State v. Dixon

479 P.2d 931, 78 Wash. 2d 796, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 553
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 14, 1971
Docket40971
StatusPublished
Cited by96 cases

This text of 479 P.2d 931 (State v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dixon, 479 P.2d 931, 78 Wash. 2d 796, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 553 (Wash. 1971).

Opinions

Hale, J.

Surround most any straightforward proposition with enough sophistry and it will vanish — or become unintelligible. The law, like other intellectual disciplines, has tried to cope with the sophistry brought to bear upon it by applying common sense. This has, on occasion, proved to be the only mechanism available by which to dissipate the fog of rhetoric generated around some legal propositions— particularly principles of constitutional law. The Constitution of the United States declares that one of the great aims [798]*798of free government is to insure domestic tranquility. Common sense dictates that, without the assurance of domestic tranquility, the other great aims of free government will remain unachieved, and the individual rights upon which they depend will vanish. There is nothing unconstitutional about common sense.

Three defendants here appealed to the superior court from their district justice convictions of violating the unlawful assembly statute. RCW 9.27.060(2) and (3). Holding the statute unconstitutional and void under what has been sometimes described as the constitutional doctrines of vagueness and overbreadth, the court ordered the complaint dismissed. The state now appeals both the order of dismissal and the declaration of unconstitutionality.

As we understand the record, defendants did not directly challenge the language or meaning of the complaint upon which they had been and were about to be tried; nor claim that they could not understand what it meant; nor that, because of the complaint’s vagueness and uncertainty, they were unable to prepare a defense. Instead, defendants directed their attack toward the whole statute under which in justice court they had been tried and convicted. Taking a panoramic view of the statute and without referring to the facts of the case, the superior court held it void per se.

The statement of facts in this case consists entirely of colloquy, argument and commentary upon the law, with only peripheral references as to what facts the prosecution claimed had been earlier shown or would be shown at trial. We have had to piece the record together, consequently, from the transcript, briefs and argument to find out what happened and of what the defendants' were convicted in the first place.

The order of dismissal was unusual in form as the court, before signing it, so aptly indicated, as follows:

The Court: Mr. Meltzer, that is a fine editorial in the order. Mr. Meltzer: Well, I might say, Your Honor, I took most of the matters in there from your oral opinion which I had transcribed, and I believe I have — I might not have used your language word for word but I have [799]*799tried to enunciate the ideas that you — The Court: I think you improved on it. I think it is fine, but I wonder whether that is appropriately in an order. Mr. Meltzer: I felt this way, Your Honor: If this matter is appealed, which I assume it will be, that the Supreme Court should have before it at least some idea of what at least was in your mind as I have had it transcribed when you made your ruling. If the Court feels that this could be done equally with your oral opinion I am not going to object to your striking it, but this was my purpose in doing so.

and

The Court: Well, it is very unusual to enter an order of this nature, Mr. Meltzer. It sort of offends my sense of orderliness to have it presented in that fashion. Mr. Meltzer: If Your Honor wishes, I feel if I strike what you described as my editorializing, I imagine it would probably read the way I — The Court: If I recall — I don’t have my oral decision before me now, but you do incorporate my notes, so I have no objection at all to the content except as to its propriety in being in an order of this nature.

The order of dismissal does, however, provide a basis for appeal in this case for the state excepted to its entry and all of the recitals set forth in it, and now appeals both the dismissal of the cause and the ruling of unconstitutionality. Assignments of error run to both the effect of the order and the legal conclusions in it. We agree with the court’s evaluation that the order amounts to an editorializing, but will treat the order as a written memorandum of opinion showing in summary some of the court’s views in declaring the statute unconstitutional and void. See Appendix. We think it a better practice, however, that judicial opinions be identified as such in the record and be included in the statement of facts or, if fully verified, in the transcript.

Only a few peripheral references to the facts of the case appear in the statement of facts and neither party supplied the record with even a brief summary of the evidence upon which the justice court conviction rested, or of what the state would attempt to prove in superior court. The court knew that the justice court complaint arose out of events occurring in the principal’s office at Franklin High School. [800]*800The record does show explicitly that the defendants here were three of five individuals charged in district justice court in a complaint phrased substantially in the language of the statute,1 and tried by a jury which returned verdicts of guilty against these three defendants and acquitted the other two. It was clear to the court in the instant case, we think, that the state had proved in justice court to the satisfaction of the jury and would attempt to prove again in superior court that the defendants had entered the principal’s office at Franklin High School in Seattle, had refused to leave when requested and had remained there for several hours, committing physical damage to the premises and furnishings while there.2 The conduct charged as a violation is of some moment in assessing the constitution[801]*801ality of the statute for defendants attack its application here as well as its substance. See Comstock v. United States, 419 F.2d 1128 (9th Cir. 1969).

The instant case was not simply a suit for a declaratory judgment of unconstitutionality, but an appeal from judgments of conviction in justice court. The unlawful assembly statute which the defendants were convicted of violating and which the court declared void reads:

Whenever three or more persons shall assemble with intent—
(2) To carry out any purpose in such manner as to disturb the public peace; or,
(3) Being assembled, shall attempt or threaten any act tending toward a breach of the peace, or an injury to persons or property, or any unlawful act — such an assembly is unlawful, and every person participating therein by his presence, aid or instigation, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

RCW 9.27.060 (2) and (3).

Unless a criminal statute is so glaringly unconstitutional, so palpably in derogation of specifically enumerated and declared constitutional rights that reasonable men could not differ about it, its constitutionality should be tested in the light of some kind of behavior, actual or hypothetical. Courts do not operate in a vacuum.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
479 P.2d 931, 78 Wash. 2d 796, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dixon-wash-1971.