City of Portland v. Welch

ON REHEARING

*318Alexander G-. Brown, City Attorney, and Richard A. Braman and Delbert A. Weaver, Deputy City Attorneys, Portland, for the petition. GOODWIN, J.

Courts traditionally seek to interpret legislation, if possible, to avoid rendering it invalid. In our previous opinion, handed down September 20, 1961, we followed this doctrine. We rested our decision on the fatal defect in the complaint so we would not have to reach the virtually obvious unconstitutionality of the ordinance if it granted plenary powers of censorship to a police officer. The complaint did not describe an offense.…