The First Amendment Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law has sent a letter to Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis and all 10 commissioners protesting the local ordinance on aggressive panhandling.
Staff at the center believe the ordinance is unconstitutional. The letter claims that the expanded ordinance is overly broad and essentially criminalizes the act of asking for help.
Recently, the Augusta Commission updated the 2006 panhandling ordinance and expanded it to include all areas of the county.
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The 2006 ordinance banning aggressive panhandling was limited to the Augusta Common, an area vaguely described as the “central business district,” and the Armstrong Galleria on Laney Walker Boulevard.
“The ordinance criminalizes the innocent act of asking for charity and is accordingly a content-based restriction of speech, which is a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the letter reads.
The letter lists eight examples of case law and Supreme Court decisions that concluded the act of solicitation in public is an act of free speech.
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According to the letter, the act of asking, or begging, for spare change is no different from someone giving a political speech in public. In such speeches, generally the speaker is attempting to change or reinforce political opinions, but might also be a solicitation of political support in the form of monetary donations.
“A community organizer seeking signatures for a petition, a campaign worker handing out buttons for her candidate and a sidewalk preacher looking to save souls would all be covered under the ordinance,” the letter states.
In short, business owners or corporations can hang a no solicitation sign on the door of their business, and a homeowners association can ban lawn signs of a political nature because they are private entities.
However, when the government attempts to ban speech, short of the act of yelling “fire” in a movie theater or a speech intended to incite a riot, it is censorship and is a violation of the First Amendment, according to the letter.
The letter also found that the ordinance does not specify what is considered aggressive and is therefore subject to debate. According to the ordinance, Salvation Army volunteers ringing bells might be considered by some as aggressive panhandling.
In the past, the Supreme Court has allowed for some government censorship of speech when public safety becomes an issue in crowded public areas such as a subway or train station. The court declined to hear an appeal of Young v. New York City Transit Authority (2d Cir. 1990), which upheld the City of New York’s ban on begging within the city’s subway system.
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According to the UGA law school letter, the language of the ordinance does not cite any specific threat that panhandling poses to the public. Begging on the street may be an annoyance to people, but it doesn’t not present any form of a clear and present danger.
Local First Amendment Attorney David Hudson says the letter from the law school is on solid legal grounding.
“They are very well regarded as research analysts of the First Amendment,” Hudson said.
As it currently stands, the ordinance imposes a fine of up $1,000 or as much as 60 days in jail.
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The Augusta ordinance is likely never to be tested in court as such a law needs to be enforced to produce a possible “victim,” and since 2006, when the ordinance was first enacted, there are no records of anyone being arrested for aggressive panhandling.
District 10 Commissioner John Clarke has been quoted in the past as saying that the ordinance is nothing more than a ceremonial band aid and is virtually unenforceable.
“If you arrest them, then the taxpayers have to pay to house them. If you write them a ticket, and they are homeless, the chance of them showing up to court is less than zero,” Clarke said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
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