Powell's Books, Inc. v. Kroger

622 F.3d 1202, 38 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2313, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19520, 2010 WL 3619949
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided September 20, 2010·No. Nos. 09-35153, 09-35154·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION

McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:

We consider here the constitutionality of a pair of Oregon statutes intended to stop child sexual abuse in its early stages. The statutes broadly take aim at practices of “luring” and “grooming” that expose minors to sexually explicit materials in the hopes of lowering their inhibitions against engaging in sexual conduct. The “furnishing” statute, Oregon Revised Statute § 167.054 (“section 054”), criminalizes providing children under the age of thirteen [1207]*1207with sexually explicit material. The “luring” statute, § 167.057 (“section 057”), criminalizes providing minors under the age of eighteen with visual, verbal, or narrative descriptions of sexual conduct for the purpose of sexually arousing the minor or the furnisher, or inducing the minor to engage in sexual conduct.

Appellants, a broad cross-section of booksellers; non-profit literary, legal, and health organizations; and a concerned grandmother (together, “Powell’s Books”), argue that these statutes violate the First Amendment. In particular, Powell’s Books claims, among other things, that the statutes are facially overbroad and criminalize a substantial amount of constitutionally protected speech. We agree.

Although the state argues that the statutes may be construed to narrowly focus on the sharing of hardcore pornography or material that is obscene to minors alone, its position is contradicted by the statutory text. Repeated reliance on the legislature’s efforts to combat hardcore pornography cannot change the text of the statute. The legislative goal does not match the text of the statutes; the statutes’ undoing is them overbreadth. In their current form, the statutes sweep up a host of matex'ial entitled to constitutional protection, ranging from standard sexual education materials to novels for children and young adults by Judy Blume. Despite the legislature’s laudable goals, we cannot rewrite the statute to conform to constitutional limitations.1

Background

We begin with a review of the statutory scheme. The statutes follow a series of related anti-child abuse laws that the Oregon courts invalidated under the state constitution’s speech clause in 2000. See State v. Maynard, 168 Or.App. 118, 5 P.3d 1142, 1149-51 (2000) (discussing previous cases). In 2007, the legislature went back to the drawing board and enacted the current statutes in an effort to address the perceived gap in Oregon’s child abuse prevention scheme.

Section 054, the “furnishing” statute, criminalizes the act of “intentionally furnish[ing] a child [under the age of thirteen], or intentionally permitting] a child to view, sexually explicit material” where the person “knows that the material is sexually explicit material.” Or. Rev. Stat. § 167.054(1).2 Furnishing is a Class A misdemeanor. This section includes several exemptions, including immunity for acts of furnishing material whose “sexually explicit portions ... form merely an incidental part of an otherwise nonoffending whole and serve some purpose other than titillation.” Id. § 167.054(2)(b).3 Section 054 also includes a number of affirmative defenses.4

[1208]*1208Section 057 criminalizes “luring,” which is defined as “[f]urnish[ing] to, or us[ing] with, a minor” a “visual representation or explicit verbal description or narrative account of sexual conduct” for the purpose of “[a]rousing or satisfying the sexual desires of the person or the minor” or “[i]nducing the minor to engage in sexual conduct.” Id. § 167.057(1).5 Luring is a Class C felony. Like section 054, section 057 exempts the furnishing or use of “a representation, description or account of sexual conduct that forms merely an incidental part of an otherwise nonoffending whole and serves some purpose other than titillation.” Id. § 167.057(2). The section also includes similar affirmative defenses.6

Powell’s Books brought suit seeking a declaration of the unconstitutionality of, and injunction against enforcement of, sections 054 and 057 under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The district court denied Powell’s Books’ motions for preliminary and permanent injunctions, finding the statutes neither unconstitutionally overbroad nor void for vagueness. Powell’s Books, Inc. v. Myers, 599 F.Supp.2d 1226, 1243-44, 1246-47, 1249-50 (D.Or.2008). The district court also rejected Powell’s Books’ pre-enforcement, as-applied challenges on grounds that the plaintiffs were too diverse and that the works that allegedly fell within the reach of the statutes were too dissimilar. Id. at 1235-36.

Analysis

We address Powell’s Books’ overbreadth challenge alone as it suffices to dispose of this case.7 In examining an overbreadth challenge, we follow a familiar sequential analysis. First, we construe the reach of the statutory provisions. United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 293, 128 S.Ct. 1830, 170 L.Ed.2d 650 (2008). Second, we inquire whether the statute criminalizes a “substantial amount” of expressive activity. Id. at 297, 128 S.Ct. 1830. Finally, we consider whether the statute is “readily susceptible” to a limiting construction that would render it constitutional. Virginia v. Am. Booksellers Ass’n, 484 U.S. 383, 397, 108 S.Ct. 636, 98 L.Ed.2d 782 (1988) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The statutes cannot survive this inquiry. Contrary to the state’s position, the statutes reach the distribution of far more material than hardcore pornography or material that is obscene to minors, and they implicate a substantial amount of constitutionally protected speech. In addition, the statutes are not subject to a limiting construction that would make [1209]*1209them constitutional. For this reason, we conclude that Oregon Revised Statutes §§ 167.054 and 167.057 (except the “inducing” prong, which is not at issue here) are unconstitutionally overbroad and must be invalidated.

I. The Scope of Sections 054 and 057

We begin with the scope of the statutes. In construing the reach of sections 054 and 057, our role is to “interpret the law as would the [Oregon] Supreme Court.” Planned Parenthood of Idaho, Inc. v. Wasden, 376 F.3d 908, 925 (9th Cir.2004). This process is a different undertaking than construing a federal statute. Under Oregon rules of construction, we first consider text and context together. State v. Gaines, 346 Or. 160, 206 P.3d 1042, 1050-51 (2009). We may also consider legislative history proffered by a party to the extent that it is useful. Id. If the scope of the statute remains ambiguous at that point in the analysis, we may then turn to “general maxims of statutory construction” to resolve our uncertainty. Id.

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Powell's Books, Inc. v. Kroger, 622 F.3d 1202, 38 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2313, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19520, 2010 WL 3619949 (9th Cir. 2010).

622 F.3d 1202 (Powell's Books, Inc. v. Kroger) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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