 3d 263, 127 Cal. Rptr. 445 (1976); Young v. New York City Transit Auth., 903 F.2d 146 (2d Cir. 1990); C.C.B. v. State, 458 So. 2d 47 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1984). The California case cited dismissed the argument in a few sentences that begging is constitutionally protected, and provided no analysis of applicable precedent which could be useful in seriously addressing the issue. The Florida Court of Appeals, which held that begging was constitutionally protected, and the Second Circuit, which held that begging was not constitutionally protected speech by a 2-to-l vote, provide careful analysis and useful guidance.
Both the Florida Court of Appeals and all three judges on the Second Circuit panel agreed that Supreme Court decisions on charitable solicitation and commercial speech *650controlled the issue of whether begging is constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court has held repeatedly that charitable solicitation is protected speech. See Schaumburg; Secretary of State v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U.S. 947, 81 L. Ed. 2d 786, 104 S. Ct. 2839 (1984); Riley v. National Fed'n of the Blind, 487 U.S. 781, 101 L. Ed. 2d 669, 108 S. Ct. 2667 (1988).
The Supreme Court justified its holding that charitable solicitation is protected speech by stating that solicitation is "characteristically intertwined with informative and perhaps persuasive speech seeking support for particular causes . . .". Schaumburg, 444 U.S. at 632. A beggar's speech also informs the public about significant facts of social existence. See Young, 903 F.2d at 165 (Meskill, J., dissenting in part). The plaintiffs before the Second Circuit actually spoke with potential donors about public issues, such as the perceived inefficiency of the social service system in New York. Young, at 165. Even the statement "I am hungry" communicates a fact of social existence of some relevance to public discourse. The First Amendment protects the spread of information as well as the spread of ideas. In light of a Supreme Court decision holding that the statement "f_the draft" deserves First Amendment protection, the rudimentary nature of a communication cannot deprive it of all First Amendment protection. See Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 29 L. Ed. 2d 284, 91 S. Ct. 1780, reh'g denied, 404 U.S. 876 (1971). Not surprisingly, the Florida Court of Appeals and the dissenter in the Second Circuit decision could not see a meaningful distinction between charitable solicitation and individual solicitation.
The Second Circuit majority tried in vain to distinguish the charitable solicitation cases on which Judge Meskill in dissent and the Florida Court of Appeals relied. It argued that these cases sought to protect the communication associated with solicitation without necessarily protecting solicitation itself. Young, 903 F.2d at 155 (majority opinion). The Young majority failed to account for the Supreme Court's cases striking down laws limiting the percentage of *651contributions a fundraiser could keep. See Riley; Munson. Although the statutes considered in these cases directly regulated only the use of the money, not the communication associated with it, the Court struck down these restrictions. In so doing, the Court expressly declined "to separate the component parts of charitable solicitations from the fully protected whole." Riley, 487 U.S. at 796. In light of Schaumburg, Riley, and Munson, begging is fully protected speech.
Both the Florida Court of Appeals and Judge Meskill realized that Supreme Court cases holding that commercial speech is protected under the First Amendment also precluded holding that begging is unprotected. C.C.B. v. State, supra at 49 (citing Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Coun., Inc., 425 U.S. 748, 764-65, 48 L. Ed. 2d 346, 96 S. Ct. 1817 (1976); Bates v. State Bar, 433 U.S. 350, 53 L. Ed. 2d 810, 97 S. Ct. 2691 (1977)); Young v. New York City Transit Auth., supra at 165 (citing Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy). The Supreme Court has held that advertising disseminates information which consumers use in making numerous private economic decisions. Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy, 425 U.S. at 765. It reasoned that if the information provided by advertising is indispensable to the proper allocation of resources in a free enterprise system, it is also indispensable to the formation of intelligent opinions about how that system should be regulated or altered. For all these reasons, the First Amendment provides some protection to commercial speech. The communications of beggars also influence individual and collective decisions about the allocation of resources. If commercial speech is constitutionally protected, begging is protected as well.
