Lawsuit seeks to block state anti-begging law
A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Little Rock on behalf of a disabled veteran and a homeless man challenges the constitutionality of a state law that prohibits begging for money, food or other charity.
The lawsuit asks a judge to invalidate the law in question, Arkansas Code 5-71213(a)(3), and prevent its enforcement.
Besides alleging that the law criminalizes speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit contends that by outlawing begging at any place and time, the state’s measure is unconstitutionally broad, in violation of both the First and 14th amendments.
Through attorney Bettina Brownstein, the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of Michael Andrew Rodgers, a disabled veteran in Garland County who has been arrested, convicted of loitering with intent to beg, and fined; and Glynn Dilbeck, a homeless man who has been criminally cited for begging in Benton County to help pay his daughter’s medical bills.
Both men have begged by peacefully holding up signs asking passers-by for money, according to the complaint.
“They are not alone,” the lawsuit states. “Many others also suffer this same government persecution for their speech. Predictably, the threat of citation, arrest, detention, prosecution, convic-
tion and penalties under this state law has chilled [them] and others from exercising their constitutionally protected rights to peacefully ask others for money, food or other charity.”
The sole defendant named in the suit is Col. Bill Bryant, director of the Arkansas State Police, which the lawsuit says is the agency that has made the most arrests and issued most of the citations under the law. It says Dilbeck was cited by a state trooper in September 2015 for holding up a sign asking for money at a roadway exit in Benton County, though the charge was later dismissed by the local prosecuting attorney.
Bill Sadler, a spokesman for Bryant and the state police, said Monday evening that the agency wasn’t aware of the lawsuit and that it would be inappropriate to comment at this point.
The lawsuit alleges that Dilbeck “has been harassed for peacefully begging on more than one occasion by law enforcement officers, including the Arkansas State Police.” It says that fear of “further criminal action and harassment” has made him and Rodgers afraid to beg anymore, demonstrating that the law has a “chilling effect” on their free-speech rights.
Last month, the Hot Springs Board of Directors unanimously adopted an ordinance banning the solicitation of donations from motorists driving on a public right of way, in response to Garland County Circuit Judge Homer Wright’s dismissal of a loitering charge against Rodgers, who had been convicted in a district court trial of violating the state law. Wright found that the section of the statute under which Rodgers was cited is unconstitutional. It defines loitering as remaining “in a public place or on the premises of another for the purpose of begging.”
Wright’s dismissal order said 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.”
Wright also wrote that the law can’t be defended as narrowly tailored to advance a compelling state interest.
“The state does not have a compelling interest in excluding those who beg in a peaceful manner,” he said. “Even if the state could show a compelling interest, which it has not done, this law is not narrowly tailored because it bans all begging everywhere at all times.”
The Hot Springs ordinance, which the board put into effect immediately, prohibits sitting, 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 public streets.
The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record reported that according to City Attorney Brian Albright, asking for money in public isn’t being banned. He said the city’s concern is the safety of the person “occupying or otherwise interacting with a motorist or an occupant of a vehicle in a public roadway that is being used for the conveyance of vehicles.”
The Sentinel-Record quoted Police Chief Jason Stachey as saying that an influx of people asking for money after Wright’s dismissal order created safety concerns at some of the city’s busiest intersections, making an accident inevitable. Stachey noted that the ordinance doesn’t impose a blanket restriction on soliciting money in public.
The lawsuit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson, seeks both a preliminary and a permanent injunction restraining the state police from enforcing the law. A preliminary injunction would apply until the constitutionality of the matter is decided.