Court Opinion

ID: 9522097
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:17:56.47526+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:18.253038
License: Public Domain

*325Reiber, C.J.,
¶ 27. concurring and dissenting. The testing and counseling statute at issue here, 13 V.S.A. § 3256, is plainly a public health initiative aimed at giving medical and emotional support to victims of sexual assault. Thus, I agree with the majority that the statute does not violate Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution because it serves a special need beyond ordinary law enforcement. An important government interest is at stake when demand for testing is made by a victim under the statute in that testing perpetrators may produce information that reduces the health risks to, and mental anguish of, the victim and thus lessens the chance of unwitting transmission to others. Such purpose outweighs the extremely limited privacy interest an offender has in submitting a sample of bodily fluids. The government purpose served by the legislation and its limitation on disclosure in my view do not compel us to resort to examination of testimony taken before a legislative committee. The issue in this case involves determining the validity of a statute’s stated purpose, not deciphering legislative intent to resolve the meaning of particular statutory language. Defendant did not present evidence challenging the link between testing and the medical or psychological benefit to victims of sexual assault. Thus, the majority’s analysis of legislative history on this point is unnecessary and improperly expands our role in conflict with the exercise of the legislative process. Furthermore, because the statute already imposes restraint on the distribution of the results of such testing, there is no basis to remand for a protective order with further conditions protecting the perpetrator’s privacy. I would affirm the court’s order, and therefore respectfully dissent.
¶ 28. The question of whether 13 V.S.A. § 3256 violates an offender’s right under Article 11 to be free from a warrantless search or seizure is a question of law that we review de novo. State v. Martin, 2008 VT 53, ¶ 8, 184 Vt. 23, 955 A.2d 1144. While Article 11 protects against warrantless searches, a search may nonetheless be constitutional if its purpose is to fulfill a special need beyond ordinary law enforcement. Id. ¶ 9. I agree with the majority holding that § 3256 is aimed at public health and therefore meets this requirement. If the special need exists, then “we balance the need served against the privacy intrusion at stake.” Id.
¶ 29. The majority claims that “nothing in the record informs the balancing test we must perform under Martin” ante, ¶ 19, *326and proceeds to recite detailed legislative history, including quoting one of the medical experts who testified before a legislative committee. This analysis exceeds the limits of our review. It wars with the clear intent of the law and the limitations of the statute. Our rules of statutory construction are aimed at discerning legislative intent. As we have explained, “legislative intent is to be ascertained from the act itself, which is presumed to be in accordance with the ordinary meaning of the statutory language,” and “[w]here statutory language is clear and unambiguous in its meaning, as in the present case, we will look no further in an effort to determine a contrary legislative intent.” Cavanaugh v. Abbott Labs., 145 Vt. 516, 530, 496 A.2d 154, 163 (1985) (quotations omitted).
¶ 30. The constitutional issue in this case is not a question of statutory interpretation where the meaning of a word or phrase is not clear, but involves determining whether this statute’s authorization of a warrantless search is supported by a legitimate government interest. To make such an assessment, we need not inquire into the Legislature’s subjective intent, but instead must determine if legitimate public interests are served. See Martin, 2008 VT 53, ¶ 21 (listing interests served without resort to legislative history). When reviewing a statute, we “accord deference to the policy choices made by the Legislature.” Badgley v. Walton, 2010 VT 68, ¶ 38, 188 Vt. 367, 10 A.3d 469. The State does not have the burden to prove a statute is constitutional; rather, the statute is presumed constitutional. Id. ¶42. In this case, defendant offered little to challenge the State’s asserted public interest. As the majority notes, neither side presented evidence “regarding the efficacy or causal nexus of testing offenders with respect to furthering the state’s presumed interest in protecting the health of the victims of sex crimes.” Ante, ¶ 18. Absent a presentation of concrete evidence from defendant challenging the statute, I believe that the State had no obligation to affirmatively make such a showing. If the court can discern an adequate interest that is served, which it did in this case, then that is sufficient to uphold the statute, even if other interests may be furthered.3
*327¶ 31. Here, the statute plainly reveals its purpose is to give support — both medical and psychological — to victims of sexual crimes.4 As the majority recognizes, the psychological injury to a victim of sexual assault is obvious and needs no special expert analysis. Ante, ¶ 24. Even if there is little medical treatment benefit to victims to receiving the results of a medical test after conviction, our Legislature rationally concluded that the mental health aspects are no less important. There is a psychological benefit to victims in obtaining the results of a test that outweighs the perpetrator’s small privacy interest in his bodily fluids. Other courts have reached the same conclusion. See In re J.G., 701 A.2d 1260, 1270-71 (N.J. 1997); State v. Houey, 651 S.E.2d 314, 320 (S.C. 2007); In re Juveniles A, B, C, D, E, 847 P.2d 455, .460-61 (Wash. 1993). On this point, I disagree with the majority’s statement that a negative result has no value to a victim. Ante, ¶ 20. A perpetrator’s negative result after conviction can provide a victim with valuable peace of mind. In re J.G., 701 A.2d at 1270 (discussing psychological benefits of testing, including that negative result would give victim substantial reassurance); In re Juveniles, 847 P.2d at 461 (explaining that assailant’s negative result is useful in allaying concerns of victim).
¶ 32. Even if some ambiguity in the legislative purpose existed that required resort to legislative history, the analysis engaged in by the majority is not reliable. We have explained that a witness’s comments at a committee hearing are accorded “little weight” in determining legislative intent. State v. Madison, 163 Vt. 360, 373, 658 A.2d 536, 545 (1995). Similarly, the views of expert witnesses are not determinative indicators of legislative intent since these experts are necessarily there to present their own views — which may be either accepted or rejected by the Legislature. Thus, I disagree with the majority’s decision to rely on expert testimony presented to the committee.
¶ 33. Finally, even with the expert testimony, I see no reason to remand this case. The majority concludes that to protect the privacy rights of this sex offender, the court must issue a protective order precluding the victim from disseminating test results to anyone other than a medical provider. Ante, ¶ 26. But this limitation is not in the statute, which already includes several protections of a perpetrator’s privacy, including that the results of *328the test “shall be disclosed only to the offender and the victim,” 13 V.S.A. § 3256(d), and that “[t]he record of the court proceedings and test results pursuant to this section shall be sealed,” id. § 3256(j). If the Legislature wanted to extend the scope to a point intended to prohibit the victim from giving the information to a future partner or a friend it could have done so. We should not conclude that the very limited privacy interest of those convicted of sexual assault under this law can permit or compel a court to order limits on the victim’s use of the information — information that, for example, could inform effective treatment and inhibit spread of communicable disease.
¶ 34. An offender’s privacy protections are greatly diminished by this particular criminal act. Having sexually assaulted the victim and deposited his DNA without consent — an act of physical harm if not also an implicit, if not explicit, waiver of confidentiality — the offender’s remaining privacy rights are sufficiently defined by the statute. What the victim, a private citizen, does with the information afterwards was of no concern to the Legislature and, absent legislative direction to the contrary, is no business of this Court. The law does not call on the courts to prohibit further disclosure. Because consideration of additional limits is not constitutionally required, it amounts to a policy choice and “[o]ur function is not to substitute our view of the appropriate balance for that of the Legislature.” Badgley, 2010 VT 68, ¶ 24. I would affirm, and therefore dissent.
¶ 35. I am authorized to state that Justice Burgess joins this dissent.

 Consequently, it is wholly irrelevant that the inclusion of a testing provision was also a necessary prerequisite for the state to be eligible for federal grants. Ante, ¶ 21.

 Indeed, even defendant recognizes this fact.