In re Welfare B.A.H., A12–1347.

• Decision Date: 09 April 2014
• Docket Number: No. A12–1347.,A12–1347.
• Citation: 845 N.W.2d 158
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
• Parties: In the Matter of the WELFARE OF B.A.H., Child.

845 N.W.2d 158

In the Matter of the WELFARE OF B.A.H., Child.

No. A12–1347.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 9, 2014.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Minnesota Statutes § 609.342, subd. 1(g) (2012), as applied to the respondent, does not violate his constitutional rights to due process because it is not vague and it does not encourage arbitrary or discriminatory prosecution.

2. The State's decision to charge the respondent under Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(g), was rational and did not violate his constitutional rights to equal protection.

Lori Swanson, Minnesota Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Janet Reiter, Chisago County Attorney, Beth A. Beaman, Anne M. Zimmerman, Assistant County Attorneys, Center City, MN, for appellant State of Minnesota.

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Danail M. Mizinov, Special Assistant State Public Defender, Saint Paul, MN, for respondent B.A.H.

Caroline S. Palmer, Saint Paul, MN, for amicus curiae Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

After a bench trial on stipulated evidence, the district court found respondent B.A.H. guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and adjudicated him delinquent. B.A.H. appealed, arguing that the statute under which he was adjudicated delinquent, Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(g) (2012), is unconstitutional as applied to him. The court of appeals agreed and held that subdivision 1(g) violated B.A.H.'s rights to due process and equal protection. In re Welfare of B.A.H., 829 N.W.2d 431, 438 (Minn.App.2013). We granted the State's petition for review. Because we conclude that application of subdivision 1(g) does not violate B.A.H.'s constitutional rights to due process or equal protection, we reverse.

I.

In September 2011, X.X., then 13 years of age, stayed overnight at the home of his first cousin B.A.H., then age 14. B.A.H. was X.X.'s “best friend” and “pretty much [his] favorite cousin.” B.A.H. and X.X. spent the night in B.A.H.'s room and “stayed up till later.” B.A.H. drank two beers and some liquor he had taken from his parents' liquor cabinet. At B.A.H.'s urging, X.X. also drank “a little[,] like a shot of the liquor.” He told B.A.H. he did not want any more. X.X. did not feel drunk, but B.A.H. “was acting weird” and “said he couldn't walk in a straight line.” At some point in the night, B.A.H. told X.X. “it's normal ... to be “curious” about sexuality.

B.A.H. then asked X.X. “to do stuff.” X.X. did not want to, but complied “because [B.A.H.] [was] [X.X.'s] favorite cousin” and X.X. “didn't want to feel like ... being mean.” It is undisputed that the sexual encounter that followed was initiated by B.A.H. B.A.H. performed fellatio on X.X. and then arranged, facilitated, and directed an act of anal intercourse by X.X. with B.A.H. X.X. refused B.A.H.'s further request to touch him, and told B.A.H. to stop the sexual encounter. B.A.H. eventually stopped. B.A.H. told X.X. that he would kill X.X. if X.X. told anyone what had happened. X.X. characterized the threat as “more like an exaggeration” because B.A.H. “said he was ... bi” and “just didn't want [X.X.] to tell anybody.”

Several months later, X.X. told his mother that B.A.H. had performed oral sex on him. His mother suggested that he talk to his counselor about what had happened. X.X. then gave his counselor a more detailed and complete account of the incident, including the anal intercourse. The counselor shared the information with X.X.'s mother and, as a mandated reporter, disclosed X.X.'s allegations to the police. The State conducted an investigation and charged B.A.H. by petition with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct under Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(g).¹

B.A.H. moved to dismiss the charge. He argued that subdivision 1(g), as applied to him, was unconstitutionally vague, producedan absurd result, and violated his constitutional rights to equal protection; that the definition of a “significant relationship,” as applied to him, was unconstitutional; that the statutory exclusion of consent as a defense, as applied to his case, was unconstitutional; and that dismissing the charge was in the interest of justice. The district court denied B.A.H.'s motion.

To avoid a trial but preserve the issue for appeal, B.A.H. maintained his not-guilty plea, waived his trial rights, and stipulated to the State's evidence. ² He agreed that his appeal, if any, would be limited to the pretrial ruling on his motion to dismiss. The district court found B.A.H. guilty; adjudicated him delinquent; imposed indefinite probation; and ordered him to complete a residential treatment program and register as a sex offender. B.A.H. appealed. He argued that subdivision 1(g), as applied to him, produced an absurd result, violated his constitutional rights to due process by encouraging arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, and violated his constitutional rights to equal protection. The court of appeals refused to consider the absurd-result claim because B.A.H. raised a different argument on appeal than he had in the district court, held that subdivision 1(g) violated B.A.H.'s constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, and reversed. B.A.H., 829 N.W.2d at 437–38. This appeal followed.

