Court Opinion

ID: 9634305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:08:31.026498+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:00.468828
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County declaring 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(4) unconstitutionally vague must be reversed, and the case remanded for trial. Section 3731(a)(4), which makes it unlawful for a person to operate a motor vehicle while “the amount of alcohol by weight in the blood of the person is 0.10% or greater,” neither “ ‘fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the statute,’ ” nor “ ‘is so indefinite that it encourages arbitrary and erratic arrests and convictions,’ ” Commonwealth v. Burt, 490 Pa. 173, 177-78, 415 A.2d 89, 91 (1980), quoting Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U.S. 379, 390, 99 S.Ct. 675, 683, 58 L.Ed.2d 596 (1979).*
With respect to the concern that the statute imposes criminal liability without fault, section 3731(a)(4) requires that a person’s blood-alcohol level equal or exceed 0.10%, and thus sanctions only those who have chosen to drive after having knowingly consumed alcoholic beverages. Accordingly, section 3731(a)(4) does not violate due process for want of a scienter requirement, see Commonwealth v. Field, 490 Pa. 519, 417 A.2d 160 (1980), and the majority’s discussion of whether absolute liability may constitutionally be imposed is inappropriate.

 It was erroneous for the trial court to have considered a facial challenge to 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(4). Because section 3731(a)(4) does not reach constitutionally protected conduct, appellee’s vagueness claim is to be examined "‘in the light of the facts of the case at hand,’ ” Commonwealth v. Burt, supra, 490 Pa. at 178 n. 5, 415 A.2d at 92 n. 5, quoting United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 550, 95 S.Ct. 710, 714, 42 L.Ed.2d 706 (1975), facts which include, according to the Commonwealth, appellee’s visible intoxication and 0.13% blood-alcohol level at the time of his arrest.