Court Opinion

ID: 9634096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:27:32.268146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:49.101187
License: Public Domain

FAIRCHILD, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I would modify our judgment so as to declare that § 944.21, Wis.Stats., as construed prior to December 10, 1973, the date of the decision of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in Chobot was unconstitutional and that prosecutions under § 944.21 for conduct occurring prior to that date are unconstitutional as violative of the due process requirements of “fair notice.” That is sufficient for the facts of the case before us, and I would reserve the question as to conduct occurring between December 10, 1973 and May 8, 1974, the date of the decision in Court.
I emphasize that in Miller, the Supreme Court of United States required, to insure “fair notice,” that the statute, as written or construed, specifically define the sexual conduct the depiction or description of which is prohibited. Miller, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 27, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419. I consider the Wisconsin Court’s addition of the specific definition of sexual conduct, newly required by the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller, a more significant change in the Wisconsin obscenity statute than does the Wisconsin Supreme Court. See Chobot, 61 Wis.2d 354, 371-372, 212 N.W.2d 690. Moreover, the importance of this change, for purposes of “fair notice” is heightened by the Miller change in standard from “utterly without redeeming social value” to “lack[ing] serious literary, artistic, political or social value” (thereby enhancing the likelihood of conviction) and by the confusion with respect to this element, at the time of plaintiff’s conduct involved in this case, arising from differing expressions on the matter in earlier decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. See Chobot, 61 Wis.2d 354, 364-365, 212 N.W.2d 690.
I do not, however, attach as much significance as does the majority of this court to the question of the definition of “community” in the phrase “contemporary community standards.” I recognize, as does the majority, that the Wisconsin Supreme Court expressly reserved this question in Chobot, decided December 10, 1973, and did not resolve this uncertainty until Court v. State, 63 Wis.2d 570, 217 N.W.2d 676, decided May 8, 1974. I do not think it cleai’, however, that the absence of a specific definition of “community” invalidated application of the statute as construed in Chobot during the interim prior to Court v. State, either on the basis of the requirements set out by the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller or on general vagueness grounds. Necessarily the addition by Chobot of a specific definition of sexual conduct, the depiction or description of which is forbidden, made the test which depend on contemporary community standards less significant as a practical matter in terms of fair notice than they were under the law before Miller.