Judge upholds blocking Arkansas from restricting panhandlers

LITTLE ROCK -- A federal judge has ruled that panhandlers in Arkansas are allowed to ask for money without being arrested, upending the state's 2017 anti-loitering law that opponents say unfairly targeted panhandlers.

U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson on Thursday made permanent an order he issued in September 2017 that found the amended measure "plainly unconstitutional," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The law expanded the definition of loitering to include anyone asking for charity or a gift in a harassing or threatening manner that's likely to cause others alarm or create a traffic hazard.

In November 2019, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court in St. Louis upheld Wilson's preliminary injunction after Attorney General Leslie Rutledge appealed. The appellate court later rejected the state's petitions to reconsider, and last week returned the case to Wilson's jurisdiction. The short-term order had remained in effect in the interim.

Rutledge didn't say Thursday whether she knows of any other attempts to resurrect the ban. But spokesman Amanda Priest noted that, "The attorney general is disappointed by the Eighth Circuit and district court's rulings against Arkansas's panhandling law."

Holly Dickson is the legal director and interim executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, which sued the state in August 2017 over the ban on behalf of two panhandlers who said they were afraid they would be prosecuted for asking for money under the law. She praised Wilson's directive.

"We are grateful that all Arkansans' freedom of speech was protected with this ruling," Dickson said. "The state and some cities have tried differing ways to stop panhandling but it is clearly protected speech and criminalizing the effects of poverty takes us all in the wrong direction."

Dickson added that in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACLU hopes to see more of the "positive steps" that some Arkansas communities, including Hot Springs, Little Rock and Fayetteville, have taken to figure out solutions to panhandling that addresses the underlying roots of poverty and the needs of the community.

State Desk on 03/28/2020

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