Zaimi v. United States
| Decision Date | 07 February 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 23933.,23933. |
| Citation | 476 F.2d 511,155 US App. DC 66 |
| Parties | Siamack ZAIMI, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Robert C. Maynard, Washington, D. C., with whom Ralph J. Temple, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant.
Warren R. King, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Thomas A. Flannery, U. S. Atty., at the time the brief was filed, John A. Terry and Henry F. Greene, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before WRIGHT, ROBINSON and WILKEY, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is from affirmance by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals1 of a judgment of the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions2 convicting appellant, Siamack Zaimi, of "bringing" the Shah of Iran "into public disrepute"3 in purported violation of D.C.Code § 22-1115.4 Zaimi contends that that section imposes an unconstitutional restraint on freedom of speech and that the evidence at his trial was insufficient to warrant conviction.5 We conclude that the activities upon which Zaimi's conviction rested did not infringe Section 22-1115. Accordingly, and without reaching Zaimi's constitutional arguments, we reverse.
On June 12, 1968, while the Shah of Iran was in temporary residence at Blair House during an official visit to the United States, Zaimi and a companion, Khosro Kalantari,6 became principals in two incidents on the sidewalk across the street from Blair House.7
The first occurred about 12:30 p. m. when, as the Shah was getting into a car en route to the White House, Zaimi and Kalantari stepped off the curb and "shouted" in a foreign language.8 The second episode took place about 2:10 p. m. while the Shah was inside Blair House. Zaimi and his companion were again observed on the sidewalk, and Zaimi was carrying "something wrapped" under his arm. Police officers approached, inquired as to what it was, and were told that it was a banner which Zaimi intended to unfurl when the Shah came out of Blair House.9 The officers seized the banner, informing them it would be unlawful to display it within five hundred feet of Blair House while the Shah was staying there.10 Then followed the events which precipitated their arrests.
Failing in efforts to persuade the officers to return the banner, Kalantari, and then Zaimi, mounted a curbing beside the sidewalk and each began "shouting," partly in English and partly in a foreign tongue. As described at trial, Kalantari declared "that the Shah was selling out to American capitalists" and Zaimi "said approximately the same thing."11 The speeches lasted about five minutes; about thirty people were standing nearby and "they just watched what was going on." It appears without controversy that Zaimi and Kalantari were then within five hundred feet12 of Blair House, and that neither had a permit to engage in speechmaking at that point.13 Officers advised the pair that they were violating the law14 and, when they refused to desist, placed them under arrest.15
Zaimi and Kalantari were jointly prosecuted on an information laying two charges under Section 22-1115. The first was that they "did . . . intimidate, coerce, harass and bring into public disrepute an officer of a foreign government . . . within five hundred feet of a building . . . being used and occupied by the representative of a foreign government . . . for an official purpose without a permit from the Chief of Police. . . ."16 The second charge was that they "did congregate within five hundred feet of such building . . . and refuse to disperse after having been ordered so to do by the police authorities. . . ."17 At the conclusion of trial, without a jury, the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions granted a defense motion to dismiss the second charge,18 but found both guilty on the charge, in the court's words, "that they did bring into public disrepute an officer of a foreign government, the Shah of Iran. . . ."19 Each was sentenced to pay a fine of $100 or spend five days in jail.20 The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejecting Zaimi's constitutional and insufficiency-of-evidence claims, affirmed21 and the case is here for our review.22
For convenience of analysis, we reproduce Section 22-1115 in toto. It provides:
It shall be unlawful to display any flag, banner, placard, or device designed or adapted to intimidate, coerce, or bring into public odium any foreign government, party, or organization, or any officer or officers thereof, or to bring into public disrepute political, social, or economic acts, views, or purposes of any foreign government, party, or organization, or to intimidate, coerce, harass, or bring into public disrepute any officer or officers or diplomatic or consular representatives of any foreign government, or to interfere with the free and safe pursuit of the duties of any diplomatic or consular representatives of any foreign government, within five hundred feet of any building or premises within the District of Columbia used or occupied by any foreign government or its representative or representatives as an embassy, legation, consulate, or for other official purposes, except by, and in accordance with, a permit issued by the superintendent of police of the said District; or to congregate within five hundred feet of any such building or premises, and refuse to disperse after having been ordered so to do by the police authorities of the said District.23
This was the statute upon which Zaimi was charged, tried and convicted, and the first effort it beckons is one to ascertain just what species of conduct its multifarious provisions restrict. As even the most careful examination of this section discloses, the reach of some of its prohibitions is far from certain.
