FEDERAL JUDGE RULES THAT ALABAMA LAWS CRIMINALIZING HOMELESSNESS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL

A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of Alabama statutes that criminalize soliciting donations and begging, ruling that the laws violate the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.

“We are pleased that the court chose to permanently enjoin the state’s solicitation statutes,” said Micah West, senior staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Economic Justice Project. “Criminalizing people for asking for help further disenfranchises those who are already facing economic hardship. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment covers ‘charitable appeals for funds.’”

In 2019, the city of Montgomery enacted an ordinance imposing additional penalties on solicitation of donations, including mandatory jail time. Although the city ultimately repealed the ordinance after the SPLC, clergy, unhoused people and other advocates organized in opposition to the law, the city continued to enforce two state statutes that also criminalized the solicitation of donations.

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/03/14/alabama-law-solicitation-donation-unconstitutional