Court Opinion

ID: 9681460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:50:56.436768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:34.104013
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge,
concurring in result.
I am unable to join the Court’s opinion because it contains so much discussion that is inappropriate to the resolution of this case.
I respectfully suggest that prohibiting attendance at a cockfight or assembly at a place kept for the purpose of cockfighting does not infringe upon any constitutionally protected right and that the majority errs when it injects the question of overbreadth. See Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 114, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2302, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972); NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 432, 83 S.Ct. 328, 337, 9 L.Ed.2d 405 (1963). See generally, J. Nowack, R. Rotunda & J. Young, Constitutional Law 867-871 (2d ed. 1983). And where a decision rests upon a determination that a statute violates due process without regard to whether the statute unconstitutionally infringes on First Amendment freedoms, I must reject the practice of testing the statute with hypotheticals. Lincoln Credit Co. v. Peach, 636 S.W.2d 31, 36 (Mo. banc 1982); Prokopf v. Whaley, 592 S.W.2d 819, 824 (Mo. banc 1980). “I did not suppose our function was that of a council of revision. The issue before us is whether what has been done has deprived this appellant of a constitutional right. It is the law as applied that we review, not the abstract, academic questions which it might raise in some more doubtful case.” Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558, 571, 68 S.Ct. 1148, 1155, 92 L.Ed. 1574 (1948) (Jackson, J., dissenting).
It is enough to hold that § 578.050 has deprived appellant of a constitutional right because it fails to satisfy “the requirement that a legislature establish minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement” in his case and, therefore, offends the Due Process Clause. Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 574, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 1248, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974).
I concur only in the reversal of the judgment of conviction.