Court Opinion

ID: 9634492
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:14:41.205246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:03.684853
License: Public Domain

RHESA HAWKINS BARKSDALE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
Concerning federalism and comity, few federal-court actions are more friction-producing than holding a state statute unconstitutional. To make matters worse, it is indeed rare to do so while, as here, reviewing a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) dismissal of challenges to the statute. Notwithstanding the best of intentions, the esteemed majority goes astray in both regards for the Fourteenth Amendment substantive-due-process claim.
For the Texas statute at issue, I concur in vacating the dismissal of the First Amendment commercial-speech claim (advertising) and remanding it for further proceedings, if any. On the other hand, the invalidation of the statute is legally incorrect for the Fourteenth Amendment substantive-due-process claim (sale). The dismissal of that claim should be affirmed. Accordingly, regarding that claim, I must respectfully dissent.
I.
The statute prohibits, inter alia, the sale or other promotion, such as advertising, of “obscene devices”: those “designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs”. Tex Penal Code Ann. § 43.21(a)(7); id. § 43.23; see also id. § 43.21(a)(l)(B)(ii). Such devices include, but are not limited to, “a dildo or artificial vagina”. Id. at § 43.21(a)(7). The statute provides an affirmative defense for persons who “ possess[ ] or promote[ ] [obscene devices] ... for a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose”. Id. at § 43.23(f).
Plaintiffs’ complaints claim the statute unconstitutionally restricts commercial speech (advertising) under the First Amendment, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment. The complaints also claim the “sale” portion of the statute vio*748lates substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment because it impinges upon the right to engage in private intimate conduct without governmental intrusion. See Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003). (Reliable Consultants, Inc. also presents an additional substantive-due-process claim under a parallel provision in the Texas Constitution. That state-law claim is subsumed within the following discussion of the federal constitutional claim.)
The complaints, however, do not include plaintiffs’ advertisements, if any, or describe with any specificity the sexual devices they seek to sell. The complaints were dismissed for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).
II.
For starters, and contrary to the majority’s position, Maj. Opn. at 741, the proscribed conduct is not private sexual conduct. Instead, for obscene devices, the statute proscribes only the sale or other promotion (such as advertising) of those devices, including, but not limited to, a dildo or artificial vagina.
For our de novo review of a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal, we, needless to say, “accept all factual allegations in the [complaint] as true and examine whether the allegations state a claim sufficient to avoid dismissal”. E.g., Grisham v. United States, 103 F.3d 24, 25 (5th Cir.1997) (citation omitted). To avoid such dismissal, the complaint must provide “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face”. Bell All. Corp. v. Twombly, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1974, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “Factual allegations [in the complaint] must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact).” Id. at 1965 (quotation marks, citations, and footnote omitted). In other words, with some exceptions, our review is limited to the complaint, including any attachments. See Hogan v. City of Houston, 819 F.2d 604, 604 (5th Cir.1987); Fin. Acquisition Partners LP v. Blackwell, 440 F.3d 278, 286 (5th Cir.2006) (allowing review of documents in the public record) (citation omitted).
A.
As the majority properly holds, the commercial-speech claim (advertising) may be premature. Maj. Opn. at 742. This is especially true for an as-applied challenge, which may be the only basis for seeking to have the statute held unconstitutional for that claim. See Board of Trustees of SUNY v. Fox, 492 U.S. 469, 482-83, 109 S.Ct. 3028, 106 L.Ed.2d 388 (1989) (quoting Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Ass’n, 436 U.S. 447, 462 n. 20, 98 S.Ct. 1912, 56 L.Ed.2d 444 (1978)); see also Richard H. Fallon, As-Applied and Facial Challenges and Third-Party Standing, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 1321, 1344 (2000) (discussing as-applied challenges as the only basis for attacking statute on commercial speech grounds).
For example, as noted supra, the complaints neither include nor describe the advertising, if any, plaintiffs seek to utilize. On the other hand, pursuant to Rule 8, only notice pleadings are required. On that basis, plaintiffs have perhaps stated a claim sufficient to withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal.
As the majority holds, that issue should not be decided today. No authority need be cited for another bedrock principle underlying federalism and comity: federal courts, if possible, should avoid ruling on constitutional issues. “The delicate power of pronouncing [a statute] unconstitutional is not to be exercised with reference to *749hypothetical cases thus imagined”. United, States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 22, 80 S.Ct. 519, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960). Remanding the commercial-speech claim avoids the “premature interpretation[ ] of [a] statute[ ] in [an] area[ ] where [its] constitutional application [is] cloudy”. Id.
Accordingly, I concur in the majority’s vacating the dismissal of the commercial-speech claim and remanding it for further proceedings, if any.
B.
My disagreement with the majority’s analysis of the Fourteenth Amendment substantive-due-process claim is fundamental. In my view, the district court correctly ruled plaintiffs fail to state such a claim.
The majority avoids determining what level of scrutiny to apply to the substantive-due-process claim, stating only:
The Supreme Court did not address the classification [of the level of scrutiny], nor do we need to do so, because the Court expressly held that “individual decisions by married persons, concerning the intimacies of their physical relationship, even when not intended to produce offspring, are a form of ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover, this protection extends to intimate choices by unmarried as well as married persons.”
Maj. Opn. at 744 (quoting Lawrence, 539 U.S. at 578, 123 S.Ct. 2472). I believe, however, that the level of scrutiny to be employed is of critical importance to our review.
For the reasons stated by the Eleventh Circuit in its analysis of a statute materially identical to the one in issue, I conclude Lawrence declined to employ a fundamental-rights analysis, choosing instead to apply rational-basis review. See Williams v. Attorney Gen. of Ala., 378 F.3d 1232, 1236 (11th Cir.2004) (citation omitted); see also Lawrence, 539 U.S. at 578, 123 S.Ct. 2472 (“The Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.” (emphasis added)); Lawrence, 539 U.S. at 594, 123 S.Ct. 2472 (Scalia, J. dissenting) (“Not once does [the Court] describe homosexual sodomy as a ‘fundamental right’ or a ‘fundamental liberty interest,’ nor does it subject the Texas statute to strict scrutiny. Instead, having failed to establish that the right to homosexual sodomy is ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition,’ the Court concludes that the application of Texas’s statute to petitioners’ conduct fails the rational-basis test.”).
Furthermore, as also held by the Eleventh Circuit, I agree that, “[t]o the extent Lawrence rejects public morality as a legitimate government interest, it invalidates only those laws that target conduct that is both private and non-commercial”. Williams v. Morgan, 478 F.3d 1316, 1322 (11th Cir.) (emphasis added), cert. denied, Williams v. King, — U.S.-, 128 S.Ct. 77, 169 L.Ed.2d 18 (2007). The Texas statute regulates, inter alia, the 'sale of what it defines as obscene devices. Obviously, such conduct is both public and commercial.
Therefore, I would hold: pursuant to the rational-basis standard of review, plaintiffs fail to state a substantive-due-process claim under the Fourteenth Amendment.
III.
For the foregoing reasons, I concur in vacating the dismissal of the First Amendment commercial-speech claim (advertising); the dismissal, however, of the Fourteenth Amendment substantive-due-process claim (sale) should be upheld. *750Therefore, I must respectfully dissent from my BROTHERS’ invalidation of the statute on that basis.
APPENDIX
Texas Penal Code
§ 43.21. Definitions
(a)In this subchapter:
(1) “Obscene” means material or a performance that:
(A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;
(B) depicts or describes:
(i) patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or
(ii) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs; and
(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.
(2) “Material” means anything tangible that is capable of being used or adapted to arouse interest, whether through the medium of reading, observation, sound, or in any other manner, but does not include an actual three dimensional obscene device.
(3) “Performance” means a play, motion picture, dance, or other exhibition performed before an audience.
(4) “Patently offensive” means so offensive on its face as to affront current community standards of decency.
(5) “Promote” means to manufacture, issue, sell, give, provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise, or to offer or agree to do the same.
(6) “Wholesale promote” means to manufacture, issue, sell, provide, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, or to offer or agree to do the same for purpose of resale.
(7) “Obscene device” means a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.
(b)If any of the depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct described in this section are declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unlawfully included herein, this declaration shall not invalidate this section as to other patently offensive sexual conduct included herein.

