ACLU pushes Vicksburg to repeal its panhandling laws

The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi is asking the city of Vicksburg and 15 other cities across the state to repeal local ordinances that make panhandling illegal.

It’s part of a nationwide push challenging such ordinances on first amendment grounds. In a news release Wednesday, the organization said the effort is based on work by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

“Being homeless and asking for help are not crimes, but anti-panhandling ordinances essentially punish both,” Landon Thames, staff attorney for ACLU of Mississippi, said in the news release. “By working actively with cities to repeal these laws, this campaign helps to protect the rights of the homeless, conserves law enforcement resources, and saves taxpayer dollars.”

The organization has successfully sued to end similar ordinances across the country. In 2015, a federal appeals court ruled that a Springfield, Ill., ordinance penalizing people for begging for money in public places in was unconstitutional. Earlier this year, the ACLU filed lawsuits challenging panhandling ordinances in Summit County, Ohio, and in Fall River, Mass., after successfully overturning ordinances in the Massachusetts cities of Worcester and Lowell.

In a statement, Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said that the laws are “unconstitutional attacks on free speech that prey on those who are most vulnerable.”

Four cities in Mississippi—Ridgeland, Meridian, Starkville and Southaven—have repealed panhandling ordinances since last year, the ACLU of Mississippi said.

In addition to Vicksburg, the other cities the state organization asked to reconsider panhandling ordinances are Brandon, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Clinton, Corinth, Greenville, Greenwood, Grenada, Gulfport, Horn Lake, Jackson, Long Beach, Natchez, Olive Branch and Pascagoula.