Court Opinion

ID: 9425602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:15:12.222545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:56.460414
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
concurring in the result.
I previously concurred in the remand of this case, 408 U. S. 913 (1972), but only for reconsideration in light of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U. S. 568 (1942). Pursuant to the remand order, we now have the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision construing New Orleans Ordinance 828 M. C. S. § 49-7. I agree with the Court’s conclusion today that the Louisiana Supreme Court “did not refine or narrow these words [of the ordinance], but took them as they stood.” Ante, at 132. In conclusory language, that court construed the ordinance to create *135a per se rule: Whenever “obscene or opprobrious language” is used “toward or with reference to any member of the city police while in the actual performance of his duty,” such language constitutes “fighting words” and hence a violation without regard to the facts and circumstances of a particular case. As so construed, the ordinance is facially overbroad.
Quite apart from the ambiguity inherent in the term “opprobrious,” words may or may not be “fighting words,” depending upon the circumstances of their utterance. It is unlikely, for example, that the words said to have been used here would have precipitated a physical confrontation between the middle-aged woman who spoke them and the police officer in. whose presence they were uttered. The words may well have conveyed anger and frustration without provoking a violent reaction from the officer. Moreover, as noted in my previous concurrence, a properly trained officer may reasonably be expected to “exercise a higher degree of restraint” than the average citizen, and thus be less likely to respond belligerently to “fighting words.” 408 U. S. 913. See Model Penal Code § 250.1, Comment 4 (Tent. Draft No. 13, 1961).
This ordinance, as construed by the Louisiana Supreme Court, confers on police a virtually unrestrained power to arrest and charge persons with a violation. Many arrests are made in “one-on-one” situations where the only witnesses are the arresting officer and the person charged. All that is required for conviction is that the court accept the testimony of the officer that obscene or opprobrious language had been used toward him while in performance of his duties.* Indeed, the language need *136not be addressed directly to the officer since the ordinance is violated even if the objectionable language is used only “with reference to any member of the city police.”
Contrary to the city’s argument, it is unlikely that limiting the ordinance’s application to genuine “fighting words” would be incompatible with the full and adequate performance of an officer’s duties. In arrests for the more common street crimes (e. g., robbery, assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest), it is usually unnecessary that the person also be charged with the less serious offense of addressing obscene words to the officer. The present type of ordinance tends to be invoked only where there is no other valid basis for arresting an objectionable or suspicious person. The opportunity for abuse, especially where a statute has received a virtually open-ended interpretation, is self-evident.
,1 therefore concur in the result.

The facts in this case, and particularly the direct conflict of testimony as to “who said what,” well illustrate the possibility of abuse. Ante, at 131 n. 1.