Woodstock Hunt Club v. Hindi

684 N.E.2d 1089, 291 Ill. App. 3d 1051, 226 Ill. Dec. 93
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 11, 1997
Docket2—96—1288, 2—96—1342, 2—96—1343 cons.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 684 N.E.2d 1089 (Woodstock Hunt Club v. Hindi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodstock Hunt Club v. Hindi, 684 N.E.2d 1089, 291 Ill. App. 3d 1051, 226 Ill. Dec. 93 (Ill. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

JUSTICE McLAREN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In this consolidated case, defendants Steven and Carol Gross appeal the trial court’s grant of a permanent injunction enjoining them from violating the Hunter Interference Prohibition Act (Act) (720 ILCS 125/0.01 et seq. (West 1996)). Defendant Steven Hindi appeals his conviction of indirect criminal contempt of court and his sentence of 180 days in jail. We affirm.

On October 11, 1996, plaintiffs filed a petition for injunctive relief and a complaint for damages, alleging that defendants had violated the Act by, among other things, using sirens, bullhorns, and an engine-powered glider to scare geese away from the Woodstock Hunt Club, a club in which members pay an annual membership fee and daily hunting fees to hunt on club property. Plaintiffs also filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), seeking to restrain and enjoin defendants from violating the Act. A hearing was held on this motion on October 11, 1996, and the court issued a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the defendants. Defendant Hindi was not present at the hearing, and he subsequently moved to dissolve the temporary restraining order against him on October 15, 1996. That motion was denied.

On October 25, 1996, plaintiffs filed a verified petition for a rule to show cause against Hindi. Plaintiffs alleged that on October 12 and 13, 1996, Hindi and other persons used megaphones and other devices to disturb wild animals and hunters on the property of the club. Hindi was arrested and criminally charged with violating the Act on October 12, 1996.

Following a hearing on November 7, 1996, the court issued a permanent injunction against Steve and Carol Gross, enjoining any conduct violative of the Act. The court also found Hindi in indirect criminal contempt of court for having violated the October 11 temporary restraining order and sentenced him to 180 days in the McHenry County jail. Hindi’s motion to modify sentence was denied. These appeals followed.

The Act provides:

"§ 2. Any person who performs any of the following is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor:
(a) Interferes with the lawful taking of a wild animal by another with intent to prevent the taking.
(b) Disturbs or engages in an activity that will tend to disturb wild animals, with intent to prevent their lawful taking.
(c) [Disturbs another person who is engaged in the lawful taking of a wild animal or who is engaged in the process of taking, with intent to dissuade or otherwise prevent the taking.
(d) [E]nters or remains upon public lands, or upon private lands without permission of the owner or his agent or a lessee, with intent to violate this Section.” 720 ILCS 125/2 (West 1996).
"§ 4. (a) Any court may enjoin conduct which would be in violation of Section 2 of this Act upon petition by a person affected or who reasonably may be affected by such conduct, upon a showing that such conduct is threatened or that it has occurred on a particular premises in the past and that it is not unreasonable to expect that under similar circumstances it will be repeated.” 720 ILCS 125/4(a) (West 1996).

Defendants argue that the Act is vague and overly broad and, therefore, unconstitutional. We disagree.

Statutes are presumed to be constitutional, and all reasonable doubts are to be resolved in favor of upholding legislation. Herbes v. Graham, 180 Ill. App. 3d 692, 703 (1989). The burden of demonstrating the invalidity of a statute falls on the party challenging the constitutionality of the legislation. Rackow v. Human Rights Comm’n, 152 Ill. App. 3d 1046, 1057 (1987). The mere possibility that some future situation could arise that would raise serious constitutional questions is not sufficient to invalidate a statute. Rackow, 152 Ill. App. 3d at 1057.

Defendants contend that the Act is overly broad and vague in that it prohibits expression that is protected under the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The overbreadth doctrine is designed to protect first amendment freedom of expression from laws written so broadly that the fear of punishment may dissuade people from taking advantage of that freedom. People v. Anderson, 148 Ill. 2d 15, 26 (1992). A statute that regulates conduct is facially overly broad if it (1) criminalizes a substantial amount of protected behavior when judged in relation to the law’s plainly legitimate sweep and (2) is not susceptible to a limiting construction that avoids constitutional problems. City of Harvard v. Gaut, 277 Ill. App. 3d 1, 6 (1996). For a statute to be invalidated for overbreadth, its overbreadth must not only be real, but also substantial. Anderson, 148 Ill. 2d at 26. This doctrine is only to be used sparingly. Anderson, 148 Ill. 2d at 26.

We must first determine whether the statute affects both communicative as well as noncommunicative conduct. For first amendment purposes, facial constitutional scrutiny of criminal statutes is warranted if the statute criminalizes a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct even if other parts may have legitimate application. See City of Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451, 458-59, 96 L. Ed. 2d 398, 410, 107 S. Ct. 2502, 2508 (1987). We determine that this threshold is crossed by subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 2 of the Act, because the interference or disturbances prohibited in those subsections may be verbal as well as physical. See State v. Ball, 226 Conn. 265, 272, 627 A.2d 892, 897 (1993).

We must next determine whether the proscriptions of the statute are content based or content neutral. Content-based statutes are presumptively invalid. R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382, 120 L. Ed. 2d 305, 317, 112 S. Ct. 2538, 2542 (1992). However, we conclude that the Act is content neutral. The Act prohibits interfering with or disturbing hunters or wild animals without regard to any content that the conduct constituting the interference or disturbance may have. A person may violate the Act by shouting "Fire!”, by waving a placard proclaiming "Hunting is good!” in front of a hunter, or by playing the 1812 Overture on a stereo system, if any of these actions is done with the intent to dissuade or prevent the taking of a wild animal and disturbs either a hunter or his intended quarry. The Act does not single out any particular thought or opinion for prohibition. It does not prohibit conduct of any particular content. It merely prohibits intentional interference with the lawful taking of wild animals. Therefore, we conclude the Act is content neutral.

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Bluebook (online)
684 N.E.2d 1089, 291 Ill. App. 3d 1051, 226 Ill. Dec. 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodstock-hunt-club-v-hindi-illappct-1997.