Court Opinion

ID: 9712482
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:54:57.947132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:12.508742
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Chief Judge,
with whom MACK, Associate Judge, joins, dissenting:
This case presents the issue of whether the unlawful entry statute is void for vagueness as applied to appellants.1 I agree with Judge Ferren that the appellants were not provided with fair notice of the prohibition against “demonstrations” as required by the due process clause. I dissent separately because, even if a posted sign had announced this “demonstration” ban, it permits a greater degree of police discretion than is constitutionally allowable.
I
The unlawful entry statute prohibits the act of remaining on White House property only when such conduct is both without lawful authority and against the expressed will of the person lawfully in charge of the premises. Leiss v. United States, D.C.App., 364 A.2d 803, 806 (1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 970, 97 S.Ct. 1654, 52 L.Ed.2d 362 (1977). Persons may not be lawfully ejected from the White House grounds “on the order of the person lawfully in charge absent some additional, specific factor establishing their lack of a legal right to be there." Carson v. United States, D.C.App., 419 A.2d 996, 998 (1980) (emphasis added).
This “additional specific factor” requirement serves an important purpose. It guarantees that a valid arrest and conviction does not rest solely on the refusal of a person to comply with a police officer’s order to leave under the general authority of the unlawful entry statute. Rather, an individual must violate a known, independent, and objective standard of conduct to be subject to lawful expulsion from the White House grounds. Were it otherwise, the statute might well constitute an unconstitutional delegation of unbridled discretion to law enforcement officials. See Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 573, 575-76, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 1247, 1248, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974); Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 614, 91 S.Ct. 1686, 1688, 29 L.Ed.2d 214 (1971); Gregory v. City of Chicago, 394 U.S. 111, 120, 89 S.Ct. 946, 951, 22 L.Ed.2d 134 (1969) (Black, J., concurring); Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, 382 U.S. 87, 90, 93, 86 S.Ct. 211, 213, 214, 15 L.Ed.2d 176 (1965).
The presence of an “additional specific factor” served as a basis for our upholding the constitutionality of arrests and convictions for unlawful entry in other cases involving political expression on the White House grounds. In Leiss v. United States, supra, Leiss was lawfully arrested and convicted because he remained on the grounds past the noon closing hour. Not only was this in violation of an officer’s request to leave the premises, but Leiss’ conduct was prohibited by the “additional specific factor” of posted regulations restricting visiting hours. In Carson v. United States, supra, the “additional specific factor” was a *969chain which clearly marked off that portion of the lawn allowed for tourist use from unauthorized portions. Carson was lawfully arrested and convicted because, independent of the officer’s request for Carson to leave the unauthorized area, he remained on the unauthorized portion of the lawn. In each case, not only was the “additional specific factor” clearly posted and marked, thereby providing adequate notice of prohibited conduct, but the factor was so objective in nature so as not to force private persons or police officers to guess as to its meaning.
II
In this case, the additional specific factor which deprived appellants of a legal right to remain on the White House grounds is an unpublished internal agency memorandum prohibiting any form of demonstration. The unlawful entry statute’s application is predicated upon the application of this memorandum. Contrary to the majority’s comment that we cannot review the validity of this memorandum, we cannot uphold the application of the unlawful entry statute unless the memorandum itself can avoid the vices of vagueness. See, e.g., United States v. Nicholson, D.C.Ct.Gen.Sess., 97 Wash.D.L.Rep. 1213 (1969), aff’d, D.C.App., 263 A.2d 56 (1970), reprinted in Dellums v. Powell, 184 U.S.App.D.C. 275, 305-13, 566 F.2d 167, 197-205 (1977).
Yet, the terms of this memorandum are so indefinite and subjective as to invite the very caprice in official enforcement that the vagueness doctrine is designed to protect against. “Demonstrations” are prohibited,2 but nowhere are any standards provided for an officer’s interpretive discretion. As the record makes clear, whether or not a particular activity constitutes a demonstration is entirely dependent upon the idiosyncratic predelictions of the officer in charge. Indeed, Captain Elgin, a member of the Secret Service Force who enforces the unpublished demonstration memorandum, was questioned at length concerning his understanding of the standards governing enforcement. He testified that there are no written rules; that the determination of whether persons represent a potential threat to protective responsibilities is “a judgment call by the official on the scene there.” To the extent there is a governing standard, it appears to be whether or not the officer in charge is annoyed by the conduct of a person in the tour line.3
*970The fact that a demonstration memorandum exists distinguishes this case from the situation in which the mere whim of the officer in charge is the sole measure of a lawful arrest.4 Reliance on this ambiguous ban on “demonstrations” does little, however, to bridle whimsical and purely discretionary decision making. The memorandum’s lack of specificity leaves appellants subject to the vagaries of official interpretation. It is impossible of evenhanded, impartial application. Thus, the memo cannot save the unlawful entry statute from being unconstitutionally vague as applied to appellants.
Ill
While I am mindful of the need for official discretion in order to guarantee the security of the White House grounds, I cannot accept that the Constitution permits enforcement officials to suppress political speech simply on the basis of their various interpretations of what constitutes a “demonstration.” I dissent.

