Dean A. SCHWARTZMILLER, Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
Darrol GARDNER, Warden, Idaho State Correctional
Institution, and the State of Idaho,
Respondents-Appellees.
Dean A. SCHWARTZMILLER, Petitioner-Appellee,
v.
Darrol GARDNER, Warden, Idaho State Correctional
Institution, and the State of Idaho, Respondents-Appellants.
Nos. 83-4014, 83-4056.
United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted Sept. 10, 1984.
Decided Dec. 20, 1984.
John P. Ward, San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner-appellant.
Myrna Stahman, Deputy Atty. Gen., Boise, Idaho, for respondents-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Idaho.
Before WALLACE, ALARCON, and NELSON, Circuit Judges.
WALLACE, Circuit Judge:
Schwartzmiller filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, challenging his conviction and confinement on three counts under Idaho Code Sec. 18-6607 (1979) (now amended by Idaho Code Sec. 18-1508 (Supp.1984)), for performing lewd and lascivious acts on a child, on the ground that the statute is unconstitutionally vague. The district court declared the statute to be unconstitutionally vague on its face, but not as applied to some but not all of Schwartzmiller's conduct. Schwartzmiller v. Gardner,
* Schwartzmiller, an Idaho state prisoner, was convicted in 1977 pursuant to Idaho Code Sec. 18-6607 for performing lewd and lascivious acts on a child. The Idaho Supreme Court reversed his conviction on the basis of procedural error and ordered a new trial, without deciding his claim that the statute was unconstitutionally vague. Schwartzmiller v. Winters,
In 1981, Schwartzmiller again was convicted under section 18-6607, based on incidents distinct from those forming the basis of his 1977 conviction. While his state appeal on this second conviction was pending, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, challenging section 18-6607 as unconstitutionally vague and therefore void. The district court dismissed his petition for failure to exhaust state remedies. In an unpublished disposition, we reversed, ordering the district court to consider the merits of the habeas corpus petition. Schwartzmiller v. Gardner,
On remand, the district court held that, notwithstanding various Idaho decisions applying and attempting to explain and narrow section 18-6607, Schwartzmiller v. Gardner,
After the district court issued its decision, the Idaho Supreme Court heard Schwartzmiller's appeal of his 1981 conviction. It rejected his claims that section 18-6607 is unconstitutionally vague, or that he was unfairly deprived of the opportunity to cross-examine the boys. State v. Schwartzmiller,
II
The state challenges Schwartzmiller's habeas corpus petition on the ground that his present incarceration relates solely to his 1981 conviction, and not his 1977 conviction, and thus he had not exhausted his state remedies by the time he filed this petition. Ordinarily, a state prisoner may not obtain federal habeas corpus relief without first exhausting all state remedies available at the time he files for relief. See Rose v. Lundy,
Because of this, we need not decide whether Schwartzmiller had exhausted his state remedies at the time he filed this habeas corpus petition, or whether, in light of our earlier unpublished decision, the law of the case doctrine prevents us from reexamining the exhaustion issue. After Schwartzmiller filed his habeas corpus petition, the Idaho Supreme Court heard his challenge to section 18-6607 on the appeal from his 1981 conviction. We conclude that, for purposes of this appeal, the exhaustion requirement has been satisfied.
III
Schwartzmiller challenges the state's standing to appeal. He asserts that the state was the "all-prevailing" party in the district court's decision, and thus may not cross-appeal from what he characterizes as the district court's "dictum" that section 18-6607 is void for vagueness on its face and void as applied to his masturbation conviction.
The state may appeal both rulings; they are not irrelevant dictum. Parties may appeal any adverse finding that "form[s] the basis for collateral estoppel in subsequent litigation." 9 J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice p 203.06, at 3-24 (2d ed. 1983). See also Partmar Corp. v. Paramount Pictures Theatres Corp.,
The state also has standing to appeal on the ground that parties may appeal a ruling which creates a "risk that they might become aggrieved upon reversal on the direct appeal." Hilton v. Mumaw,
IV
We now reach the heart of this appeal, which is whether the district court correctly applied the void for vagueness doctrine. This doctrine is an aspect of due process and requires that the meaning of a penal statute be determinable. A statute is void for vagueness if it fails to give adequate notice to people of ordinary intelligence concerning the conduct it proscribes, see Coates v. City of Cincinnati,
Related to, but distinct from, the vagueness doctrine is the doctrine of overbreadth. See Kolender v. Lawson,
A.
The vagueness doctrine is more subtle and difficult to grasp than it might appear. One of its subtleties that eluded the district court is that although a statute may be challenged for vagueness either "on its face" or "as applied," a "facial" vagueness analysis is mutually exclusive from an "as applied" analysis. The threshold question in any vagueness challenge is whether to scrutinize the statute for intolerable vagueness on its face or whether to do so only as the statute is applied in the particular case. The doctrine does not permit a court to conclude that a statute is facially vague and therefore void, yet not void because it is sufficiently definite as applied.
