Ward v. State of UtahWard v. State of Utah
Plaintiff-Appellant Eric Ward burned a mink stole as part of an animal-rights protest. The State charged Mr. Ward with disorderly conduct, and because he allegedly acted “with the intent to intimidate or terrorize another person,”
I. BACKGROUND
Mr. Ward regularly participates in public demonstrations to express his views concerning the ethical treatment of animals. On November 14, 1999, Mr. Ward engaged in such a demonstration in Mag-na, Utah. Although the record reveals very little about this incident, Mr. Ward admits that the protest included a candlelight vigil and the burning of a mink stole. Mr. Ward maintains that the demonstration was lawful. Nevertheless, on December 4, 2000, the State charged him with misdemeanor disorderly conduct,
see
The record is unclear whether the State brought the disorderly conduct charge because Mr. Ward burned the mink stole or for other reasons — nor does it explain why the State waited over a year to file these charges. The record also fails to include any evidence on which the State could have based its application of the enhancement provision. In any event, the State dropped the enhancement charge on December 27, 2000, and eventually dropped the disorderly conduct сharge as well. Nevertheless, a felony arrest remains on Mr. Ward’s record.
Mr. Ward plans to continue participating in animal-rights protests and is fearful that the State will again charge him with the
In addition to their motion to dismiss, the Defendants also filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The Defendants argued that
Mr. Ward appealed the District Court’s decision. This Court held that:Mr. Ward had standing to contest the constitutionality of this statute and thus reversed and remanded.
Ward v. Utah,
Although Mr. Ward’s complaint alleged constitutional violations under both the United States Constitution and the Utah Constitution, he raises only his federal arguments on appeal. Mr. Ward’s state constitutional arguments, therefore, are waived.
Powers v. Harris,
Mr. Ward presented three arguments below, namely, that
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same standard as the district court.
First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City v. Salt Lake City Corp.,
Although “the practice of granting summary judgment sua sponte is not favored,”
Procter & Gamble Co. v. Haugen,
III. AS-APPLIED CHALLENGE
Mr. Ward labels his First Amendment argument, below and on appeal, as both an as-applied and a facial challenge. Because Mr. Ward’s substantive arguments have only presented facial challenges, however, one has difficulty deciphering what constitutes Mr. Ward’s as-applied challenge. In his reply brief, Mr. Ward attempted to clarify his as-applied arguments, but even the reply brief fails to make an as-applied challenge.
Mr. Ward first argues that Utah’s statute is “overbroad on its face and as applied to [him].” But an overbreadth challenge is a facial challenge.
See Faustin v. City and County of Denver, Colo.,
Mr. Ward also claims that admissions made by the appellees in the answer brief confirm that he has an as-applied challenge. He cites the following passages from the appellees’ brief: “application of the statute in the underlying case ... was clearly a mistake on behalf of the prosecutor”; “the charge against Plaintiff in the underlying ease ... was cleаrly inappropriately applied”; “the statute was inappropriately applied to Ward.”
These statements merely concede that the state erred in charging Mr. Ward under
IV. FACIAL CHALLENGE
Facial challenges are strong medicine. Article III of the Constitution ensures that federal courts are not “roving commissions assigned to pass judgment on the validity of the nation’s laws,” but instead address only specific “cases” and “controversies.”
Citizens Concerned for Separation of Church and State v. City and County of Denver,
A. Overbreadth
Mr. Ward first argues that
Broadrick recognizes that statutes regulating conduct, “if too broadly worded, may deter protected speech to some unknown extent.” Id. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court held that, despite the potential for chilling speech, “there comes a point where that effect — at best a prediction— cannot, with confidence, justify invalidating a statute on its face and so prohibiting a State from enforcing the statute against conduct that is admittedly within its power to proscribe.” Id. Consequently, the Court stated that “particularly where conduct and not merely speech is involved, we believe that the overbreadth of a statute must not only be real, but substantial as well, judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.” Id.
Mr. Ward presents three overbreadth arguments. First, he argues that
1.
First, Mr. Ward urges that
As is clear from Broadrick, a court should not invalidate a statute on its face simply because the statute may criminalize some protected speech. Instead, the court must determine how much protected speech is impacted “in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.” Id. We therefore begin by looking at the text of the statute to determine its plainly legitimate sweep.
