Lee v. Smith

772 P.2d 82, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 466, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 174, 1989 WL 35708
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 17, 1989
Docket87SA101
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 772 P.2d 82 (Lee v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. Smith, 772 P.2d 82, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 466, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 174, 1989 WL 35708 (Colo. 1989).

Opinion

*84 MULLARKEY, Justice.

Adams County and Westminster law enforcement officials appeal from an order of the Adams County District Court which invalidated certain portions of the 1986 amendments to the Drug Paraphernalia Act (the Act), sections 12-22-503 to -505, 5 C.R.S. (1986 Supp.) enacted by House Bill 1024, Ch. 95, sec. 1-4, §§ 12-22-503 to -505, 1986 Colo. Sess. Laws 623-25. We conclude that the Act is not overbroad and, because we find that the Act provides adequate notice and sufficient standards of enforcement, we conclude that it is not void for vagueness. We reverse the district court and hold that the Act is constitutional.

I. Background

The plaintiffs in this case are Monica Lee and Jeff Blayer d/b/a High Gear (“shop owners”), who operate a “tobacco shop” which sells various tobacco and herbal smoking accessories and novelties. On June 27, 1986, the shop owners filed a complaint for declaratory relief against the law enforcement officials and requested that the newly amended Act be declared unconstitutional on overbreadth and vagueness grounds. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court upheld the constitutionality of the definition of “drug paraphernalia” contained in section 12-22-502(2) and the shop owners have not appealed from this ruling. However, the court declared that the terms “reasonably should know” and “could” were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad as those words are used in sections 12-22-503(l)(d), 12-22-504(1) and 12-22-505.

The district court found that the Act’s constitutional defects could not be cured without rewriting its provisions, and that such a rewriting was within the exclusive province of the legislature. The law enforcement officials appealed to this court pursuant to section 13-4-102(l)(b), 6A C.R. S. (1987).

The constitutionality of earlier versions of the Act was upheld with some modifications in Hejira Corporation v. MacFarlane, 660 F.2d 1356 (10th Cir.1981) and High Gear & Toke Shop v. Beacom, 689 P.2d 624 (Colo.1984). As in High Gear, we will apply the United States Supreme Court’s analytical framework for assessing pre-enforcement challenges to a statute as set forth in Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982). Under Flipside, our first task is to examine the overbreadth claim by determining whether the Act “reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct.” 455 U.S. at 495, 102 S.Ct. at 1191. Then we will turn to a consideration of the vagueness argument.

II. Overbreadth

The shop owners argue the statute is overbroad because it imposes criminal liability for possession of anything which could be used in conjunction with a controlled substance. They contend that the Act infringes on constitutionally protected activities and criminalizes innocent conduct.

We recognize the strong policy against applying the overbreadth doctrine in a facial constitutional challenge such as this one. Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 613-15, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 2916-18, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973); State v. Newman, 108 Idaho 5, 11, 696 P.2d 856, 862 (1985); Stoianoff v. State of Montana, 695 F.2d 1214, 1218 (9th Cir.1983). An overbreadth analysis is employed appropriately where the legislation at issue affects constitutionally protected conduct, such as speech or assembly. People v. Becker, 759 P.2d 26 (Colo.1988); People v. Chastain, 733 P.2d 1206 (Colo.1987). Unlike the First Amendment claim that was argued in High Gear, the shop owners in this case do not contend that their commercial speech rights are affected and do not make out a First Amendment claim with respect to the disputed portions of the Act. See Levas & Levas v. Village of Antioch, 684 F.2d 446, 451 (7th Cir.1982). Shop owners and their customers have only a limited right to engage in retail sales, as the Supreme Court noted:

A retailer’s right to sell smoking accessories, and a purchaser’s right to buy and use them, are entitled only to minimal *85 Regulation due process protection.... of items that have some lawful as well as unlawful uses is not an irrational means of discouraging drug use.

Flipside, 455 U.S. at 498 n. 9, 102 S.Ct. at 1192 n. 9 (citations omitted).

Thus, we conclude that the law is not overbroad because it does not inhibit constitutionally protected conduct.

III. Vagueness

Upon finding no overbreadth, the Supreme Court in Flipside instructs that we next examine the facial vagueness challenge. The void for vagueness doctrine protects against the lack of fair warning to potential offenders and the lack of adequate standards for enforcement of the law. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108-09, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2298-99, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972); Hejira Corp. v. MacFarlane, 660 F.2d at 1365; Casbah, Inc. v. Thone, 651 F.2d 551, 558 (8th Cir.1981), cer t. denied 455 U.S. 1005, 102 S.Ct. 1642, 71 L.Ed.2d 874 (1982). tinder the Flipside analysis, a statute is unconstitutional “only if the enactment is impermissi-bly vague in all of its applications." Flipside, 455 U.S. at 495-96, 102 S.Ct. at 1191 (footnote omitted, emphasis added). In addition, “[a] plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others.” Id.; High Gear, 689 P.2d at 628. Thus, in evaluating a facial vagueness claim, it is not appropriate for us to hypothesize possible innocent activities which would be prohibited by the Act until the possibility ripens into an actual prosecution. She Note, The Constitutionality of Anti-Drug Paraphernalia Laws — The Smoke Clears, 58 Notre Dame L.Rev. 833, 853 & n. 101 (1983). The shop owners are not prevented from attacking the Act in the event that it is enforced arbitrarily against them. See Flipside, 455 U.S. at 505, 102 S.Ct. at 1196-97; Stoianoff, 695 F.2d at 1222.

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Bluebook (online)
772 P.2d 82, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 466, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 174, 1989 WL 35708, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-smith-colo-1989.