Kolender v. Lawson case brief

Kolender v. Lawson case brief summary
461 U.S. 352 (1983)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Plaintiff arrestee filed an action against defendants, a chief of police and police officers, seeking a declaratory judgment that Cal. Penal Code § 647(e) (1970) was unconstitutional, a mandatory injunction restraining its enforcement, and damages. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's holding that the statute was unconstitutionally vague, and defendants sought review by writ of certiorari.

CASE FACTS
The arrestee had been arrested on approximately 15 occasions and convicted once of violating Cal. Penal Code § 647(e) (1970), which required persons who loitered or wandered the streets to provide a credible and reliable identification and to account for their presence, when requested by a peace officer under circumstances that would justify a Terry stop. The lower courts concluded that the statute was unconstitutional because it contained a vague enforcement standard that was susceptible to arbitrary enforcement and failed to give fair and adequate notice of the type of conduct prohibited.

DISCUSSION

• On appeal, the Court held that the statute was unconstitutionally vague, within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because it failed to clarify what was contemplated by the requirement that a suspect provide a credible and reliable identification and because it vested complete discretion in the hands of the police to determine whether the suspect had satisfied the statute and was therefore free to go in the absence of probable cause to arrest. 
• The Court further held that the statute implicated consideration of the constitutional right to freedom of movement.

CONCLUSION
The Court affirmed the appellate court's holding that the statute was unconstitutional and remanded for a jury trial to determine the good faith of the officers in the arrestee's damages action against them.

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