Morehead v. State

In Morehead v. State, 807 S.W.2d 577, 581 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) the Court explained that although the State has a duty to ensure that an individual's unruly assertion of his right of free expression does not imperil another citizen's First Amendment freedoms, it could not forbid expressive conduct that is merely "provocative and challenging." Morehead, 807 S.W.2d at 580. Therefore, with regard to Texas Penal Code section 42.05, the Court concluded that the best way to ensure that the rights of all individuals are protected is to determine whether the actor's behavior substantially impaired the conduct of the meeting before his or her actions could be criminalized. Id. In Morehead, the Court applied a narrowing construction to Tex. Penal Code Ann. 42.05....The Court noted that the broad language of 42.05 encompasses "the full range of possible disturbances, from the most minor to the most significant," but concluded that 42.05 could pass a facial overbreadth challenge by construing it to criminalize only physical acts or verbal utterances that substantially impair the ordinary conduct of lawful meetings and thereby curtail the exercise of others' First Amendment rights. Id. at 552.