Criminal Law-Vagueness
Another defense that may be raised to some criminal violations is that of vagueness. The U.S. Constitution precludes punishing a person under a statute that is too vague to be understood. A statute should be sufficiently clear that a reasonable person could determine what conduct is forbidden and the statute should be sufficiently clear as to prevent arbitrary enforcement by the police. Loitering statutes over the years have been subject to tests for vagueness. For example, if they preclude any person from being on a public street at any time, then they may be subject to constitutional challenges for vagueness.
