Court Opinion

ID: 9731177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:37:16.446663+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:15.186823
License: Public Domain

SIMS, J.
I concur in the judgment.
Since the statute refers to public solicitation to engage in lewd or dissolute conduct there is some ambiguity as to the public or private nature of the conduct, the subject of the solicitation, which will render the solicitation unlawful. I would resolve this ambiguity and uphold the statute by limiting it, in cases of solicitation to private conduct, to a solicitation made in a public place, or in a place open to the public, or in a place or manner where the solicitation is audible to the public, to engage in a lewd or dissolute act which is prohibited by law, i.e., an infamous crime against nature (Pen. Code, § 286), lewd or lascivious acts against children (§ 288), sex perversion (§ 288a), and similar offenses, reserving, however, the question of whether any such proscribed conduct when conducted in private between consenting adults may properly be prohibited by the state. Included in the definition of prohibited public solicitation would be a solicitation to engage in lewd or dissolute conduct, in the sense of obscene conduct as defined in the majority opinion (see also §§314, 318.5 and 318.6) when the solicitation is to engage in such conduct in a public place, place open to the public, or place exposed to public view (§ 647, subd. (a)). As so limited the statute may be upheld, so the demurrer was properly overruled.
In my opinion the prohibited verbal acts as so limited are not entitled to the protection of the First Amendment because they are directly related to the commission of criminal conduct which is properly prohibited. Moreover, as so defined, they do not have a chilling effect on legitimate courting or other aspects of free speech.
Petitioner’s application for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied September 25, 1974. Tobriner, J., and Mosk, J., were of the opinion that the application should be granted.