Court Opinion

ID: 9710711
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:16:02.830165+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:59.342270
License: Public Domain

PATIENCE DRAKE ROGGENSACK, J.
(concurring).
¶ 65. While I join in the majority opinion in all respects, I write separately to explain the use of language that appears to have originated in United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739 (1987), and has continued through many of Wisconsin's appellate cases where a constitutional challenge is made on a facial, rather than an as-applied, basis. We have said, "A 'facial' challenge to the constitutionality of a statute means that the 'challenger must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there are no possible applications or interpretations of the statute which would be constitutional.'" State v. Cole, 2003 WI 112, ¶ 30, 264 Wis. 2d 520, 665 N.W.2d 328.1
¶ 66. A number of Wisconsin appellate opinions have described constitutional challenges that are made on a facial basis in the same way as we did in Cole. See State v. Radke, 2002 WI App 146, ¶ 4, 256 Wis. 2d 448, 647 N.W.2d 873; State v. Wanta, 224 Wis. 2d 679, 690, 592 N.W.2d 645 (Ct. App. 1999); State v. Ruesch, 214 Wis. 2d 548, 556, 571 N.W.2d 898 (Ct. App. 1997). However, some commentators, such as Michael Dorf, have seen the language from Salerno as imposing an impossible burden on the challenger, essentially one *202that cannot be .met. See Michael C. Dorf, Facial Challenges to State and Federal Statutes, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 235, 236-40 (1994) (questioning whether the United States Supreme Court has consistently applied this standard from Salerno and questioning what the Supreme Court actually meant). However, other writers question Dorf s reasoning and analysis of the language from Salerno. See Alfred Hill, Some Realism About Facial Invalidation of Statutes, 30 Hofstra L. Rev. 647, 677 (2002).
¶ 67. In the context of a facial challenge to the constitutionality of a statute, Wisconsin courts have echoed, or in some cases ignored, the Salerno statement, without attempting to explain what the Supreme Court requires by way of analysis when a facial challenge to a statute is made under the provisions of the United States Constitution.2 However, I conclude that these differing approaches can be reconciled. In that regard, I find persuasive Marc E. Isserles' comparison of the oft-quoted language from Salerno with the position of its critics. Marc E. Isserles, Overcoming Overbreadth: Facial Challenges and the Valid Rule Requirement, 48 Am. U. L. Rev. 359 (1998). Isserles explains that: (1) claiming a statute is unconstitutional in all applications necessarily includes the conclusion that it is unconstitutional as applied to the party before the court; and (2) Salerno does not set out a methodology under which a court is precluded from holding that a statute is unconstitutional unless the court determines that every possible statutory application is unconstitutional; rather, Salerno is descriptive of a statute that, when examined *203under the relevant constitutional doctrines, but independent of particular factual applications, states an invalid rule of law. Id. at 398-407. In my view, when Salerno is seen as descriptive of the end product of a court's reasoning, rather than as a test that rigidly sets the analysis that must be undertaken, the actual tasks engaged in by a court in a facial challenge are better understood.
¶ 68. Therefore, the conclusion of the court that EE has not satisfied his burden to prove the statute unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt, i.e., that it is an invalid rule, is supported in part because EE has not shown that as to him the statute is unconstitutionally applied and in part because there is a reasonable construction of the statute as a part of a narrowly tailored statutory scheme that causes it to be a valid rule to protect children from unfit parents.
¶ 69. Because I believe this explanation of Salerno's oft-quoted language may help future litigants and courts analyze facial constitutional challenges, I have chosen to write separately.

 State v. Cole, 2003 WI 112, ¶ 30, 264 Wis. 2d 520, 665 N.W.2d 328, cites State v. Wanta, 224 Wis. 2d 679, 690, 592 N.W.2d 645 (Ct. App. 1999), and Wanta cites United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987).

 See Cole, 264 Wis. 2d 520, ¶ 30, where Salemo-type language is employed, but not explained, and State v. Hamdan, 2003 WI 113, ¶¶ 5, 44, 264 Wis. 2d 433, 665 N.W.2d 785, where Salerno-type language is not employed and not explained.