REYNELDON J. DAVIS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Davis was stopped for violating Florida's noise statute when an off-duty officer observed his vehicle's stereo audible from 175 feet away. Davis challenges the stop as unconstitutional, arguing the noise statute is void for vagueness and violates free speech rights. The court affirms, upholding both the constitutionality of the noise statute and the officer's authority to stop a vehicle for non-traffic violations.
The noise statute is constitutional, neither void for vagueness nor violating free speech rights, and an officer may stop a vehicle for violations of statutes beyond the traffic code. The stop was lawful, and the subsequent consensual search was not fruit of an illegal seizure.
[1] A law is impermissibly vague in all of its applications if it fails to specify any standard of conduct at all, rather than merely requiring conformity to an imprecise but…
[2] Noise ordinances based on a specific distance beyond which sound may not be plainly audible have been upheld.
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Establishes the legal standard for vagueness challenges under the Due Process Clause
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceOfficer Reilly, working off-duty security at Embassy Nightclub, observed Davis's vehicle approaching via a service road. From a minimum of 175 feet aw…
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HARRIS, Judge.
Officer Reilly of the Orange County Sheriffs Department was working off-duty for the Embassy Nightclub. While patrolling the club’s parking lot, the officer observed Davis approaching the parking lot by way of a service road connecting Lee Road to the Embassy property. The officer was “a minimum of 175 feet” from Davis’ vehicle when he noticed the loudness of the vehicle’s stereo. The officer stopped the vehicle for violating a noise statute which makes it a violation to play a vehicle’s radio so that it is “plainly audible at a distance of 100 feet or more from the motor vehicle.”1 Once stopped, Davis consented to a search of his vehicle and cocaine was found. Davis’ contention on appeal is that the search, even though consensual, was the fruit of an illegal stop because the noise statute is unconstitutional in that it is void for vagueness and violates Florida citizens’ right to “free expression through music” and, in addition, the stopping of a vehicle which has committed no traffic violation is a wrongful seizure.
We affirm. Although we have found no Florida cases directly on point, cases from other jurisdictions are persuasive. Concerning the vagueness argument relating to a noise ordinance in New York, the court in People v. Toback, 170 Misc.2d 1011, 652 N.Y.S.2d 946, 949 (N.Y.City Ct.1996), held:
In order to establish that a law is vague within the Due Process Clause, one “must demonstrate that the law is impermissibly vague in all of its applications;” Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, 455 U.S. 489, 497, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 1193, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982), and must “prove that the enactment is vague not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all.” Id.
This noise code is not vague. One may not play his or her car radio so loudly that it is plainly audible to another standing 100 feet or further away. Noise ordinances based on distances beyond which the sound may not be audible have been upheld. See State v. Ewing, 81 Hawaii 156, 914 P. 2d 549 (1996); City of Portland v. Ayers, 93 Or.App. 731, 764 P. 2d 556 (1988), rev. denied, 308 Or. 79, 775 P. 2d 322 (1989).
Davis’ free speech argument is also unavailing. The ordinance addresses noise not speech. In Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288, 293, 104 S.Ct. 3065, 3068-69, 82 L.Ed.2d 221 (1984), the United States Supreme Court held that it is appropriate to impose reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of protected speech. In order for the regulation to be valid, it must: (1) be content neutral; (2) narrowly tailored; and (3) leave open alternative channels. The ordinance herein does not address content at all; it narrows its application to sounds that are plainly audible 100 feet or further away; and it permits one to listen to anything he or she wishes so long as it cannot be heard at the prohibited distance. In other words, the statute permits one to listen to anything he or she pleases, although not as loudly as one pleases.
It has been often recognized that the regulation of sound and noise in public areas is an important function of government. This statute as applied herein is a reasonable application of that function.
Finally, we do not agree that an officer may stop a motorist only if he or she is violating the traffic code. For example, if an officer observes garbage being thrown from a vehicle, or that the driver is driving naked, or sees a driver shoot at a pedestrian, a stop would appear appropriate. In this case, a violation of the noise statute justified the stop.
AFFIRMED.
GRIFFIN, C.J., and DAUKSCH, J., concur. . Section 316.3045, Florida Statutes (1997).
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State v. Catalano, 104 So. 3d 1069 (Fla. 2012)…orn entered not guilty pleas and moved to dismiss their citations in county court, arguing that section 316.3045 is facially unconstitutional. The county court denied their respective motions based on the Fifth District’s decision in Davis v. State, 710 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998), which found section 316.3045, as originally written prior to the 2005 amendment, constitutional. Catala-no, 60 So. 3d at 1142. Thereafter, Catalano and Schermerhorn changed their pleas to nolo contendere, reserving the right to…1 / 2
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Montgomery v. State, 69 So. 3d 1023 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011)…the term “plainly audible” was a subjective term on its face; thus, the court found it vague. Id. at 867. But, Montgomery correctly observes that this Court rejected a vagueness challenge to an earlier version of section 316.3045 in Davis v. State, 710 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998), explaining: [*1027] This noise code is not vague. One may not play his or her car radio so loudly that it is plainly audible to another standing 100 feet or further away. Noise ordinances based on distances beyond which the soun…
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State v. Catalano, 60 So. 3d 1139 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011)…ee County, 674 So. 2d 863 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996), even if subsection (a) standing alone might not be. My decision to write separately is based on a marked difference between the present version of section 316.3045 and that construed in Davis v. State, 710 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). As noted in footnote two of Judge Black’s opinion, now this law can be violated by soundmaking equipment “plainly audible” from a distance of only twenty-five feet — that is, one fourth of the distance covered by the earlier ver…1 / 2
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Vill. of Hoffman Ests. v. The Flipside, 455 U.S. 489 (U.S. 1982)
- Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288 (U.S. 1984)