Court Opinion

ID: 9712657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:58:05.870569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:13.564104
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(concurring):
I join in the Opinion of Mr. Justice O’Brien and in the decision to vacate the ruling of the trial judge and to remand the case for further proceedings. I add this separate opinion only to explicate more fully why I feel such a remand is required.
Appellees were indicted, inter alia, for failing to disperse upon official order in violation of Section 5502 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5502. That statute authorizes the police to issue a dispersal order “[w]here three or more persons are participating in a course of disorderly conduct which causes or may reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm . . . ”1 Prior to *255trial, appellees made an oral motion to quash the indictment on the ground that § 5502 is facially unconstitutional. On the basis of a short oral argument and without the benefit of any evidence as to the reason for issuance of the dispersal order, the trial court declared § 5502 to be unconstitutionally vague on its face, and granted appellees’ motion to quash. Appellees were then tried on three remaining counts of their indictment not herein relevant.2 Without knowing in what respects the police considered the conduct of appellees to be disorderly at the time of the police order to disperse, it is my view that this Court cannot properly resolve the issues involved in this constitutional attack upon § 5502.
As the Opinion of Mr. Justice O’Brien correctly suggests, ante at p. 276, n. 3, § 5502 must be read in pari materia with Section 5503(a) of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a). Section 5503(a) contains four subsections each setting forth a distinct type of conduct which, if engaged in with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, constitutes the offense of disorderly conduct.3 When these *256subsections of § 5503(a) are read into § 5502, a dispersal order is properly issued under § 5502 only if three or more persons are intentionally engaged in conduct which satisfies any one of the four definitional components of § 5503(a). It follows, then, that the constitutionality of § 5502 depends upon the constitutionality of the incorporated subsections of § 5503(a). These distinct definitional subsections, however, present disparate constitutional questions. For example, two of these definitions could give rise to colorable claims that enforcement of the subsections could infringe on the exercise of the public’s First Amendment freedoms, e. g., “making unreasonable noise” § 5503(a) (2); “use of obscene language” § 5503(a)(3). On the other hand, the enforcement of the other two definitional subsections seemingly would not involve First Amendment problems, e. g. “engaging in tumultuous behavior”. § 5503(a)(1). Because the record does not indicate which of these four subsections appellees are charged with violating, we cannot know which of these constitutional problems is posed by this appeal.4
Furthermore, I do not see how the Court could properly determine the appropriate standard to govern its review of § 5502, without first knowing which subsection of § 5503(a) is here involved. Appellees argue that § 5502 is facially overbroad in that it includes within its scope activity which may be protected by the First *257Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and that it is facially vague in that it fails to give reasonable notice of the conduct it proscribes and, as a consequence, could be read as restricting or forbidding activity which is protected by the First Amendment. In short, appellees urge that § 5502 be scrutinized on its face, not in light of the application of the statute to the facts of this case.5 Appellees’ argument has merit, however, only if the 5503(a) conduct in which they were engaged when ordered to disperse was of the sort which could, arguably, be protected by the First Amendment. If, instead, appellees’ conduct would violate a subsection of § 5503(a) which does not implicate the First Amendment, a facial analysis would be inappropriate, and the consti*258tutional issues would have to be resolved in light of the application of § 5502 to the facts of appellees’ case.6
Accordingly, I think the Court is quite correct in its order of remand.7
NIX, J.„ joins in this concurring opinion.

. The count of the indictment which charged appellees with failure to disperse was cast in the general language of § 5502:
“3rd COUNT. AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID by this Indictment DOES FURTHER PRESENT That the said QUEEN COOK as aforesaid and WILBERT JAMES WILLIAMS, on the day and year aforesaid and in the County aforesaid, together with two or more persons whose identity is to this Inquest unknown, were then and there engaged and participating in a course of disorderly conduct which caused or could reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, and while so participating in said course of conduct as aforesaid, the said QUEEN COOK as aforesaid and WILBERT JAMES WILLIAMS unlawfully did then and their refuse and knowingly fail to obey an official order to disperse as such participant therein given by the said Joseph Terry and Dominick Mangano, as such police officer and *255public servants of said Borough of Wilkinsburg, and being duly authorized and empowered to issue and give said order of dispersal as aforesaid, all of which is against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Darryl Fulton’s indictment was cast in the same general language.

. Because all charges concerning § 5502 had been dismissed, no evidence was taken to establish the elements of that offense. Indeed, the evidence adduced at trial was introduced solely for the purpose of proving violations of other sections of our crimes code. Neither does the indictment, cast as it was in the general statutory language of § 5502, shed any light on the specific nature of appellees’ conduct. See note 1, supra. The record before us, then, may not properly be relied upon in determining precisely what in appellees’ conduct the police considered to be disorderly at the time of the issuance of the order.

