United States v. Woodard

• Decision Date: 04 April 1967
• Docket Number: 15567.,No. 15566,15566
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald WOODARD and Ranier Seelig, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

376 F.2d 136 (1967)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald WOODARD and Ranier Seelig, Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 15566, 15567.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

April 4, 1967.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Francis Heisler, Chicago, Ill., for appellants.

Edward V. Hanrahan, U. S. Atty., Robert A. Galbraith, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chicago, Ill., for appellee, John Peter Lulinski, Michael B. Nash, Asst. U. S. Attys., of counsel.

Before HASTINGS, Chief Judge, and SWYGERT, and CUMMINGS, Circuit Judges.

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

Ronald Woodard and Ranier Seelig appeal from their convictions of disorderly conduct pursuant to the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 7 and 13,¹ and the Illinois disorderly conduct statute, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, § 26-1(a) (1). The district court suspended the imposition of fines against both defendants and placed them on probation for a period of nine months. The defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence and the constitutionality of the disorderly conduct statute, and allege several trial errors.

The essential facts follow. On May 25, 1965, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) held a hearing in the former United States Court of Appeals Building at 1212 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. A full complement of deputy United States marshals was on hand to maintain order in and around the premises. Sometime around noon, the deputy marshals were in the process of clearing the hearing room for the luncheon recess. The defendant Woodard, who had left shortly before to visit the washroom, attempted to reenter the hearing room. The marshal-in-charge informed Woodard that he could not do so because the building was being cleared for the noon recess. Woodard announced his intention to return in spite of this instruction and stepped around the marshal-in-charge, only to be confronted by two deputy marshals. The deputy marshals repeated the direction of the marshal-in-charge and told Woodard that he would have to leave the building. At this point Woodard declared that if he were going to leave, the marshals would have to carry him, and fell limp on the floor. Disorder and confusion followed among people in the hallway and at a press conference being conducted nearby. Several deputy marshals carried Woodard from the building.

Later the same day, during the Committee's afternoon session, the defendant Seelig was seated as a spectator in the hearing room. During the course of the testimony of a witness at the hearing, Seelig jumped to his feet and began shouting, "Being an American citizen, I don't have to sit here and listen to these lies." A general commotion ensued. The chairman presiding at the hearing called for order by pounding his gavel and a marshal seated in front of Seelig warned him to keep quiet or he would have to leave. When Seelig continued his shouting, he was removed from the building by several deputy marshals.

The first question presented is whether the evidence is sufficient to convict the defendants of violations of that portion of the Illinois disorderly conduct statute under which they were charged, section 26-1(a) (1) of chapter 38 of the Illinois Revised Statutes. That section provides:

A person commits disorderly conduct when he knowingly * * * does any act in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace.

The emphasis of the statute is upon the tendency of the conduct to disturb others and to provoke disruptions of public order and upon the unreasonableness of the activity when viewed in the context of the surrounding circumstances. We have no hesitation in saying that a jury could find the defendants' conduct violative of the statute.

The defendant Seelig's action in jumping to his feet and shouting during a congressional hearing was shown to have disrupted the orderly procedure of the testimony before the Committee and to have caused a general commotion among the spectators. The evidence indicates that Seelig's disorderly behavior continued until he was forcibly removed from the hearing room. The unreasonableness of such conduct under the circumstances of a solemn public gathering, even under the most permissive standards, is apparent, and the jury could so find. Public hearings of every character, executive, legislative, and judicial, are most often "public" as to physical presence, but not as to participation. As such, they must be conducted with decorum. If each spectator were privileged to shout or even speak at will, pandemonium would likely result. When, as here, activity engaged in by a spectator prevents the orderly continuation of the hearing, it falls within the prohibition of the statute. Cf., State v. Smith, 46 N.J. 510, 218 A.2d 147, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 838, 87 S.Ct. 85, 17 L.Ed.2d 71 (1966).

