Court Opinion

ID: 9748195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:54:36.820637+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:32.587321
License: Public Domain

VENTERS, J.,
CONCURRING:
While I am in full agreement with the conclusions reached by the well-reasoned majority opinion, I write separately to more fully address the provision exclusively relied upon by Appellants in support of their constitutional claims, Section 1(4) of the Kentucky Constitution. Appellants make no federal First Amendment claims, and seek only to have their arguments addressed on state constitutional grounds.1 Indeed, the Federal District Court,'following removal by Metro, dismissed this very litigation from its docket for lack of jurisdiction on the basis that Appellants raised no federal constitutional claims.
Despite Appellants’ disclaimer of their federally-protected constitutional rights, the majority bases its analysis of Section 1(4) of the Kentucky Constitution on federal cases decided under the United States Constitution or on other Kentucky decisions, such as Commonwealth v. Jameson, 215 S.W.3d 9 (Ky.2006) and Restaurant Ventures, LLC v. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, 60 S.W.3d 572 (Ky.App.2001) which rest on federal authority because, unlike the case now before us, First Amendment rights, as well as Section 1(4) rights were involved. Usually, those appearing in state courts asserting claims of fundamental constitutional liberties invoke the applicable sections of both federal and state constitutions, taking advantage of whichever proves to be more advantageous. Here, our analysis need not be tethered to a contemporaneous assertion of federal rights.
I appreciate the recognition of this point by the Court of Appeals in its lengthy opinion in this matter, and its attempt to ascertain the scope and breadth of Section 1(4) from Kentucky’s own jurisprudential experience. That attempt was not especially fruitful, because as the Court of Appeals found, Kentucky’s highest courts have rarely undertaken such analysis. Instead, we have rather consistently chosen to tie our interpretation of the Kentucky Constitution to the ebb and flow of federal constitutional analysis. I see no reason why our interpretation of the Kentucky Constitution is dependent to any degree whatsoever on the federal courts’ analysis of the federal constitution. We may, of course, be persuasively informed by their view of analogous provisions, just as we are routinely informed by the decisions of the courts of our sister states, but we should not accept the federal interpretation of federal law as controlling in our interpretation of state law. Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has so held, stating in Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U.S. 551, 557, 60 S.Ct. 676, 84 L.Ed. 920 (1940):
*41It is fundamental that state courts be left free and unfettered by us in interpreting their state constitutions ... [S]tate courts will not be the final arbiters of important issues under the federal constitution; and that we will not encroach on the constitutional jurisdiction of the states. This is not a mere technical rule nor a rule for our convenience. It touches the division of authority between state courts and this Court and is of equal importance to each. Only by such explicitness can the highest courts of the states and this Court keep within the bounds of their respective jurisdictions.
This Court is the final arbiter of the Kentucky Constitution, and our interpretation of its terms is not constrained by the words of used in the federal Constitution any more than it is by the Pennsylvania Constitution. Of course we recognize the United States Constitution as the supreme law of the land. We respectfully yield to the authority of the federal courts to interpret the federal Constitution, as we retain exclusive authority to interpret our own.
It has been suggested in this matter that while we are free to interpret state constitutional provisions more broadly than similar provisions of the federal Constitution, we may not conclude that our state constitution offers a lesser degree of protection than the federal. This Court itself has so stated, erroneously as dicta I believe, in Commonwealth v. Wasson, 842 S.W.2d 487, 492 (Ky.1992) (stating “We are not bound by decisions of the United States Supreme Court when deciding whether a state statute impermissibly infringes upon individual rights guaranteed in the State Constitution so long as state constitutional protection does not fall below the federal floor, meaning the minimum guarantee of individual rights under the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court.”) See also Elk Horn Coal Corp. v. Cheyenne Resources, Inc., 168 S.W.3d 408, 418 (Ky.2005). The statement is, however, a misreading of the opinion of the United States Supreme Court decision in Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 719, 95 S.Ct. 1215, 43 L.Ed.2d 570 (1975). In Hass, the Oregon courts addressed search and seizure issues predicated on the Fourth Amendment of the federal Constitution, not the Oregon Constitution, and the United States Supreme Court simply stated the obvious, that a “state may not impose such greater restrictions as a matter of federal constitutional law when this Court specifically refrains from imposing them.” Id. (emphasis added.) The Hass decision says nothing that fetters the authority of a state’s highest court to interpret state constitutional rights either more restrictively or less restrictively than the federal constitutional counterpart.
Therefore, addressing the issues presented without regard to the First Amendment interpretations relied upon by the majority, I conclude that the constitutional protections contained in Section 1(4) of our constitution do not extend to nude dancing, and thus the Metro ordinances proscribing this conduct do not violate its provisions. I would accordingly uphold the Metro ordinances at issue as constitutional under Section 1(4), with the exception of the no-touch provision, which I likewise conclude is overbroad under our state constitutional jurisprudence.
