Court Opinion

ID: 9598068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:04:59.494534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:12.825767
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Justice,
concurring:
While I concur with the result reached in this case, I disagree with the approach engendered by the doctrine of the least obtrusive remedy.
The doctrine of the least obtrusive (or intrusive) remedy has been applied by this Court on four previous occasions in order to provide relief on constitutional grounds in a manner that would not require invalidating a statutory provision in its entirety. In none of these instances, however, has the “doctrine” been employed by this Court to justify a statutory construction by which the Court inserts into the statute a detailed definition of a key statutory phrase and then applies the enumerated details, retrospectively, to the case before the Court.
In State ex rel. Alsop v. McCartney, 159 W.Va. 829, 228 S.E.2d 278 (1976), the Court considered a challenge to a particular ballot provision which unconstitutionally discriminated against independent candidates. Rather than strike the statute, the Court, in establishing the doctrine of the least obtrusive remedy, announced that it would simply require ballot access in the appropriate case.
*117In State ex rel. Harris v. Calendine, 160 W.Va. 172, 233 S.E.2d 318 (1977), we applied the doctrine to the West Virginia juvenile commitment provisions which unconstitutionally failed to distinguish between status offenders and criminal offenders. Instead of invalidating the statute, the Court set forth the constitutional principles under which the application of the statute must be limited.
Similarly, in Waite v. Civil Service Commission, 161 W.Va. 154, 241 S.E.2d 164 (1977), the Court upheld a temporary suspension provision so long as its application included minimal due process protections.
Finally, in State ex rel. Whitman v. Fox, 160 W.Va. 633, 236 S.E.2d 565 (1977), the Court applied the doctrine to support the proposition that, where possible, the Court would strike only the unconstitutional portion of a statute rather than invalidating an unconstitutional statute as a whole.
The doctrine of the least obtrusive remedy, expressed as such, does not appear to be discussed by other state courts or by the federal courts. The doctrine, however, may be little more than a corollary of the familiar and widespread principle that statutes should be construed whenever possible so as to avoid a ruling of unconstitutionality. Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. 189, 94 S.Ct. 1005, 39 L.Ed.2d 260 (1974); Civil Service Commission v. Letter Carriers, 413 U.S. 548, 93 S.Ct. 2880, 37 L.Ed.2d 796 (1973); United States v. Vuitch, 402 U.S. 62, 91 S.Ct. 1294, 28 L.Ed.2d 601 (1971). This principle was expressed by this Court in Syllabus Point 1 of State ex rel. Kanawha County Bldg. Commission v. Paterno, 160 W.Va. 195, 233 S.E.2d 332 (1977):
“ ‘When the constitutionality of a statute is challenged, every reasonable construction must be resorted to by the courts to sustain its validity and any reasonable doubt must be resolved in favor of the constitutionality of the legislative act in question.’ Syllabus point 1, State ex rel. West Virginia Housing Development Fund v. Waterhouse, 158 W.Va. 196, 212 S.E.2d 724 (1974).”
See also State v. Flinn, 158 W.Va. 111, 208 S.E.2d 538 (1974); State ex rel. City of Charleston v. Coghill, 156 W.Va. 877, 207 S.E.2d 113 (1973); State ex rel. Hughes v. Board of Education, 154 W.Va. 107, 174 S.E.2d 711 (1970), cert. denied, 403 U.S. 944, 91 S.Ct. 2274, 29 L.Ed.2d 854 (1971).
The difficulty with the majority’s solution in the present case is that it is not merely resolving an ambiguity in favor of a constitutional result, or applying a constitutional principle to limit a statute’s scope, but is instead inserting into a statutory framework definitional detail that does not exist. Although this detail is approved by the United States Supreme Court in Civil Service Commission v. Letter Carriers, 413 U.S. 548, 37 L.Ed.2d 796, 93 S.Ct. 2880 (1973), it is important to note that in Letter Carriers, the Court was not supplying statutory detail, but was approving the enumerated list of political activities that the statutory framework already contained.1
This distinction is significant for several reasons. First, in Letter Carriers, unlike the present case, the Supreme Court was not drafting statutory details in a manner more properly exercised by a legislature or regulatory commission, but was utilizing the pre-existing regulations to supplement the statutory language. It found that the statute, as complemented by the regulations, provided a constitutionally sufficient framework whereby an employee could ascertain a definitive standard and conform his conduct so as to avoid participating in prohibited activity. Moreover, it is clear from Letter Carriers that the statute and its regulations were complementary and contemporaneously existing. The involved employee, therefore, had prospective guidelines to govern his conduct.
*118In the present case, however, the delineation of proscribed activity has been established on appeal, and applied retroactively to an employee who could not, at the time, have envisaged the future details of the act he is charged with violating. The problem of retroactive application of these details is particularly acute in the present case where the deputy’s activity was not so extreme that formulations differing in detail would not produce different results.
In Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973), a companion case to Letter Carriers, the United States Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma’s prohibition of political activity among state civil service employees against a challenge that the statutory prohibition was unconstitutionally vague and broad.2 In support of the constitutionality of the prohibition, the Court noted that the Rules of the State Personnel Board and opinions of the State Attorney General helped provide the definitional detail that spared the provision from unconstitutional vagueness and overbreadth.
I would resolve this case on the basis of Broadrick and Letter Carriers, since there are longstanding opinions of the West Virginia Attorney General detailing proscribed political activity for civil servants. Although there are no Attorney General opinions directly relating to the deputy sheriff statute, its statutory language restraining political activity is identical, in its relevant parts, to the statutory language restraining political activity for both fire department employees and city police who are under civil service.3
Under the police provision, W.Va.Code, 8-14-19, and the fire department provision, W.Va.Code, 8-15-24, the Attorney General has set forth, in a 1966 opinion, an itemization of the political activity prohibited by these provisions:
“We have concluded the following activities to be prohibited as ‘political activity’ on the part of a police officer or a member of a fire department of any municipality governed by civil service rules: Serving as an election officer; serving on any political party committee; serving as a poll watcher, challenger or checker; soliciting support for a candidate; soliciting campaign contributions; circulating leaflets, circulars, and other advertising material; organizing political meetings; transporting voters to register on behalf of a political party; transporting voters to the polls on behalf of candidates seeking election; expressing political views at caucuses, conventions or other political gatherings; participating in political parades; canvassing for signatures on party nominating committees serving as delegates to conventions; placing in nomination a candidate at a convention; and serving as an officer at a convention or on convention committees.
“But there are certain things which we believe that a municipal police officer or a fireman may properly do ... such as casting a ballot at the primary or general elections; attending, as a spectator, polit*119ical rallies, dinners, etc., without any active participation therein; expressing private political views, but not at political gatherings or for the purpose of soliciting support or funds for the aid of any candidate or political party. We are of the view that civil service covered municipal policemen and firemen may also vote as individuals for nominees in a political convention.” 51 Op. Att’y Gen. 780, 782-83 (1966).
Further Attorney General opinions regarding the political activity of civil servants include Op. Att’y Gen., Jan. 23, 1976 (permitting lobbying); Op. Att’y Gen., Dec. 18, 1975 (excluding chief deputy from coverage); 52 Op. Att’y Gen. 571 (1968) (disallowing leave of absence in order to engage in otherwise prohibited political activity).
Because of the substantial identity of the provisions disallowing political activity for deputy sheriffs, city police, and fire department employees, the Attorney General’s opinions provide appropriate guidance for determining the scope of prohibited political activity for deputy sheriffs. These Attorney General guidelines provide the type of detail that the United States Supreme Court, under Broadrick v. Oklahoma, would permit to save the general statutory prohibition from vagueness and over-breadth.
Since the detailed itemization in 51 Op. Att’y Gen. 780 was set forth in 1966, this list provides the guidelines that were in effect at the time of the alleged violations in the present case. It is this list of political prohibitions that should be applied to the deputy’s activity, rather than imposing, retroactively, the judicially created detail in the majority opinion.
I am authorized to state that Justice HARSHBARGER joins me in this concurrence.

