Judge rejects Arizona’s anti-begging law
He rules that barring people from asking peacefully for money is unconstitutional.
TUCSON — An Arizona law that makes it a crime to beg for money or food in public is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision was issued in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona against the city of Flagstaff, which has drawn national attention for its aggressive stance on panhandling by jailing some violators.
ACLU attorneys argued that the state law, which makes it a crime to beg in public spaces, and Flagstaff ’s enforcement of it were unconstitutional.
In overturning the Arizona anti-begging law, U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake said it violated free-speech rights guaranteed by the U.S. and state constitutions. Wake ordered the defendants to send a copy of the order to all law enforcement agencies in the state within 30 days.
Last month, the Flagstaff City Council voted to stop enforcing the law after the ACLU filed the suit on behalf of a 77-year-old woman who was arrested when she asked an undercover police officer for bus fare.
Although the council promised that city officials would no longer interfere with people begging peacefully in public spaces, they left the door open to imposing other restrictions. Peaceful begging is generally characterized as holding a sign or asking passersby for money or food.
State Atty. Gen. Tom Horne also weighed in after the ACLU filed suit, saying he would not contest the effort to have a federal judge declare the state law unconstitutional.
The ACLU lawsuit challenged a policy Flagstaff adopted six years ago to remove people from downtown areas by jailing them early in the day on suspicion of loitering to beg.
During a one-year period, Flagstaff police arrested an estimated 135 people on sus- picion of loitering to beg. In some cases, those people were jailed, said Mik Jordahl, a Flagstaff attorney who served as ACLU cocounsel in the lawsuit.
“Many of the people arrested under the begging law simply needed a little assistance — not a jail cell,” Jordahl said in a statement released by the ACLU after the court ruling Friday. “Law enforcement must stand up for the constitutional rights of peaceful beggars and not just respond to complaints from powerful downtown business interests who would take those rights away and sweep homelessness and poverty out of sight.”
Flagstaff ’s aggressive stance ref lected a national trend of states and munici- palities trying to prevent panhandling and control the movements of the homeless, said Heather Maria Johnson, civil rights director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, based in Washington.
Some states have passed similar laws against begging, and others have relied on old laws, but Flagstaff ’s efforts were a case of extreme enforcement, Johnson said.
Courts nationwide have ruled that laws against aggressive panhandling and harassment are constitutional but have found that peaceful begging is protected by the Constitution.