Court Opinion

ID: 9459121
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:11:26.108922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:01.973254
License: Public Domain

LEYENTHAL, Circuit Judge:
Appellant’s petition for rehearing and the memorandum of amicus lodged with *1257the court, focus on Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518, 92 S.Ct. 1103, 31 L.Ed.2d 408 (1972) and Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 91 S.Ct. 1780, 29 L.Ed.2d 284 (1971). We have considered these opinions again, especially in view of the orders entered by the Supreme Court on June 26, 1972, in Rosenfeld v. New Jersey, Lewis v. City of New Orleans, and Brown v. Oklahoma, 408 U.S. 901, 92 S.Ct. 2479, 33 L.Ed.2d 321 (1972), vacating convictions for disorderly conduct and remanding for consideration in the light of Gooding and Cohen.
None of these cases involve constitutional immunity for the particular conduct, but the very distinct question of the overbreadth of the underlying statute. Convictions under such statutes must be reversed even though a narrower statute could concededly be applied to prohibit the conduct involved. The issue of statutory overbreadth is not a problem in the District of Columbia, because our disorderly conduct laws, 22 D.C.Code §§ 1107, 1121, have been subjected to a narrowing construction by this court in Williams v. District of Columbia, 136 U.S.App.D.C. 56, 419 F.2d 638 (en banc, 1969).
Apart from the “fighting words” context, Williams sets forth that the statute is not applicable for mere use “of indecent or obscene words” but only if the language “is, under ‘contemporary community standards,’ so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually overhear it as to amount to a nuisance.” We think this is valid under Gooding and Cohen.*
Appellant believes that we misread Williams, and that it disallows any statutory prohibition on “talking back” to a policeman. Our opinion does not sanction an arrest for disorderly conduct for talking back to a policeman, but rather upholds the policeman in finding probable cause to believe appellant subjected bystanders to a nuisance. There is not a glimmer or scintilla in this record of any indication of bad faith, harassment or police misconduct. Whether the policeman had probable cause to believe that a misdemeanor had been committed in his presence is erroneously confused by appellant with the quite distinct question of whether there was proof of such a violation beyond a reasonable doubt.
We were not required in this case to consider whether or under what circumstances a valid arrest of a person not in flight may turn on the policeman’s ascertaining the impact of the words on the hearers or overhearers as part of his assessment of defendant’s conduct. In this case appellant was in flight, was validly detained from further flight, and was thus properly searched for weapons. The conduct of the arresting officer was reasonable under the circumstances, and the subsequent discovery of the heroin was not unlawful.
Petition for rehearing denied.

 In Rosenfeld v. New Jersey, the Supreme Court remanded for reconsideration under a statute, prohibiting public uttering of profane or indecent language, that was construed to apply whenever words were “likely, in the light of the gender and age of the listener and the setting of the utterance, to affect the sensibilities of the hearer.” State v. Profaci, 56 N.J. 346, 353, 266 A.2d 579, 584 (1970). Without attempting to predict the outcome of Rosenfeld, we see a distinction between language that merely affects the sensibilities of others, and language so grossly offensive under contemporary community standards as to amount to a nuisance.