People v. Van Wong

Section 42.03 of Los Angeles Ordinance Number 77,000, the Municipal Code, was held invalid by the trial judge, who sustained a demurrer to the complaint against the defendant and dismissed it. The complaint charged the defendant with sale of and offer to sell a ticket admitting one to a Los Angeles Coliseum event, conjoining in the charges all the circumstances proscribed within 250 feet of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum “upon and along a public street, sidewalk, alley, and publicly owned park and place.”

(1) It is asserted that this a valid police regulation to prohibit the practice of ticket scalping. On its face, the ordinance does not purport to do so:

Appellant’s counsel urges, that under selective enforcement, *823 this would never happen. It is damning that it could. “It does not answer the charge that the act in question is unconstitutional to say that a person clothed with such power may not see fit to use the power. The rule in determining whether the act is in conflict with constitutional guaranties is whether or not the act is broad enough to authorize such unconstitutional act.” (In re Application of Blanc (1927), 81 Cal.App. 105, 113 [ 252 P. 1053 ], quoting…