United States v. Louis Agront, Sr.

We consider whether a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulation prohibiting disorderly conduct that creates loud, boisterous, and unusual noise, see 38 C.F.R. § 1.218 (a)(5) and (b)(ll), is unconstitutionally vague as applied to the defendant, Louis Agront, Sr. The regulation, reasonably interpreted, includes a controlling standard of conduct: it prohibits the creation of “loud, boisterous, and unusual noise” that would tend to disturb the normal operation of a VA facility. Applying that interpretation, we hold that the regulation is not vague as applied to the defendant and that sufficient evidence supported his conviction. We therefore affirm.

I

In September 2011, Agront visited the emergency room at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, California. His adult son and two adult daughters had brought him to the hospital during the late afternoon because they were concerned about recent changes in his behavior, although they had not told him that was the reason. Instead, Agront believed his visit was to treat knee and foot pain he had been experiencing. When he did not receive the treatment he expected, Agront left the VA hospital and began walking home. His…