Court Opinion

ID: 9481086
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:07:10.101476+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:05.042463
License: Public Domain

POINTER, Chief District Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in pajrt:
I agree with most of the majority’s opinion, and specifically concur in the decision that the library exemption provided by section 16-12-104 is constitutional.
I respectfully dissent, however, from the decision upholding the display proscriptions of section 16-12-103(e). In Part IV-Bi-2 of the opinion, the majority conclude that section 16-12-103(e) can be read to permit booksellers to avoid criminal penalties by using “blinder racks.” If I agreed on this point, I would agree with their decision as to the constitutionality of the section. Al*1515though on this appeal we should assume that Georgia would adopt a narrow construction of the section, any such narrowing construction would have to be a reasonable one in the light of the words of the statute. I do not believe that the statute adopted by the Georgia legislature is “readily susceptible” to the interpretation approved by the majority.
Section 16-12-103(e) makes it unlawful to “display in public at ... any ... business or commercial establishment or at any other public place ... where minors are or may be invited as part of the general public ... any ... printed matter ... which contains any ... explicit and detailed verbal descriptions ... of sexual conduct ... and which, taken as a whole, is harmful to minors.” (emphasis added) The statute does more than prohibit the display of the materials that are harmful to minors; it prohibits the display of printed matter that “contains” such harmful materials. It makes criminal the display of a magazine with an innocuous cover if harmful materials are to be found inside the cover — and this is so whether or not any minor is permitted to view the harmful materials themselves. The proscription would likewise apply if a portion of the cover were shielded by “blinder racks.”
The only case mentioned in the opinion when discussing this question is M.S. News Co. v. Casado, 721 F.2d 1281 (10th Cir. 1983). M.S. News does support the proposition that permitting materials to be displayed behind blinder racks would save the statute from attack; it does not, however, provide any support for concluding that the Georgia statute contains any such exception. The city ordinance at issue in that case prohibited the display of harmful materials (not of publications containing such materials) and contained an express exception for displays in blinder racks.
I suggest that the majority, under the rubric of interpreting or construing the statute, have simply rewritten it.