. The majority avoids reaching the vagueness challenge by falsely characterizing appellants’ case as a facial challenge to the unlawful entry statute. Yet, appellants clearly contend that the statute is void for vagueness as applied to their conduct. Appellants’ Supplemental Brief pp. 10-22.

. The majority indicates that on the authority of Culver v. Secretary of the Air Force, 389 F.Supp. 331, 332-34 (D.D.C.1975), aff'd, 182 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 559 F.2d 622 (1977), the term “demonstration” is not unconstitutionally vague. Culver, however, involved Air Force regulations prohibiting members from participating in demonstrations in a foreign country. Thus, the court’s standard of review was controlled by principles announced in Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828, 96 S.Ct. 1211, 47 L.Ed.2d 505 (1976), and Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733, 94 S.Ct. 2547, 41 L.Ed.2d 439 (1974), which permit Congress to legislate with more breadth and flexibility when proscribing rules for the military than when other bodies legislate civilian criminal law. Thus, the standard of review applied in Culver was a relaxed standard normally associated with the review of economic regulations. Where, as in this case, the demonstration memorandum is neither the act of Congress nor governs military affairs, the strict standard of review normally applied to regulations that inhibit expression or conduct sheltered by the First Amendment would apply. See Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 109, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2299, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972) (city ordinance); Washington Mobilization Committee v. Cullinane, 184 U.S.App.D.C. 215, 225-26, 566 F.2d 107, 117-18 (1977) (narrow specificity required of District of Columbia police line ordinance applied to civilian demonstration activities). It is well accepted that the degree of vagueness the Constitution tolerates depends in part on the nature of the enactment. See Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., — U.S. -, - - -, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 1191-95, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982).

. I cannot accept the majority’s inference that the need for security allows the officers to lawfully arrest any person engaged in any activity which is out of the ordinary for the tour area, and which “quite conceivably could have led to disruptive reactions by tourists with opposing views.” See p. 967 supra. A person does not leave all First Amendment protections behind when he passes through the White House gates. Yet, the majority implies that the demonstration memo makes it legitimate to bar from the White House tour line a lone protestor wearing a political button that might offend some persons, a person reciting the Lord’s *970Prayer, or a person passing out a handbill that contains the text of the First Amendment, any of which would be out of the ordinary tour line behavior. See Grace v. Burger, 665 F.2d 1193 (D.C.Cir.1981) (upholding the lawfulness of passing out handbills containing the text of the First Amendment on the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court building). To the extent that this construction of the word “demonstration” cures vagueness, it makes the regulation unconstitutionally overbroad.

. As Judge Ferren notes, the day has passed when the government could argue convincingly that appellants were obliged to leave the grounds simply on the request of the officer in charge.