Section 1(4) of the Kentucky Constitution provides as follows-. “All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: ... Fourth: The right of freely communicating their thoughts and opinions.” This language has been included in each of our four constitutions. In our 1792 Constitution *42the language was contained in Article XII, § 7, and was combined with other language addressing free speech liberties:
The printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the Legislature or any branch of Government; and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof; the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.
(emphasis added).
This same language was carried forward in our 1799 Constitution in Article X, § 7, and in Article XIII, § 9, of our 1850 Constitution. In our 1891 Constitution, the Section 1(4) language was codified in Section I of our Bill or Rights, and the remaining language was incorporated separately into Section 8. The carving out of the Section 1(4) language for separate inclusion in Section I of the Bill of Rights was presumably to emphasize the importance of the liberty interest granted under the provision.
Section 1(4) was presented at the 1890 Constitutional Convention by Mr. Robert Rodes in association with the remaining six provisions contained in the present Section 1 of our Bill of Rights. After presenting the seven provisions of Section 1 of our Bill of Rights, Mr. Rodes continued as follows:
There you have a general statement of our rights, the seven different subdivisions specifying in what those rights are, and they are taken not only from your Constitution, but from those great symbols of freedom I referred to a moment ago, the Declaration of Independence [the preamble to the bill of rights is taken from the Declaration of Independence] and the Constitution of Virginia of 1776. Do you wish to abolish them? Will any man be prepared to say they are not so? Will you drive them out of your Constitution? The fact that he has advanced these seven distinct propositions into the front column, abreast with this main idea, this central proposition of the whole Bill of Rights, certainly ought not to be attributed to any weakness in them; on the contrary, we know very well that while the light, shining on the earth, is mere white light, when concentrated on any object it makes a photograph. This presents a picture here. A picture of what? A picture of free men with certain inalienable and indefeasible rights which can not be taken away; and you see them a living picture before you, and I ask you, and I ask you as a matter of taste, will you drive that out, expel it from the Constitution. I apprehend you will not.
1 1890 Kentucky Constitutional Convention Debates, 435-436.
By characterizing the seven provisions contained in Section I of our Bill of Rights as “A picture of free men with certain inalienable and indefeasible rights which can not be taken away,” it is difficult to conceive that the framers reckoned in this picture the right of nude dancing. I do not believe such conduct may properly be characterized as an “inalienable and indefeasible” right. Thus, I believe that the original intent of Section 1(4) was directed to a higher order of expression of thought and opinion, and that the boundaries of the provision do not encompass nude dancing.
There is no question that dancing itself is a recognized form of expressing thoughts and opinions. Restaurant Ventures, 60 S.W.3d at 576 (“The ancient Greeks used dance as a means of communication; Indian tribal dances are a means of communicating within the tribes as well as for spiritual communication; and ballet *43and other artistic forms of movement communicate ideas to the audiences.”). Beyond any doubt Section 1(4) protects the expression of thoughts and opinions communicated in forms of dancing of this character. However, I agree with the observation made in the Restaurant Ventures decision that it is difficult to discern the idea that erotic dancing alone is intended to convey. “Mere nude dancing without intent to make a statement, political, social, or otherwise, would seem to be merely for the purpose of sexually arousing the viewer.” Id. Being of this view, I do not believe nude dancing communicates a thought or opinion so as to come within the protection of Section 1(4).
Moreover, public nudity has always been subject to state regulation, and indecent exposure was a criminal offense under common law. Case v. Commonwealth, 313 Ky. 374, 231 S.W.2d 86 (1950). See also Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560, 573, 111 S.Ct. 2456, 115 L.Ed.2d 504 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring) (“Public indecency — including public nudity — has long been an offense at common law. See 50 Am. Jur.2d, Lewdness, Indecency, and Obscenity 449, 472-474 (1970).”). Public nudity is criminalized under the penal code under the statutes proscribing indecent exposure. KRS 510.148 (first-degree indecent exposure); KRS 510.150 (second-degree indecent exposure). An exception is made for nudist societies, but those groups are extensively regulated. See KRS Chapter 232. Mere nudity has never been deemed under our constitution to be expressive of any thought or opinion. It is therefore not constitutionally protected under Section 1(4), and the state and its municipal corporations have broad authority to regulate it under the Kentucky Constitution.
Accordingly, I concur with the majority in upholding the Metro ordinances, excepting the no-touching provision, as constitutional under our state constitution for the reasons stated above.
ABRAMSON and CUNNINGHAM, JJ., join.

. The Appellants appear to pursue this strategy because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a constitutional provision closely mirroring our Section 1(4) (See Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, § 7), and the Pennsylvania courts have interpreted their provision to provide greater rights in the area of nude dancing than does the federal constitution. See Pap’s A.M. v. City of Erie, 571 Pa. 375, 812 A.2d 591 (2002).