Com. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 03 July 1985
• Citation: 395 Mass. 302,479 N.E.2d 687
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Arthur WILLIAMS.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 687

479 N.E.2d 687

395 Mass. 302

COMMONWEALTH v. Arthur WILLIAMS.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Suffolk.

Argued April 3, 1985.

Decided July 3, 1985.

John H. Miller, Jr., Roxbury, for defendant.

Paul J. McCallum, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Com.

Before HENNESSEY, C.J., and LIACOS, ABRAMS, NOLAN and LYNCH, JJ.

LIACOS, Justice.

City of Boston Code, Ordinances, tit. 14, § 286, provides: "No person shall saunter or loiter in a street in such a manner as to obstruct or endanger travellers or in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace or incite to riot; but nothing in this section shall be construed to curtail, abridge, or limit the right of opportunity of any person to exercise the right of peaceful persuasion guaranteed by section 24 of chapter 149 of the General Laws or to curtail, abridge, or limit the intendment of any statute of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Any person violating this ordinance is subject to a twenty dollar fine. See tit. 14, § 368.

The defendant was arrested and charged with sauntering and loitering in violation of tit. 14, § 286, and also with drinking an alcoholic beverage on a public way. The defendant claimed his right to a jury trial in the first instance and the case was transferred to the Boston Municipal Court. The defendant then waived his right to a jury trial and filed a motion to dismiss the sauntering and loitering complaint. In his motion to dismiss, the defendant challenged the facial validity of the sauntering and loitering ordinance on the ground that it was void for vagueness under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He also argued that the statute was overbroad with respect to protected First Amendment conduct. The trial judge denied the motion and the parties submitted the case on a statement of agreed facts. ¹ The defendant was found guilty of both charges and fined twenty dollars. He appealed the sauntering and loitering conviction to the Appeals Court. We transferred the case to this court on our own motion. We conclude that the ordinance, as written, is unconstitutionally vague within the meaning of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in that it fails to give sufficient warning and definition of the proscribed conduct, and promotes arbitrary enforcement. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment without reaching the First Amendment issue.

The principles of the void for vagueness doctrine are well settled in our law. ² A basic tenet of due process requires that a criminal statute be sufficiently clear to give notice of the prohibited conduct. Commonwealth v. Bohmer, 374 Mass. 368, 371-372, 372 N.E.2d 1381 (1978). A penal statute must "define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement." Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 357, 103 S.Ct. 1855, 1858, 75 L.Ed.2d 903 (1983). Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 572-573, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 1246-1247, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974). See Commonwealth v. Bohmer, supra. These standards apply equally to a municipal ordinance. Commonwealth v. Carpenter, 325 Mass. 519, 521, 91 N.E.2d 666 (1950). Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 162, 92 S.Ct. 839, 843, 31 L.Ed.2d 110 (1972).

However, proscribed conduct is not always capable of precise legal definition. Jaquith v. Commonwealth, 331 Mass. 439, 442, 120 N.E.2d 189 (1954). Accordingly, legislative language need not be afforded "mathematical precision" in order to pass constitutional muster. Bohmer, supra, 374 Mass. at 372, 372 N.E.2d 1381. Grayned v. Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 110, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2300, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). An ordinance is not vague, "if it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard...." Commonwealth v. Orlando, 371 Mass. 732, 734, 359 N.E.2d 310 (1977). Commonwealth v. Adams, 389 Mass. 265, 270, 450 N.E.2d 149 (1983).

Recently, the United States Supreme Court has focused its attention in determining vagueness on whether a statute fosters arbitrary enforcement. Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. at 358, 103 S.Ct. at 1858. If the Legislature fails to set forth minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement, "a criminal statute may permit 'a standardless sweep [that] allows policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predilections.' " Id. 103 S.Ct. at 1858-1859, quoting Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. at 575, 94 S.Ct. at 1248. This court has expressed concern that "[i]t would certainly be dangerous if the legislature could set a net large enough to catch all possible offenders, and leave it to the courts to step inside and say who could be rightfully detained, and who should be set at large." Bohmer, supra, 374 Mass. at 372, 372 N.E.2d 1381, quoting from Smith v. Goguen, supra, 415 U.S. at 573 n. 9, 94 S.Ct. at 1247 n. 9.

With the two-prong analysis in mind, we turn to the city of Boston "sauntering and loitering" ³ ordinance, § 286. We note that the mere act of sauntering and loitering on a public way is lawful. Commonwealth v. Carpenter, 325 Mass. 519, 521, 91 N.E.2d 666 (1950). In Carpenter, the court struck down an ordinance as unconstitutionally vague which read: "No person shall, in a street, unreasonably obstruct the free passage of foot-travellers, or wilfully and unreasonably saunter or loiter for more than seven minutes after being directed by a police officer to move on ..." (emphasis supplied). Revised Ordinances of Boston c. 40, § 34 (1947). The court invalidated the ordinance for its failure to prescribe a standard that distinguishes "those conditions which convert conduct which is prima facie lawful into that which is criminal." Carpenter, supra at 521, 91 N.E.2d 666. It forced both people and law enforcement officers to guess at what type of loitering was "unreasonable."

The Commonwealth argues that § 286 is devoid of the vague and arbitrary language of the 1947 ordinance and accordingly, § 286 affords actual notice of the prohibited conduct. We disagree. Section 286 prohibits sauntering and loitering "in such a manner as to obstruct ... travellers...." This language fails to provide a person of common intelligence with sufficient notice of the offending conduct. Papachristou, supra, 406 U.S. at 162, 164-165, 92 S.Ct. at 844-845. It is unclear what conduct a person may engage in before it rises to the level of obstructing a traveler.

Furthermore, the ordinance fails to set minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement. Kolender, supra, 461 U.S. at 358, 103 S.Ct. at 1858. Police do not have a standard by which to distinguish between the lawful conduct of mere sauntering and loitering and that which escalates to obstructing travelers. Thus, the police possess unfettered discretion that could result in arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement. Grayned v. Rockford, supra, 408 U.S. at 108-109, 92 S.Ct. at 2298-2299.

The Commonwealth urges us to cure the ordinance by adopting a limiting construction of the ordinance rather than striking it as a whole. See Commonwealth v. Gallant, 373 Mass. 577, 581, 369 N.E.2d 707 (1977). They advocate that this court supply words to the ordinance and adopt the Model Penal Code's definition of "obstruct." ⁴ Where "a statute can be made constitutionally definite by a reasonable construction, the court is under a duty to give it that construction." Thomes v. Commonwealth, 355 Mass. 203, 207, 243 N.E.2d 821 (1969). However, to supply the suggested language would...