Beggars speak when they solicit contributions. Yet, the Second Circuit majority considered begging to be conduct, rather than speech. It relied on Supreme Court cases having no relevance to the question of whether opening one's mouth to ask for money should be considered speech, namely, a flag-burning case, Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. *652397, 105 L. Ed. 2d 342, 109 S. Ct. 2533 (1989), and a case about sleeping as a form of political protest, Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288, 82 L. Ed. 2d 221, 104 S. Ct. 3065 (1984). These cases, moreover, support the dissenter's position because the Court held that flag burning was protected and assumed, without deciding, that the First Amendment protected a sleep-in protest. See Johnson; Clark, 468 U.S. at 293.
The Young majority also argued, no doubt correctly, that subway passengers experience begging as intimidating, harassing, and threatening, but do not feel intimidated by private charities. Young, 903 F.2d at 156. To the extent the public feels harassed by beggars because of the immediacy of their plight and the poignancy of their message, the First Amendment forbids protecting the public from harassment. No municipality may forbid speech because of the negative feelings engendered in the listener. Coates v. Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 615, 29 L. Ed. 2d 214, 91 S. Ct. 1686 (1971) ("mere public intolerance or animosity cannot be the basis for abridgment of these constitutional freedoms").
The Young majority's position is untenable. Judge Mes-kill's dissent and the unanimous opinion of the Florida Court of Appeals rely on a correct interpretation of applicable authority, whereas the Second Circuit majority relied upon the public's negative reaction to the homeless as the basis for its decision.
This does not mean that beggars are free to harass passersby without any restriction. On the contrary, a municipality may apply reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on constitutionally protected begging. The ordinance before us contains no outright ban; rather, it consists of two manner restrictions, one forbidding aggressive begging, the other forbidding obstruction of traffic.23
*653An ordinance restricting protected speech on the sidewalk must be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest because the sidewalks are a public forum. Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 74 L. Ed. 2d 794, 103 S. Ct. 948 (1983). Other courts have struck down restrictions on speech activities designed to prevent obstruction of traffic when the regulation was too imprecise. See, e.g., Howard Gault Co. v. Texas Rural Legal Aid, Inc., 848 F.2d 544 (5th Cir. 1988) (law regulating picketing to prevent traffic obstruction held overbroad); see also Davenport v. Alexandria, 710 F.2d 148 (4th Cir. 1983) (remanding to determine whether the size of sidewalks and other factors justifies restricting musical performances tending to impede traffic). We should construe this ordinance so that it only prohibits substantial obstructions of traffic, as other courts have when faced with overbroad traffic restrictions. See, e.g., Ciccarelli v. Key West, 321 So. 2d 472, 474 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1975) (ordinance restricting loitering which "impedes or intends to impede" passage must include some provisions limiting its application to threats to public safety and breaches of the peace). While a municipality may regulate First Amendment activity to prevent obstruction of passage, see Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, 382 U.S. 87, 91, 15 L. Ed. 2d 176, 86 S. Ct. 211 (1965), it may not restrict First Amendment rights just to prevent annoyance to the citizenry. See Coates, 402 U.S. at 615. The breadth of the definition of obstruction in this ordinance raises the specter of widespread unconstitutional application. It could be applied to any person who walks up to another person on the street to communicate a message, even if the person is free to walk around the speaker and the speaker does nothing to intimidate the other pedestrian.
Absent a limiting construction, this ordinance does not meet the substantial overbreadth test. It seems likely that the ordinance will be applied predominantly to First *654Amendment activity. On the other hand, if these First Amendment activities substantially obstruct traffic, such application will be a legitimate restriction on the manner of speech. The ordinance should be upheld, but its application limited to substantial obstruction of traffic. Trial courts may then interpret "substantial obstruction" in such a way as to keep traffic flowing without prohibiting constitutionally protected speech which only annoys passersby. Because Mr. Webster has not been charged with aggressive begging, we do not pass on the constitutionality of that restriction on begging. The State's failure to charge Mr. Webster with aggressive begging indicates that he did not intimidate potential donors; rather, he obstructed traffic. This construction of the ordinance only assures that the traffic restriction is narrowly tailored to the State's interest supporting it. It does not speak to actual intimidation of potential donors.