In two of its several aspects, the meaning of Section 22-1115 rings clearly. One is the portion following the only semicolon—the fifth prohibition, making it unlawful "to congregate within five hundred feet of any such building or premises, and refuse to disperse after having been ordered so to do by the police authorities of the said District."24 It is apparent merely from a reading that this interdiction is functionally as well as grammatically separate from those preceding it. The other aspect in which the statutory language presents no difficulty is the first prohibition, making it unlawful "to display any flag, banner, placard, or device designed or adapted to intimidate, coerce, or bring into public odium any foreign government, party, or organization, or any officer or officers thereof."25 It is evident, as the parties recognize, that there can be no violation of this injunction without a "display" of a "flag, banner, placard, or device" which is "designed or adapted" to produce one or more of the enumerated consequences.
The remaining provisions of Section 22-1115, however, are not nearly so distinct. The second prohibition relates to conduct intended "to bring into public disrepute political, social, or economic acts, views, or purposes of any foreign government, party or organization."26 The third prohibition refers to activity calculated "to intimidate, coerce, harass, or bring into public disrepute any officer or officers or diplomatic or consular representatives of any foreign government."27 The fourth prohibition is aimed at behavior undertaking "to interfere with the free and safe pursuit of the duties of any diplomatic or consular representatives of any foreign government."28 The question, however, is whether Section 22-1115 means that "it shall be unlawful simply to" achieve a result specified in these three provisions, or whether it means that "it shall be unlawful to display any flag, banner, placard, or device designed or adapted to" achieve the prohibited result.29
Thus we are confronted by the problem whether the second, third and fourth prohibitions of Section 22-1115 intercept conduct which does not involve the "display" of a "flag, banner, placard, or device designed or adapted" to bring about one or more of the effects condemned.30 Stated differently, the problem is whether an offense under Section 22-1115 is committed simply by utterances unaccompanied by a "congregating" or a "display" of a "flag, banner, placard, or other device" which is "designed or adapted" to accomplish an end which the section undertakes to forbid.31 If not, it follows that Zaimi did not trespass upon the statute for, as the trial judge found, there was no "congregating"32 and, as the uncontradicted evidence demonstrated, the banner which Zaimi at one time carried was never "displayed."33
We have not previously had occasion to examine the scope of Section 22-1115 in this regard. In Frend v. United States,34 this court was summoned primarily to resolve a First Amendment challenge by four defendants in a situation where an infraction was beyond peradventure. As the opinion in that case states, "the evidence abundantly shows that all four defendants flagrantly violated the terms of the" statute,35 for "at the time of the arrest, each defendant was parading in the public streets in front of the Austrian or the German embassy with a number of other persons, some of whom were carrying banners or placards inscribed with language . . . intended and calculated to bring into contempt the German Government."36 Since "this congregation of people with opprobrious signs and songs in the streets in front of the embassies was a concerted, prearranged plan intended `to bring into public disrepute political, social, or economic . . . views . . . of a foreign government,'" the conclusion was that "in the circumstances, and without stopping to determine whether each of the defendants was then displaying one of the placards mentioned, we think that all are guilty under the provisions of the local law making it an offense to aid and abet in a violation of a law."37 Neither in Frend...
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...22-1115 meticulously specifies the consequences against which it erects protection for foreign governments." Zaimi v. United States, 476 F.2d 511, 526 (D.C.Cir.1973). Both demonstrators and law enforcement officers are given a clear description of the activity the statute proscribes, and th......
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