Court Opinion

ID: 9628692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:29:27.972786+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:36.099353
License: Public Domain

Finley, J.
(concurring)' — -I have signed the majority opinion because I agree that the legislation here involved is proscribed by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Smith v. California (1959), 361 U. S. 147, 4 L. Ed. (2d) 205, 80 S. Ct. 215. Nevertheless, I am prompted to add the following comments.
On more than one occasion our state legislature has attempted to prevent distribution of obscene, salacious, pornographic material in the state of Washington. The most recent legislative effort has now encountered a constitutional obstacle. One, if not the most significant, legislative purpose involved in the particular enactment was to prevent exposure of youngsters and teen-agers to salacious, pornographic material. This, of course, was based upon the premise that exposure of young people to such material is not in their best interests, and is not conducive to an unquestionably highly desirable social objective; namely, their development as good citizens and sound, upright, moral members of the community in which they live.
There is, of course, contrariety of opinion as to what constitutes obscenity and perhaps pornography. Further, there is some difference of opinion as. to whether exposure to pornographic material produces socially undesirable results in terms of an individual’s moral habits and development. However, authorities of considerable standing support the premise, followed by the legislature, that there is a reasonable relationship between (a) the development of good moral habits and sound sex attitudes in the young and (b) their exposure to salacious, pornographic material.
The oft repeated allusion of Justice Holmes to a person shouting fire in a crowded theatre suggests that freedom of speech in a true or realistic constitutional sense may well be subject to some eminently reasonable restrictions; and further, that these may be ascertainable legislatively, as well as finally determinable judicially. This tempts some specula*230tion or further evaluation as to any prospective legislative action relating to the exposure of young people to pornographic material.
The statute involved in the present case was broad in scope and, in one very real sense, was all inclusive. It attempted to prevent the distribution of suspect material, not only to young people, but to all persons, irrespective of age and marital status. Also, since scienter, or knowledge of obscenity, was not a factor in the operation of the statute, it conceivably placed a too burdensome task upon dealers to read and examine their wares for obscenity before selling them; or, alternatively, to face the possibility of unwittingly violating the law.
If the statute in the instant case had been pin-pointed at the sale of the offensive material to young people (possibly those unmarried and under a stated age), unquestionably, its scope would have been dramatically reduced. It would not have encompassed adults, and as a very practical matter its operation would have been confined to young individuals. Furthermore, it would have provided a practicable means for run-of-the-mill dealers to avoid violation of the law simply by ascertaining the age or marital status of their customers. Such a pin-pointing by the statute at a specific problem or evil — sale of suspect material to young people— might possibly have provided a reasonably acceptable basis for constitutional distinction less inimical to the legislative purpose which I believe laudably prompted enactment of RCW 9.68.010.