Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville
United States Supreme Court
405 U.S. 156 (1972)
Relevant factsFree
Papachristou and others were convicted under a Florida vagrancy ordinance rooted in archaic English law that criminalized broad and vague categories of conduct such as loafing, wandering without lawful purpose, frequenting places where liquor is sold, and habitually living off a spouse's or minor child's earnings while able to work; lower courts affirmed the convictions.
IssueFree
Whether a law is constitutional if it does not give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that the person's conduct is forbidden by the law and gives unfettered discretion of enforcement to police.