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Binkowski v. State6/24/1999
plainant must demonstrate that the law is impermissibly vague in all applications." Village of Hoffmann Estates, supra, 455 U.S. at 497, 102 S. Ct. at 1193, 71 L. Ed. 2d at 371; accord State v. Maldonado, 137 N.J. 536, 563 (1994). Stated another way, a statute is facially vague if "there is no conduct that it proscribes with sufficient certainty." State v. Cameron, 100 N.J. 586, 593 (1985).
Vagueness "is essentially a procedural due process concept grounded in notions of fair play." State v. Lashinsky, 81 N.J. 1, 17 (1979). The Constitution requires the law to be sufficiently clear and precise so that the ordinary person has notice and an adequate warning of the prohibited conduct. State v. Lee, 96 N.J. 156, 165-66 (1984). This is especially important where the legislation implicates the First Amendment. Cameron, supra, 100 N.J. at 592. In evaluating a vagueness claim, "we are adjured to follow an analytical approach by which the level of clarity required of the language of the enactment depends on the nature of the activity that is sought to be regulated." Id. at 594. " reater imprecision can be tolerated in enactments with civil rather than criminal penalties because of differences in the likelihood, as well as in the consequences, of any misunderstanding." Id. at 592 (citing Village of Hoffmann Estates, supra, 455 U.S. at 498-99, 102 S. Ct. at 1193, 71 L. Ed. 2d at 3371-72). A person who violates the Hunter Harassment Statute is subject to prosecution for a petty disorderly persons offense. Accordingly, we hold the language of the statute to the standard of clarity required of criminal statutes.
Plaintiffs claim that although they are "all law-abiding citizens of this state, with high degrees of education, [they] were unable to ascertain the parameters of the State's prohibitions." Furthermore, they assert that attorneys "were unable to assure hunting opponents that their otherwise legal activities in a public forum would not risk criminal sanction under the statute." They specifically complain that N.J.S.A. 23:7A-2a is vague because the common meanings of "block," "obstruct," and "impede" do not illuminate the practical limit of the subsection, and " onsequently, the statute potentially implicates a myriad of completely lawful activities that are protected under the First Amendment...." Plaintiffs further contend that N.J.S.A. 23:7A-2g is vague because its application turns on the subjective feelings of the hunter involved. Additionally, they argue that the words "any other" in subsection (g), its catchall provision, are "overly broad" and therefore vague. Lastly, they maintain that if any distraction can scare away wildlife, the statute presents no standard.
To begin, neither subsection (a) nor (g) is vague when evaluated in the context of the specific activity being regulated. As the trial court held, the terms "block," "obstruct," and "impede," in subsection (a) provide a "reasonable degree of certainty of the conduct that proscribed." According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed. 1996), "block" means "to make unsuitable for passage or progress by obstruction," id. at 123; "obstruct" means "to block or close up by an obstacle," id. at 803; and "impede" means "to interfere with or slow the progress of," id. at 581. Indeed, none of these words are so unusual or subtle to "send the average citizen scrambling for a dictionary," State v. Afanador, 134 N.J. 162, 171 (1993), let alone create "the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all," Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 614, 91 S. Ct. 1686, 1688, 29 L. Ed. 2d 214, 217 (1971). Moreover, the Legislature has not given any indication it intended any special meaning for these terms beyond their c
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