Court Opinion

ID: 9723243
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:08:24.569923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:45.926567
License: Public Domain

KERRIGAN, J.
I dissent.
The abatement order directing the sheriff to remove all the fixtures, equipment and musical instruments from the subject property and to close *564the building so as to deprive the owner and lessee of any use thereof for any purpose for a period of one year constitutes a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.
The Red Light Abatement Law states that any place used for the purpose of illegal gambling, assignation, or prostitution is a public nuisance which may be abated. (Pen. Code, § 11225.) The act also may be used to abate continuing acts of lewdness. (People ex rel. Hicks v. Sarong Gals, 27 Cal.App.3d 46, 49-50 [103 Cal.Rptr. 414].) Once the nuisance is established to the satisfaction of the court, any movable personal property therein (including musical instruments) utilized in conducting, maintaining or abetting the nuisance may be removed and the building closed and the use thereof for any purpose prohibited for a period of one year. (Pen. Code, § 11230.)
A governmental regulation is sufficiently justified if it is within the constitutional power of the government; if it furthers an important or substantial governmental interest; if the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression; and if the incidental restrictions on alleged First Amendment freedoms are no greater than are essential to the furtherance of that interest. (Crownover v. Musick, 9 Cal.3d 405, 423, 427-428 [107 Cal.Rptr. 681, 509 P.2d 497], cert. den., 415 U.S. 931 [39 L.Ed.2d 489, 94 S.Ct. 1443].)
Although obscenity does not come within the ambit of protection afforded to speech by the First Amendment and the states remain free to regulate and suppress obscenity through the regulation of police power, the state is not free to adopt whatever procedure it pleases for dealing with obscenity without regard to possible consequences for constitutionally protected speech. (Flack v. Municipal Court, 66 Cal.2d 981, 985-989 [59 Cal.Rptr. 872, 429 P.2d 192].) Obviously, the owner or occupier of a building has the right to present entertainment, including dancing, provided the same is not lewd or obscene, and the government may not suppress that kind of expression.
The abatement order made herein not only bans lewdness but all First Amendment activities for a period of one year. Prohibiting the use of the property for any purpose amounts to over-kill. In an endeavor to cut away lewdness and obscenity, the government has deprived the owner and occupier of all rights to operate the property for legitimate purposes. (See Weaver v. Jordan, 64 Cal.2d 235, 245 [49 Cal.Rptr. 537, 411 P.2d 289].)
It can hardly be claimed that a total ban on entertainment and other lawful use is only an incidental limitation on First Amendment freedoms. *565Despite the fact that the instruments and fixtures are property adaptable to use for legitimate and permissible expression, the statute authorizes removal. Similarly, the closing of the building for any purpose cannot be constitutionally sanctioned. The objective of the state to control lewd entertainment can be accomplished by a much narrower regulation. (See Weaver v. Jordan, supra, 64 Cal.2d 235, 245.) Section 11230 of the Penal Code should be struck down. A prior restraint on legitimate expression cannot be tolerated under the Constitution.
I would reverse that portion of the judgment which orders the sheriff to sell the personal property and to close down the premises for one year.
Appellants’ petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied December 11, 1974. Tobriner, J., and Mosk, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.