. Section 5503(a) provides:
A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he:
(1) engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior;
*256(2) makes unreasonable noise;
(3) uses obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture; or
(4) creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.

. My Brother Roberts’ suggestion that we may reach the merits at this juncture is not responsive to the fact that the four definitional subsections of § 5503(a) are separate and distinct. The First Amendment analysis he would have this Court undertake would be warranted only if appellees’ indictment for violating § 5502 was predicated on conduct which is defined as disorderly by § 5503(a)(2) or (a)(3). As we cannot know this from the record, see n. 2 supra, I respectfully suggest that a constitutional analysis of § 5503(a) and, pari passu, of § 5502 as well, is premature.

. If a colorable claim is asserted that enforcement of a statute would infringe upon the exercise of protected First Amendment activity by the public, then a facial attack upon the statute may be proper. While the overbreadth and vagueness theories upon which appellees rely have distinct constitutional bases, they serve a common function when advanced to challenge a statutory provision which colorably infringes upon the public’s exercise of First Amendment freedoms. The vice which both theories attack is an impermissible chilling effect on conduct which may be protected. Whether that effect is generated by statutory terms which, while definite, are too broad in sweep, or by statutory terms the sweep of which is unknown because the terms are too imprecise, the infringement on First Amendment freedoms is the same; members of the public are forced to risk criminal prosecution in order to engage in activity which may be protected by the First Amendment. The public’s interest in guarding against such infringements is sufficiently important that any defendant may challenge the constitutionality of the language of the statute as it might be applied to the public at large, notwithstanding that his own actual conduct may not be protected by the First Amendment. As a consequence, a statute which is challenged on First Amendment overbreadth or vagueness grounds may be scrutinized by a court on its face, not in light of its application in the particular case before the court.
See Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130, 94 S.Ct. 970, 39 L.Ed.2d 214 (1974); Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 91 S.Ct. 1686, 29 L.Ed.2d 214 (1971); Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093 (1940); Note, The First Amendment Overbreadth Doctrine, 83 Harv.L.Rev. 884 (1970); Note, Due Process Requirement of Definiteness in Statutes, 62 Harv.L.Rev. 77 (1948); Note, The Void for Vagueness Doctrine in the Supreme Court, 109 U.Pa.L.Rev. 67 (1960).

. As a unanimous United States Supreme Court has recently said:
“It is well established that vagueness challenges to statutes which do not involve First Amendment freedoms must be examined in the light of the facts of the case at hand, [citation omitted]”
United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 550, 95 S.Ct. 710, 714, 42 L.Ed.2d 706, 713 (1975).
See also Commonwealth v. Heinbaugh, 467 Pa. 1, 354 A.2d 244 (1976).

. I would also make it clear that the Commonwealth should be allowed to amend the relevant portion of the indictment so as to include that subsection of § 5503(a) which is alleged to have been violated by appellees. Rule 213(b) of our Rules of Criminal Procedure, 19 P.S. (1975 Pamphlet) provides:
“(b) The indictment shall contain the official or customary citation of the statute and section thereof or other provision of law which the defendant is alleged therein to have violated; but the omission of or error in such citation shall not affect the validity or sufficiency of the indictment.”
In light of our conclusion that § 5502 must be read in pari materia with § 5503(a), an indictment charging a violation of § 5502 must, under Rule 213(b), contain not only a reference to § 5502, but also a reference to the subsection of § 5503(a) which the defendant is alleged to have violated. Rule 213(b) makes it clear, however, that the Commonwealth’s failure to include a reference to this subsection in appellees’ indictment, see note 1 supra, does ■not “affect the validity or sufficiency of the indictment.” Hence on remand the trial judge could properly allow the indictment to be amended. Rule 220, Pa.R.Crim.Proc., 19 P.S. (1975 Pamphlet).
“It is well settled that a defect of substance in an indictment cannot be amended and the indictment must be quashed. Commonwealth v. Lawton, 170 Pa.Super. 9, 84 A.2d 384 (1951). However, if the defect is one of form it can be amended. Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 220, 19 P.S.Appendix. Rule 220 permits an amendment to an indictment if the amendment does not charge an additional or different offense.” (footnotes omitted)
Commonwealth v. Brown, 229 Pa.Super. 67, 323 A.2d 845, 846 (1974). See also Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212, 80 S.Ct. 270, 4 L.Ed.2d 252 (1960); Commonwealth v. Bruce, 230 Pa.Super. 507, 326 A.2d 628 (1974). Cf. Commonwealth v. Lee, 454 Pa. 526, 312 A.2d 391 (1973); Commonwealth v. Lawton, 170 Pa.Super. 9, 84 A.2d 384 (1951).