II.

We review the court of appeals' determinations on issues of law, including the interpretation and constitutionality of statutes, de novo. See, e.g., Larson v. State, 790 N.W.2d 700, 703 (Minn.2010); State v. Bussmann, 741 N.W.2d 79, 82 (Minn.2007). We presume statutes to be constitutional, Minn.Stat. § 645.17(3) (2012), and our power to declare a statute unconstitutional should be exercised with extreme caution and only when absolutely necessary. In re Haggerty, 448 N.W.2d 363, 364 (Minn.1989).

A.

The first of B.A.H.'s two constitutional claims is that subdivision 1(g) “offers no guidance for distinguishing between actor and complainant” and thus violates his rights to due process by “encourag[ing] arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” ³ The United States Constitutionand the Minnesota Constitution provide equivalent protection against the deprivation of liberty without due process of law. Sartori v. Harnischfeger Corp., 432 N.W.2d 448, 453 (Minn.1988); see alsoU.S. Const. amend., XIV, § 1; Minn. Const. art. I, § 7. This protection extends to juvenile-delinquency proceedings, which “ ‘must measure up to the essentials of due process and fair treatment.’ ” In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 30, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967) (quoting Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 562, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966)).

Vague laws can violate due process in at least two ways: they “trap the innocent by not providing adequate warning of unlawful conduct” and they “unleash the potential for unfair and uneven law enforcement by not establishing minimal guidelines.” State v. Becker, 351 N.W.2d 923, 925 (Minn.1984). Accordingly, we require “that a penal statute 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, 75 L.Ed.2d 903 (1983); accord Bussmann, 741 N.W.2d at 83. Although these two requirements of due process present “analytically distinct bases upon which one may challenge a statute on vagueness grounds,” State v. Ness, 834 N.W.2d 177, 184 (Minn.2013), the United States Supreme Court has called the second basis—demanding “ ‘minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement’ ”—the “more important aspect of the vagueness doctrine.” Kolender, 461 U.S. at 358, 103 S.Ct. 1855 (quoting Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 574, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974)). The second basis is the principal ground for B.A.H.'s challenge.

Naturally, the essential question in a vagueness challenge is whether the statute is vague. Vagueness, in the context of a claim like B.A.H.'s, means that a statute “ ‘leaves [its enforcers] free to decide, without any legally fixed standards, what is prohibited and what is not in each particular case.’ ” Bussmann, 741 N.W.2d at 83 (quoting Giaccio v. Pennsylvania, 382 U.S. 399, 402–03, 86 S.Ct. 518, 15 L.Ed.2d 447 (1966)). Thus, an ordinance that targeted “loitering” in a public place with a known gang member was unconstitutionally vague because it “provide[d] absolute discretion to police officers to decide what activities constitute[d] loitering.” City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41, 61, 119 S.Ct. 1849, 144 L.Ed.2d 67 (1999) (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted). Similarly, a statute that required people to provide “ ‘credible and reliable’ identification” on request by a police officer and “contain[ed] no standard for determining what a suspect ha[d] to do in order to satisfy the requirement” was unconstitutionally vague because it “vest[ed] virtually complete discretion in the hands of the police to determine whether the suspect ha[d] satisfied the statute.” Kolender, 461 U.S. at 358, 103 S.Ct. 1855 (emphasis added); see also Giaccio, 382 U.S. at 403, 86 S.Ct. 518 (holding that a law that let a jury award costs against an acquitted defendant “without imposing a single condition, limitation, or contingency” on the jury was unconstitutionally vague). Because such vagueness lets enforcers “pursue their personal predilections” and define what is and is not legal, it reflects an impermissible “abdicat[ion]” of the legislature's “responsibilitiesfor setting the standards of the criminal law.” Goguen, 415 U.S. at 575, 94 S.Ct. 1242;see also United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 306, 128 S.Ct. 1830, 170 L.Ed.2d 650 (2008) (explaining that statutes are unconstitutionally vague when “criminal culpability” depends on “wholly subjective judgments without statutory definitions, narrowing context, or settled legal meanings”).

In other words, a statute is unconstitutionally vague if it “affords no guidance to enforcement...