. The statute in question, 5 U.S.C. § 7324, proscribed federal civil service employees from taking "an active part in political management or in political campaigns." The statute incorporated the then existing rules and regulations of the Civil Service Commission to provide the specifics of what constitutes proscribed activities. The Civil Service regulations which were in effect at the time of Letter Carriers and were approved by that decision contained some thirteen prohibited activities. 5 C.F.R. § 733.122(b).

. The Oklahoma statute in its material part stated:
"No employee in the classified service shall be a member of any national, state or local committee of a political party, or an officer or member of a committee of a partisan political club, or a candidate for nomination or election to any paid public office, or shall take part in the management or affairs of any political party or in any political campaign, except to exercise his right as a citizen privately to express his opinion and to cast his vote.” Okla.Stat.Ann. tit. 74, § 818.

. W.Va.Code, 7-14-15(a), relating to deputy sheriffs:
"[N]o deputy sheriff covered by the provisions of this article shall engage in any political activity of any kind, character or nature whatsoever, except to cast his vote at any election or shall act as an election official in any municipal, county or state election." W.Va.Code, 8-15-24, relating to fire department employees:
"No member of any paid fire department shall engage in any political activity of any kind, character or nature whatsoever, except to cast his vote at any election, or shall act as an election official in any election, municipal, county or state.”
W.Va.Code, 8-14-19(a), relating to city police:
"No member of any paid police department of a Class I or Class II city shall engage in any political activity of any kind, character or nature whatsoever, except to cast his vote at any election, or shall act as an election official in any election, municipal, county or state."