Therefore, we first analyze this case to decide whether facial vagueness review is appropriate. Courts frequently entertain claims of facial overbreadth because of a special solicitude for first amendment freedoms, e.g., Broadrick v. Oklahoma,
The Supreme Court has explained how to determine whether facial statutory review is appropriate in response to facial overbreadth and vagueness challenges:
In a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. If it does not, then the overbreadth challenge must fail. The court should then examine the facial vagueness challenge and, assuming the enactment implicates no constitutionally protected conduct, should uphold the challenge only if the enactment is impermissibly vague in all of its applications. A plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others. A court should therefore examine the complainant's conduct before analyzing other hypothetical applications of the law.
Flipside,
This analytical approach seems clear, and the only remaining question is whether Kolender requires any modification. In Kolender, the Court allowed a facial vagueness challenge to a statute that required persons who loiter or wander on the streets to provide a "credible and reliable" identification and to account for their presence to an inquiring police officer. See Cal.Penal Code Sec. 647(e) (West 1970). Lawson had been arrested or detained on approximately fifteen occasions pursuant to the statute, but had been tried only twice and convicted once. In commenting on the prior line of cases, the Court pointed out that criminal statutes require a high degree of certainty and emphasized that the case involved arbitrary enforcement of a statute. Kolender,
The California identification statute struck down in Kolender is a type of statute that has long been disfavored by the courts. It was enacted to replace the even more disfavored California vagrancy statute, which had been partially struck down and generally criticized on constitutional and prudential grounds. See Selected 1960-61 California Legislation, 36 Cal.St.B.J. 643, 801-02 (1961).
The identification statute, however, did not sufficiently improve upon the vagrancy statute to escape criticism, see Note, Constitutional Attacks on Vagrancy Laws, 20 Stan.L.Rev. 782, 788-89 (1968), or eventual invalidation on vagueness grounds by the Supreme Court. See Kolender,
In addition to applying facial review because of the unusual fact situation in Kolender and the intolerability of the statute's inherent vagueness, the Court suggested that facial vagueness review was also appropriate because of the statute's infringement on first amendment freedoms and the right to free movement. See id. at 1859. To the extent this may be a part of the Court's consideration, facial vagueness analysis becomes the functional equivalent of facial overbreadth analysis and, apparently, adds nothing new to statutory facial consideration. Although we must await further Supreme Court cases to determine finally what interaction there may be between facial overbreadth and vagueness challenges, compare id. with id. at 1865 (White, J., dissenting), some guidance is provided by Regan v. Time, Inc., --- U.S. ----,
Regan presents a significant gloss to Kolender because whether a facial vagueness test should be applied was directly before the Court. The dissent specifically argued that Kolender required a facial consideration because the statute arguably provided the government with "virtually unconstrained authority to decide whether [an act] imposes criminal liability ... or not." Id. at 3284 (Brennan, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Until the Supreme Court provides further guidance, it appears that Kolender presented a unique fact situation and that facial vagueness review may still be appropriate only when "the enactment is impermissibly vague in all of its applications." Flipside,
We agree with the state that Idaho Code Sec. 18-6607 does not impinge on or "chill" any constitutionally protected conduct, substantial or otherwise. Moreover, because this statute does not by nature fall into the disfavored category of statutes like those regulating vagrancy, cf. Flipside,
B.
In scrutinizing a statute for intolerable vagueness as applied to specific conduct, courts must "take the statute as though it read precisely as the highest court of the State has interpreted it." Wainwright v. Stone,
[a]ny person who shall wilfully and lewdly commit any lewd or lascivious act or acts upon or with the body or any part or member thereof of a minor or child under the age of sixteen (16) years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust or passions or sexual desires of such person or of such minor or child, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term of not more than life.
Idaho Code Sec. 18-6607 (1979) (now amended by Idaho Code Sec. 18-1508 (Supp.1984)). We now examine this statute as previously interpreted by the Idaho Supreme Court.
Schwartzmiller challenges the district court's holding that section 18-6607 is constitutionally definite as applied to his convictions for the two counts of anal intercourse. He argues that State v. Wall,
In Wall, the Idaho Supreme Court held that "any acts going to the extent of actual commission of the infamous crime against nature, where the victim is a child under sixteen years of age, would also constitute a violation of Sec. 18-6607, I.C., proscribing lewd and lascivious acts."
State v. Ross,
Finally, State v. Iverson,
V
Schwartzmiller argues that, even if section 18-6607 is sufficiently definite to meet constitutional due process standards, his conviction must be reversed because under an Idaho rule of evidence he was denied the opportunity to cross-examine the minor victims regarding their consent. This violated his right to due process, he argues, because the rule prevents some defendants from showing that the minor was the aggressor and the only party with the specific intent to arouse sexual passions. The state rejoins that Schwartzmiller did not raise this particular argument in the state proceedings, and thus it is not properly before us.
It does not appear from either the Idaho Supreme Court opinion, see State v. Schwartzmiller,
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART.