As to the defendant Woodard, the evidence shows that he, too, created a disturbance and caused confusion raising a threat to the public peace and tranquility in the building where the congressional hearing was being held. Woodard's action in falling limp on the floor was an intentional resistance to the authority of those designated to maintain order on the premises. The jury could find that such disruptive behavior was so unreasonable, given the attending circumstances, as to constitute disorderly conduct within the meaning of the statute. Cf., United States v. Jones, 365 F.2d 675 (2d Cir. 1966); State v. Smith, supra.

The defendants contend that any violation of the statute which may have occurred resulted solely from the "uncalled for" intervention of the deputy marshals, for which the defendants should not be held accountable. We think the evidence already recited refutes this argument. The conduct of the defendants, not that of the law enforcement agents, occasioned the public disturbances which prompted the prosecution of this case.²

The defendants next raise constitutional challenges to the Illinois disorderly conduct statute. First, they maintain that the statute is unconstitutionally vague. They focus their argument upon the language of the statute prohibiting any act done in "such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another." They complain that the term "unreasonable" is undefined and that the statute fails to delineate the extent of the alarm or the gravity of the disturbance required. The defendants' argument thus reduces itself to the assertion that the statute is so vague as to deny them due process by failing to give them fair notice that their conduct was prohibited.³

The Constitution does not require impossible standards of specificity in penal statutes. It requires only that the statute convey "sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices." United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 8, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 1542, 91 L.Ed. 1877 (1947). When measured by this criterion, section 26-1(a) (1) of the Illinois disorderly conduct statute does not offend due process.⁴

The statute proscribes conduct that is so unreasonable as to "alarm or disturb" another and provoke a "breach of the peace." The term "breach of the peace" has never had a precise meaning in relation to specific conduct. Yet from its early common law origin to the present it has received a fairly well defined gloss. "The offense known as breach of the peace embraces a great variety of conduct destroying or menacing public order and tranquility. It includes not only violent acts but acts and words likely to produce violence in others." Cantwell v. State of Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 308, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940). The term connotes conduct that creates consternation and alarm. It is an indecorum that incites public turbulence; yet violent conduct is not a necessary element. The proscribed conduct must be voluntary, unnecessary, and contrary to ordinary human conduct. On the other hand, the commonly held understanding of a breach of the peace has always exempted eccentric or unconventional conduct, no matter how irritable to others. It seems unnecessary to add that whether a given act provokes a breach of the peace depends upon the accompanying circumstances, that is, it is essential that the setting be considered in deciding whether the act offends the mores of the community.

The words "alarm or disturb" are perhaps superfluous because they are conjugate with the term "breach of the peace," which may encompass the reaction of disturbance and alarm on the part of others. If anything, the words qualify the broader meaning of "breach of the peace." The term "unreasonable manner" must be read contextually; it merely articulates the standard of judgment which would be applicable even in its absence. "Common sense * * * dictates that * * * conduct is to be adjudged to be disorderly, not merely because it offends some supersensitive or hypercritical individual, but because it is, by its nature, of a sort that is a substantial interference with (our old friend) the reasonable man." People v. Harvey, 307 N.Y. 588, 123 N.E.2d 81, 83 (1954). In short, we think the Illinois statute, "when measured by common understanding and practices," United States v. Petrillo, supra, provided the defendants with adequate warning that their conduct was prohibited.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey was recently faced with a void-for-vagueness attack on the state's Disorderly Persons Act in State v. Smith, 46 N.J. 510, 218 A.2d 147, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 838, 87 S.Ct. 85 (1966), a case involving a disturbance by a spectator at a public meeting in the council chambers of the governing body of the city of Trenton. The New Jersey statute⁵ defined a "disorderly person" as "any person who by noisy or disorderly conduct disturbs or interferes with the quiet or good order of any place of assembly, public or private, including schools, churches, libraries and reading rooms". The court there made the following pertinent observation:

The defendant says the

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