Rodrigues

THE COURT. [*]

Riviera and Rodrigues appeal from a conviction by court trial of violating Penal Code section 647, subdivision (a). The complaint charged them with unlawfully engaging in "lewd and dissolute conduct in a place exposed to public view." Riviera filed a brief in which Rodrigues later joined, and an amici curiae brief was submitted by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California.

The settled facts presented to this court are that appellants were observed by the arresting officers at a freeway rest stop in the Fontana area along Interstate 10 early in the morning in question. For a period of at least one hour and forty minutes appellants, sitting in a parked car, engaged in kissing, hugging, and sitting, alternately, on each other's laps. On one occasion one man was observed touching the other's thigh.

(1) Appellants make two contentions on appeal. They say first that Penal Code section 647, subdivision (a), is unconstitutionally vague. Then they argue that, in any event, their described conduct did not constitute a violation of that statute.

Their first contention is quickly answered by reference to the decision in In…