(2) A person who commits any primary offense with the intent to intimidate or terrorize another person or with reason to believe that his action would intimidate оr terrorize that person is guilty of a third degree felony.
(3) “Intimidate or terrorize” means an act which causes the person to fear for his physical safety or damages the property of that person or another. The act must be accompanied with the intent to cause a person to fear to freely exercise or enjoy any right secured by the Constitution or laws of the state or by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
We interpret state laws according to state rules of statutory construction,
Citizens for Responsible Gov’t State Political Action Comm. v. Davidson,
As to the first element of a
While
Given that Utah may constitutionally ban disorderly conduct even though it is potentially expressive and that Utah may ban true threats, we are left to consider whether
The reasoning of
Mitchell
is equally applicable here. Just as in
Mitchell,
because
2.
Mr. Ward counters that
Although the text of
To determine what role the statute’s title plays in interpreting the statute, we look to state law.
See Davidson,
3.
Finally, relying on statements made during oral argument in
Ward I,
Mr. Ward argues that, because a person can be charged with violating
We hold, therefore, that section 76-3-203.3is not overbroad because when judged in relation to its plainly legitimate sweep it does not reach a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct.
See Broadrick,
B. Vagueness
Mr. Ward next asserts that
The prohibitions of a criminal statute must be “set out in terms that the ordinary person exercising ordinary common sense can sufficiently understand and comply with, without sacrifice to the public interest,”
Dodger’s Bar & Grill,
1.
Mr. Ward argues that section 76-3-203.3fails to give fair notice for two reasons: (1) it does not enumerate a specific class of victims, and (2) it doеs not contain a scienter requirement. We address these in turn.
First, Mr. Ward contends that
Moreover, even if we were to consider any part of the statute vague, we conclude that
In addition, because the text of the statute requires that the defendant act “with the intent to intimidate or terrorize,” which is defined as “an аct which causes the person to fear for his physical safety or damages the property of that person or another,” following the
J.W.
court we conclude that this same “with the intent to” language requires the inclusion of a specific intent requirement in the second element of a
2.
The District Court also held that
It would be odd for specific intent, the very requirement that “may mitigate a law’s vagueness ... with respect to the adequacy of notice,”
Murphy,
3.
Finally, we consider Mr. Ward’s two additional arguments that assert vagueness in general. First, just as in his over-breadth analysis, Mr. Ward argues that statements made by defense counsel in oral argument during
Ward I
render
Second, Mr. Ward asserts, without am thority, that
Mr. Ward contends that these decisions illustrate the statute’s vagueness. We fail to see the connection between these decisions and a claim of vagueness. To the contrary, both courts found
C. Time, Place, Manner
In his last argument, Mr. Ward contends that
We apply the time, place, and manner doctrine to evaluate whether restrictions placed on expression in public fora violate the First Amendment.
See First Unitarian Church,
We have previously given examples of time, place, or manner restrictions, including “requiring that street demonstrations occur at times other than rush hour, that billboards be located away from scenic highways, or that sound trucks not exceed a certain decibel level.”
Heideman v. South Salt Lake City,
y. CONCLUSION
While Mr. Ward remains at liberty to advocate vigorously through lawful protests for the abolishment of the fur trade, we hold that
Notes
. Because the District Court determined that Mr. Ward lacked standing, the court considered neither the merits of Mr. Ward's summary judgment motion nor the Defendants' motion to dismiss.
. Nothing we say today forecloses the possibility of mounting an as-applied challenge to
. We discuss the inclusion of the specific-intent requirements in elements two and three below.
. The possible primary offenses are: assault and related offenses, misdemeanor property destruction, criminal trespass, misdemeanor theft, offense of obstructing government operations, any offense of interfering or intending to interfere with activities of colleges and universities, misdemeanor offense against public order and decency, telephone abuse offenses, cruelty to animals, and any weapons offense.
.To be perfectly clear, we do not hold that every primary offense listed under
. This is not to say that we cannot imagine an as-applied challenges where a person’s conduct might satisfy this statutory requirement yet not satisfy the Court's definition of a true threat. Because we are reviewing only a facial challenge, however, we find that in relation to
. For states that do include such victim-class specifications see, for example,