Bushco v. Shurtleff

729 F.3d 1294, 2013 WL 4779612, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 18694
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 9, 2013
Docket12-4083, 12-4093
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 729 F.3d 1294 (Bushco v. Shurtleff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bushco v. Shurtleff, 729 F.3d 1294, 2013 WL 4779612, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 18694 (10th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs-Appellants—Bushco Corp; Companions, L.L.C.; and TT II, Inc. (“Appellants”)—are escort services licensed as sexually oriented businesses. Defendant-Appellee is the Attorney General of the State of Utah (“Attorney General”). 1 Appellants brought a lawsuit in federal district court for the district of Utah, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. They claimed that certain amendments (“Amendments”) to Utah Code Ann. §76-10-1313 (“Sexual Solicitation Statute” or “Statute”)—specifically, § 1313(l)(e) and § 1313(2)—were overly broad, were unconstitutionally vague, and infringed on the right of free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

The district court held that § 1313(2) was unconstitutionally vague, and therefore ordered that that provision be severed and stricken from the statute. But the court upheld § 1313(l)(c). Appellants appealed the court’s ruling that § 1313(l)(c) is constitutional, and the Attorney General filed a cross-appeal, challenging the court’s ruling that § 1313(2) is unconstitutionally vague.

On appeal before this court are three main issues: (1) whether issue preclusion applies to the question of the Statute’s constitutionality because a district court previously held unconstitutional similar language of a predecessor statute, Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1301(1) (Supp.1987) (“Predecessor Sexual Activity Statute”); (2) whether the Amendments to the Sexual Solicitation Statute are overbroad or place too great a burden on expression protected by the First Amendment; and (3) whether the Amendments to the Sexual Solicitation Statute are unconstitutionally vague. 2

This opinion reaches the following conclusions: (1) Issue preclusion does not apply, because the Predecessor Sexual Activity Statute and the Sexual Solicitation Statute are different statutes, with different purposes, and the constitutionality of the Sexual Solicitation Statute at issue in this case was not previously litigated. (2) The Amendments are not unconstitutionally overbroad because they do not encompass a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. Moreover, the Amendments do not place too great a burden on Appellants’ speech rights because they pass the O’Brien test for incidental restrictions on First Amendment rights. (3) Section 1313(l)(e) is not unconstitutionally vague, because it provides fair notice of the prohibited conduct and sufficient guidance to law enforcement. Similarly, § 1313(2) is not unconstitutionally vague, because it does not authorize or encourage *1298 discriminatory enforcement of the Sexual Solicitation Statute.

Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s ruling as to the constitutionality of § 1313(l)(c), but reverse the district court’s ruling that § 1313(2) is unconstitutionally vague.

BACKGROUND

A. The Sexual Solicitation Statute

In March 2011, the Utah legislature passed House Bill 121, entitled “Sex Solicitation Amendments,” which the governor signed into law, effective May 10, 2011. 2011 Utah Laws Ch. 32 (codified as amended at Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1313). As is relevant to this appeal, House Bill 121 amended Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1313 by adding two new provisions: § 1313(l)(c) and § 1313(2). These provisions read as follows:

1. A person is guilty of sexual solicitation when the person:
c. with intent to engage in sexual activity for a fee or to pay another person to commit any sexual activity for a fee engages in, offers or agrees to engage in, or requests or directs another to engage in any of the following acts:
i. exposure of a person’s genitals, the buttocks, the anus, the pubic area, or the female breast below the top of the areola;
ib masturbation;
iii. touching of a person’s genitals, the buttocks, the anus, the pubic area, or the female breast; or
iv. any act of lewdness.
2. An intent to engage in sexual activity for a fee may be inferred from a person’s engaging in, offering or agreeing to engage in, or requesting or directing another to engage in any of the acts described in Subsection (l)(c) under the totality of the existing circumstances.

Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1313(l)-(2). 3 And as referenced in the Sexual Solicitation Statute, the Utah Code defines “[s]ex-ual activity” to mean “acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse, or any sexual act involving the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person, regardless of the sex of either participant.” Id. § 76-10-1301(5). Thus, the Sexual Solicitation Statute forbids a person from engaging in or directing another to perform the acts of touching and exposure listed in the statute with the intent to, for a fee, engage in masturbation, sexual intercourse, or a sexual act involving the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another. Id. § 76-10-1313(l)(e); § 76-10-1301(5).

The Attorney General asserts that the Amendments are necessary because prostitutes may ask undercover police officers to engage in conduct listed in § 1313(l)(c) as a means of identifying police officers by their refusal to engage in such conduct. Indeed, the Chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department testified before the Utah legislature that the Amendments quoted above are necessary to prevent Utah’s prostitution laws from being circumvented.

B. The Lawsuit

Appellants are escort services licensed as sexually oriented businesses. These businesses employ or contract with licensed escorts who provide companionship *1299 or adult entertainment to patrons. Appellants filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General, arguing that the Amendments to the Sexual Solicitation Statute were unconstitutional.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and the court granted in part and denied in part the motions. Specifically, the district court rejected Appellants’ argument that § 1313(l)(c) is unconstitutional, but ruled that § 1313(2) is impermissibly vague, and therefore struck that provision from the Statute. The parties have filed cross-appeals; Appellants argue that the district court erred in upholding § 1313(l)(c), and the Attorney General argues that the district court erred in striking down § 1313(2).

JURISDICTION

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
729 F.3d 1294, 2013 WL 4779612, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 18694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bushco-v-shurtleff-ca10-2013.