A Supreme Court ruling about regulating church signs is spurring cities to repeal their anti-begging laws.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of churches' free speech. The case had nothing to do with panhandling, but it set a new legal precedent that's now being used to take down panhandling laws in cities across the country.
In Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona, the court ruled that government regulations curtailing free speech have to be as narrow as possible and must fulfill a “compelling government interest.” At issue was a town ordinance that restricted where signs for religious services could be displayed. But the decision, which applies to any local rules that limit certain types of speech, has caught some cities by surprise.
"It's an unanticipated consequence," says Joshua Cox, chief counsel with the city attorney's office in Columbus, Ohio, where police recently announced they would stop enforcing a ban on aggressive panhandling. Cox remembers reading about the Reed case: “You don’t typically look at a graphics case and think, ‘I wonder if this affects our panhandling ordinance.’”
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4 comments:
Why are we no longer talking about North Korea and Russia?
North Korea and Russia aren't the only news.
The elite who own nearly all of the news outlets has moved on. I hardly ever watch tv or news stations except for Fox now and then and even they have become sketchy. Even then it's easy to get caught up in their bs. I have a farmer friend in Tenn I grew up with around here I enjoy talking to. He is down to earth and can cut through all of the bs and gives an honest opinion about most things. When you bounce things off of another person most times it shines a light on all the falsehoods we are told.
I think we need to get back to talking to each other, in not in person on the phone so we can hear each other's voices and pick up on the tone and nuances of what each other says and not leave it to misinterpretation from IM's and FB postings. Just my opinion.
" Anonymous said...
North Korea and Russia aren't the only news.
August 19, 2017 at 7:31 AM"
Well you would think so the way the democrats couldn't get enough of them esp Russia.
Now it's the statues. They jumped on that like flies on crap. The democrats love it because democrats being democrats and are of a very violent nature now have an excuse to tear things up because they are inherently destructive people and get violent towards those who disagree with them.
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