Court Opinion

ID: 9712659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:58:05.880145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:13.566955
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 5502 violates the very essentials of due process of law in that it “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.” Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391, 46 S.Ct. 126, 127, 70 L.Ed. 322, 328 (1926). As such, this Court should declare Section 5502 unconstitu+tional on vagueness grounds.
Under Section 5502, a person is guilty of a crime if he or she fails to obey a police dispersal order given when “three or more persons are participating in a course of disorderly conduct which causes or may reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.” By proscribing any conduct which “causes or may reasonably be expected to cause serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm,” the statute fails to establish a specific definition of illegal activity and provides law enforcement officials with nothing more than a subjective test for making arrests. *263Indeed, the statute is unclear and presently without benefit of our judicial clarification. What is “serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm”? Those are all value words which depend entirely upon the personal views of each of us. What constitutes annoyance to one person is not always annoyance to another. Nor does inconvenience mean the same to all. For instance the sounds of a parade, or even the parade itself, may cause great public inconvenience to many, while at the same time be a source of pleasure to others. Therefore, since Section 5502 fails to give notice as to what acts are criminal and does not set standards to guide law enforcement officials in performing their duties, I would declare the statute unconstitutional, in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The majority, however, declines from ruling on the constitutionality of Section 5502 because of the lack of any facts in the record on which to apply appellees’ claim of vagueness. I disagree. A facial attack on a statute is indeed proper if the scope of the statute is so broad that it could be read as restricting or forbidding conduct which is protected by the First Amendment. See Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130, 94 S.Ct. 970, 39 L. Ed.2d 214 (1974); Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 94 S. Ct. 1242, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974). Section 5502, as it now stands, without a narrowing interpretation by this Court, is certainly “capable of reaching expression sheltered by the First Amendment.” Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. at 573, 94 S.Ct. at 1247, 39 L.Ed.2d at 612. Therefore, notwithstanding the fact that appellees’ conduct might not fall within the boundaries of the First Amendment’s protection, Section 5502 can be scrutinized on its face.
I therefore dissent. I would declare Section 5502 unconstitutional on grounds of vagueness.