HOT SPRINGS -- A federal court ruling enjoining the state from enforcing its begging law shouldn't affect the panhandling ordinance the city of Hot Springs adopted in September, said Hot Springs City Attorney Brian Albright.
U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson on Tuesday issued an injunction on the grounds that the law "infringes on the freedom of speech guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution." The American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the U.S. District Court on behalf of Michael Rodgers, who was convicted in Garland County District Court earlier this year for loitering.
Circuit Judge John Homer Wright threw out the conviction, saying in his June 28 dismissal order that "begging is a constitutionally protected form of speech, because it involves communication of information, dissemination, or the advocacy of causes. The law in question is content-based because it prohibits speech on the basis of its content -- a request for money."
An increase in people standing in the medians of busy intersections to solicit money from motorists followed Wright's ruling, leading the Hot Springs Board of Directors to adopt an ordinance that prohibits sitting, standing, walking or entering a "roadway, median or portion of a public street" for the purpose of soliciting any item, including money, from the occupant of a vehicle. It also forbids pedestrians from distributing items to vehicle occupants on a public street.
Albright told the board in September that enhancing public safety, and not a desire to outlaw begging in public, was the intent of the ordinance. On Wednesday, he said the ordinance comported with Wilson's ruling.
"I forwarded a copy of the [newspaper article] to all the board members this morning and indicated that the new ordinance would withstand judicial review," Albright said. "It's regulating conduct and not content, and only in the street itself. It's a public safety issue, not only for pedestrians but for vehicular traffic."
Case law cited by ACLU-sponsored attorneys representing Rodgers in his circuit court appeal included U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions that invalidated a similar Michigan state statute and a Charlottesville, Va., solicitation ordinance.
State Desk on 11/24/2016