Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 961328.pdf

Citation: Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 961328.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/961328.pdf ↗

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quotation marks omitted) (quoting State v. Hunley, 175 Wn.2d 901, 916, 287 P.3d 584

(2012)). “‘Holding a statute unconstitutional as-applied prohibits future application of

the statute in a similar context, but the statute is not totally invalidated.’” Id. (internal

quotation marks omitted) (quoting Hunley, 175 Wn.2d at 916). A facial challenge must

be rejected unless there is “no set of circumstances in which the statute[, as currently

written,] can constitutionally be applied.” In re Det. of Turay, 139 Wn.2d 379, 417 n.27,

986 P.2d 790 (1999) (quoting Ada v. Guam Soc’y of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, 506

U.S. 1011, 1012, 113 S. Ct. 633, 121 L. Ed. 2d 564 (1992) (Scalia, J., dissenting)). When

determining whether a law is facially invalid, courts must be careful not to exceed the

facial requirements and speculate about hypothetical cases. Wash. State Grange v. Wash.

State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 449-50, 128 S. Ct. 1184, 170 L. Ed. 2d 151

(2008).

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
No. 96132-8

Facial claims are generally disfavored. State v. McCuistion, 174 Wn.2d 369, 389,

275 P.3d 1092 (2012). They often rest on speculation and “‘run contrary to the

fundamental principle of judicial restraint that courts should neither anticipate a question

of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it nor formulate a rule of

constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be

applied.’” Id.

We have previously considered and upheld WLAD’s religious employer

exemption from a facial constitutional challenge in Ockletree. In that case, an African-

American security guard at a Catholic hospital was terminated after he suffered a stroke.