II
Precedent compels me to agree with the majority's conclusion that the ordinance before us is not unconstitutionally vague under the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has held that the term "obstruct" is not unconstitutionally vague. Cameron v. Johnson, 390 U.S. 611, 616, 20 L. Ed. 2d 182, 88 S. Ct. 1335 (statute prohibiting picketing which obstructs ingress and egress is constitutional), reh'g denied, 391 U.S. 971 (1968). This ordinance is much clearer than the ordinance at issue in Cameron because it specifically defines obstruction as actions which "require another person ... to take evasive action to avoid physical contact." SMC 12A.12.015(A)(3). This definition may increase the breadth of the ordinance, but it reduces its vagueness. As the foregoing discussion indicates, the concept of intent does not cure any vagueness a statute prohibiting obstruction of traffic may have. Cf. majority, at 644-45. But the introduction of an intent concept did not make the statute more vague than the statute upheld in Cameron.
*655III
I also agree with the majority's conclusion that the Seattle ordinance does not violate principles of equal protection. The majority, however, does not address the briefs' arguments that the ordinance violates principles of equal protection by exempting picketing and protesting from its strictures, while regulating other forms of protected speech. Brief of Respondents, at 34-36; Brief of Amicus Curiae, at 2-3. The majority also creates some risk of confusion by addressing the argument that the ordinance violates principles of equal protection because it has a disparate impact upon the homeless. See majority, at 646-47.
The United States Supreme Court has held that a municipality may not ban picketing at a given location while exempting labor pickets from the general ban. Police Dep't v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 33 L. Ed. 2d 212, 92 S. Ct. 2286 (1972); Carey v. Brown, 447 U.S. 455, 461, 65 L. Ed. 2d 263, 100 S. Ct. 2286 (1980). The Court viewed the ordinances at issue in Mosley and Carey as content-based regulation of speech. This ordinance, however, does not discriminate amongst speech on the basis of content. A labor union picket would not be subject to the ordinance's strictures, but an individual passing out leaflets complaining about management would be. The ordinance puts a place and manner restriction on all types of speech and then exempts picketing and protest. Protesting and picketing are particular manners of expressing ideas; their exemption does not betray any content discrimination.
The majority creates some risk of misunderstanding by saying too much about the amicus' claim that the ordinance's treatment of the homeless as a class violates equal protection. The majority states that the record does not indicate that Mr. Webster is homeless, merely transient. Majority, at 647. The majority, therefore, should not reach the claim that the ordinance unconstitutionally discriminates against the homeless as a class. Its discussion of the important equal protection issue argued by the litigants *656may be reserved to a case in which it can be properly raised.
Some risk of confusion is created by the majority's attempts to come to grips with the American Civil Liberty Union's argument. The ACLU did not claim that the ordinance is facially discriminatory. Cf. majority, at 647. Rather, the ACLU claimed that the ordinance had a "disparate impact" on the homeless. "Disparate impact" is a concept of civil rights statutes which the ACLU does not link to the equal protection cases involving an evaluation of actual administration of a statute. See Saville v. Quaker Hill Place, 531 A.2d 201, 240 (Del. 1987) (statute); Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 430, 28 L. Ed. 2d 158, 91 S. Ct. 849 (1971) (statute); Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 30 L. Ed. 220, 6 S. Ct. 1064 (1886) (unconstitutional administration of a facially neutral statute). In any case, the record in this case does not demonstrate that this ordinance has had a disparate impact upon the homeless. The lack of factual support in the record for the ACLU's contention resolves this claim. The majority resolves the ACLU's claim by stating that the ordinance is not facially discriminatory. Majority, at 647. This observation is correct, but unresponsive to a claim that the statute has discriminatory consequences.
The majority's assertion that there are no cases holding that the homeless are a suspect class is absolutely correct. Majority, at 647. But by stating that no case law supports the argument, the majority unnecessarily intimates the view that the argument has no merit. I suggest we address the question of whether concepts of equal protection law justify identifying the homeless as a suspect class in a case squarely raising the issue.
I would give each argument its due. I would address Webster's claim, which is properly before us on this record, and summarily dispose of the ACLU's claim, which is factually unsupported by the record. I concur in the majority's conclusion that the ordinance cannot be struck on grounds of equal protection on the record before us.
*657Conclusion
I would hold that the ordinance is constitutional provided that it is construed to reach only substantial obstructions of traffic and remand the cause for trial.

I agree with the majority that the aggressive begging sub-section is not before us, but mention it in order to put the ordinance in context.