II.
The state argues that this court should narrowly construe section 609.765 to bring
it within constitutional limits. A statute is invalid if its terms leave no room for a
narrowing construction. Board of Airport Comm’rs v. Jews for Jesus, Inc., 482 U.S. 569,
575, 107 S. Ct. 2568, 2572 (1987). “Whenever possible, however, this court should
narrowly construe a statute to save it from constitutional challenge.” Jude, 554 N.W.2d
at 753.
The state contends that we should follow the example provided in Crawley and
narrowly interpret the statute. In Crawley, the defendant was convicted of knowingly
making a false report of police misconduct, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.505, subd. 2
(2010). 819 N.W.2d at 98. The defendant appealed her conviction on the basis that the
statute violated the First Amendment because it was a content-based regulation of speech,
punishing some individuals depending on the viewpoint expressed about the police. Id.
at 100. The pertinent part of the statutory provision at issue in Crawley provided:
(a) Whoever informs, or causes information to be
communicated to, a peace officer, whose responsibilities
include investigating or reporting police misconduct, that a
peace officer, as defined in section 626.84, subdivision 1,
paragraph (c), has committed an act of police misconduct,
knowing that the information is false, is guilty of a crime and
may be sentenced as follows . . . .
Id. at 98 (quoting Minn. Stat. § 609.505, subd. 2). In a divided decision, this court held
section 609.505 unconstitutional because it criminalized false speech that was critical of
police but not false speech that favors police. Id. at 99.
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