§ 4,3.23. Obscenity

(a) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (h), an offense under Subsection (a) is a state jail felony.
(c) A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he:
*751(1) promotes or possesses with intent to promote any obscene material or obscene device; or
(2) produces, presents, or directs an obscene performance or participates in a portion thereof that is obscene or that contributes to its obscenity.
(d) Except as provided by Subsection (h), an offense under Subsection (c) is a Class A misdemeanor.
(e) A person who promotes or wholesale promotes obscene material or an obscene device or possesses the same with intent to promote or wholesale promote it in the course of his business is presumed to do so with knowledge of its content and character.
(f) A person who possesses six or more obscene devices or identical or similar obscene articles is presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same.
(g) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the person who possesses or promotes material or a device proscribed by this section does so for a bona fide medical, psychiatric, judicial, legislative, or law enforcement purpose.
(h) The punishment for an offense under Subsection (a) is increased to the punishment for a felony of the third degree and the punishment for an offense under Subsection (c) is increased to the punishment for a state jail felony if it is shown on the trial of the offense that obscene material that is the subject of the offense visually depicts activities described by Section 43.21(a)(1)(B) engaged in by:
(1) a child younger than 18 years of age at the time the image of the child was made;
(2) an image that to a reasonable person would be virtually indistinguishable from the image of a child younger than 18 years of age; or
(3)an image created, adapted, or modified to be the image of an identifiable child.
(i) In this section, “identifiable child” means a person, recognizable as an actual person by the person’s face, likeness, or other distinguishing characteristic, such as a unique birthmark or other recognizable feature:
(1) who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual depiction was created, adapted, or modified; or
(2) whose image as a person younger than 18 years of age was used in creating, adapting, or modifying the visual depiction.
(j) An attorney representing the state who seeks an increase in punishment under Subsection (h)(3) is not required to prove the actual identity of an identifiable child.