ACLU demands repeal of Youngstown begging ordinance

YOUNGSTOWN

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is demanding the city repeal an ordinance making it a crime to “beg for money or other things of value.”

The city’s law department will take a “serious” look at the constitutionality of the anti-begging law “and take actions we think are appropriate,” said Law Director Martin Hume.

The ACLU of Ohio sent a letter Thursday to city council, Hume, Mayor John A. McNally and Police Chief Robin Lees demanding the legislative body remove the ordinance it approved in 2009.

“This ordinance plainly violates the First Amendment and it must be immediately repealed,” wrote Joe Mead, an attorney working on behalf of the ACLU, and a law and nonprofit-management professor at Cleveland State University. “The scope of what is made illegal under this ordinance is breathtaking.”

The way the law is written, it applies to any form of charitable request in the city, Mead said in a Thursday interview with The Vindicator.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which has jurisdiction in Ohio, ruled in 2013 that a Michigan law banning begging in public places was unconstitutional.

“The Youngstown law looks very, very similar to the Michigan law,” Mead said.

Hume agreed.

Read more on the matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.