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Ohio ACLU wants Youngstown to repeal 2009 anti-begging law
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“This ordinance plainly violates the First Amendment, and it must be immediately repealed,” wrote Joe Mead, an attorney working on behalf of the ACLU, and a law and nonprofit-management professor at Cleveland State University.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.
“It is something we are taking seriously, and we’ll recommend any changes we think are necessary,” he said.
Mead said he was “very pleased to hear they’ll consider the constitutionality of the ordinance. The Constitution protects the rights of everybody. It includes speech you and I may not particularly like.”
As for why it took years to bring this up, Mead said he recently started work on an article about the issue and discovered Youngstown’s law “is particularly egregious. Other governments have laws that restrict charitable requests, but not as broad as Youngstown.”
The city law is designed to discourage panhandling downtown, Hume said.
“There’s no doubt in the environment of downtown that it’s not a positive to have aggressive panhandlers,” he said.
Lees said he just told his police officers to increase the enforcement downtown of “some vagrants’ behavior such as panhandling, open container, disorderly conduct and littering. It’s the minor offenses that contribute to a less-than-desirable atmosphere for our downtown businesses.”