Court Opinion

ID: 9553865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:36:22.083776+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:26.782593
License: Public Domain

BURKE, J.
— I dissent. As I pointed out in my dissenting opinion in a similar case, Van Nuys Pub. Co. v. City of Thousand Oaks, 5 Cal.3d 817, 829 [97 Cal.Rptr. 777, 489 P.2d 809] [anti-littering ordinance held invalid], the courts are obligated to sustain the constitutionality of municipal police power regulations to the extent consistent with constitutional requirements. In my view, rather than invalidate the instant ordinance in its entirety, we should construe it in such a manner as to avoid constitutional objections.
First of all, as I explained in Van Nuys, we properly may construe ordinances of this nature as applying only to “nonprotected, commercial material, thereby saving the constitutionality of the ordinance in its most common application, [f] The authorities uniformly recognize that commercial soliciting or advertising may be regulated by ordinances of the type involved herein. [Citations.]” (5 Cal.3d at pp. 830-831.)
Secondly, even as to so-called “protected” materials, we could employ the doctrine of severance to strike out only the offensive portion of section 690, namely, the requirement of prior consent from City’s Department of Public Works. The cases indicate that the courts may effect a severance in order to sustain an otherwise proper ordinance so long as severance would not defeat or frustrate the probable intent underlying the *90ordinance. (Hamer v. Town of Ross, 59 Cal.2d 776, 789 [31 Cal.Rptr. 335, 382 P.2d 375]; People v. McCaughan, 49 Cal.2d 409, 416 [317 P.2d 974]; Danskin v. San Diego Unified Sch. Dist., 28 Cal.2d 536, 555 [171 P.2d 885].)
Thus, were we to invalidate only that portion of section 690 which requires prior governmental consent, the remaining ordinance would constitute a valid regulation imposing sanctions for trespass on private property without the owner’s prior consent. I can conceive of no serious constitutional objection to the operation of such an ordinance. Moreover, it seems evident that the framers of section 690 would prefer that the section operate on this limited basis rather than be invalidated in its entirety. Under such circumstances, application of the doctrine of severance would appear both appropriate and imperative, given our obligation to sustain the validity of legislation to the extent constitutionally permissible.
McComb, J., and Clark, J., concurred.