Court Opinion

ID: 9800338
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 08:12:15.498863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:25.465884
License: Public Domain

C. JOHNSON, Judge,
dissent.
T1 A content-based restriction on speech is presumptively invalid and will not survive strict serutiny unless the State can show that the regulation promotes a compelling state interest and that it chose the least restrictive means to further the articulated interest. Sable Communications v. Federal Communications Commn., 492 U.S. 115, 126, 109 S.Ct. 2829, 2837, 106 L.Ed.2d 93 (1961)("It is not enough to show that the Government's ends are compelling; the means must be carefully tailored to achieve those ends."). Both Arganbright and the State agree that 21 O.S.Supp.2007, $ 1040.18a(A) was enacted in furtherance of a compelling state interest. With this conclusion I do not disagree. The next inquiry, of course, is whether section 1040.18a(A) is narrowly tailored to the interest it is intended to protect. This is where we ask whether the statute prohibits only the speech necessary to achieve the State's interest and this is where I disagree with the analysis proffered by the majority opinion.
12 As noted by the majority, the compelling state interest Section 1040.18a(A) endeavors to promote is to "protect[ ] minors from luring and abduction, sexual exploitation, child pornography, sexual abuse, human trafficking and child prostitution" and to "prevent individuals from using electronic technology to sexually exploit or sexually abuse minors."1 This statute, in short, seeks to prevent individuals from using electronic technology to facilitate the commission of sex crimes against minors. This compelling state interest is not promoted where the statute operates to punish an individual for using text messages to communicate about lawful sexual activity. I find that Section *12231040.18a(A) is not narrowly tailored to the interest it is intended to protect.2
1 3 I agree wholeheartedly with the majority that the facts of this case are particularly disturbing. Mr. Arganbright, a law enforcement officer and a parent who attended school functions, befriended and "groomed" a fifteen year old girl and after she turned sixteen, reaching the age of consent, he used text messaging to encourage her to become sexually active with him. If he had sent the offending text messages to her when she was fifteen and below the age of consent this Court would not be addressing the issue before us today-he would have been encouraging an illegal act and such is not protected speech3 See U.S. v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 297, 128 S.Ct. 1830, 1841, 170 L.Ed.2d 650 (2008)("Offers to engage in illegal transactions are categorically excluded from First Amendment protection."); United States v. Bailey, 228 F.3d 637, 639 (6th Cir.2000)(the inducement of minors to engage in illegal sexual activity enjoys no First Amendment protection). If the Oklahoma Legislature wants to punish individuals for encouraging or soliciting sixteen and seventeen year old youth to participate in sexual activity, it may simply change the age of consent to eighteen years of age4 But that is not currently the law in Oklahoma. Under the cireumstances of this case, where the provisions of a statute designed to prevent individuals from using electronic technology to facilitate the commission of sex crimes against minors operated to punish Arganbright for communicating with a minor who had reached the age of consent about acts, which although immoral and indecent, were both consensual and lawful, I find that the statute was not narrowly tailored to the interest it was intended to protect and was unconstitutional as it infringed upon Arganbright's First Amendment rights.

. The majority notes additionally that it is within the Oklahoma Legislature's authority "to establish the 'age of consent' for sexual activity but still seek to discourage 16-year-old and 17-year, old youth from engaging in sexual activity." I would suggest that protecting minors from luring and abduction, sexual exploitation, child pornography, sexual abuse, human trafficking and child prostitution by preventing individuals from using electronic technology to sexually exploit or sexually abuse minors is a vastly different objective than seeking to discourage sixteen and seventeen year old minors from participating in lawful sexual activity. The latter objective is not a compelling State interest for purposes of this First Amendment analysis as it is clearly not the interest the Legislature sought to promote by enacting Section 1040.13a(A). It is, thus, irrelevant to this Court's First Amendment analysis.

. The majority agrees with the State that Section 1040.13a(A) is "narrowly tailored to the compelling interest it is intended to protect as it is the least restrictive means to protect minors from individuals using technology to sexually exploit or abuse them." It does not, however, take much effort to think of a situation where the plain language of the statute would operate to prohibit speech not contemplated by Section 1040.13a(A) such as text communications exchanged by two seventeen year old peers who are involved with one another. Again, while sexual activity between sixteen and seventeen year old youth is not something to be encouraged, neither is it illegal under the current law, and the statutory language of Section 1040.13a(A) prohibiting communication about it certainly does not further the compelling State interest of protecting minors from individuals using technology to sexually exploit or sexually abuse them.

. As is noted in the Specially Concurring Opinion, it is advisable that the Oklahoma Legislature amend 210.$.2011, § 1111(7) to include within the definition of rape the circumstance where a law enforcement officer uses his or her apparent authority to accomplish sexual intercourse with a victim between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. If this statutory provision had been in place when the communication at issue in the present case occurred, the text messages sent by Argan-bright would not have been protected speech because they would have been encouraging an illegal act.

. Oklahoma is one of several states that have set the age of consent at 16. Some states have set the age of consent at 17 and 18 years of age. See Compare Age of Consent & Statutory Rape Laws by State, FindTheData (2013), http://age-of-consent.findthebest.com.