A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019
Judge throws out Arkansas panhandling law
Astoria passed a
similar ordinance
By MATTHEW S.
SCHWARTZ
National Public Radio
When a panhandler
approaches a car in the inter-
section — his hand out, his
eyes wide — that physi-
cal interaction is protected
by the First Amendment, a
federal district judge ruled
Monday when he threw out
an Arkansas city’s panhan-
dling ban.
It’s the latest such ban to
be found unconstitutional
since a 2015 U.S. Supreme
Court decision made it
harder for the government
to pass laws regarding the
content of speech. That case,
Reed v. Town of Gilbert, had
to do with regulating church
signs, but courts around the
country have cited the case
as they strike down panhan-
dling laws.
To contend with an
increase in panhandling at
busy intersections, the city of
Hot Springs in 2016 passed
an ordinance imposing “an
absolute ban” on solicita-
tion on streets or in medians.
After the American Civil
Liberties Union sued, the
city repealed the ordinance,
according to the Arkansas
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
A man panhandles in the median strip on a street in Portland,
Maine, in 2017.
Democrat-Gazette.
In 2017, the city passed
a new version of the ordi-
nance. This one eliminated
all references to panhan-
dling, and instead made it
illegal for pedestrians or the
occupant of a motor vehi-
cle to “interact physically”
while the engine was run-
ning on a public roadway.
But that language was
still constitutionally prob-
lematic, Judge Robert Daw-
son wrote, because physi-
cal interactions can convey
love, disgust, sympathy and
myriad other emotions. “All
people everywhere rou-
tinely communicate non-
verbal messages through
physical interaction, often
without even noticing
it,” he said. “It is visceral
and instinctive, and it is
often the quickest way to
communicate.”
So banning physical
interaction between pedes-
trians and the occupants of
a vehicle clearly has free
speech implications, the
judge wrote. “The c ourt can
think of no reason why a
pedestrian would intention-
ally attempt physical inter-
action with a motor vehi-
cle or its occupants other
than to communicate a
message.”
“Putting your hand out
expresses you need money,”
attorney Bettina Brownstein,
who handled the case for the
ACLU, told National Pub-
lic Radio . “Unless they’re
obstructing your traffi c, your
car, or assaulting you in some
way,” the speech is protected,
she said.
People in their cars may be
uncomfortable when panhan-
dlers approach but aren’t truly
being threatened, said Brown-
stein. And the First Amend-
ment “takes precedence over
everything” — even the right
of people to feel comfort in
their cars, she said.
“We respect the c ourt’s
decision,” Hot Springs attor-
ney Brian Albright said via
email. “However, the safety
of pedestrians and motor-
ists are still a concern for the
c ity.”
Albright said it’s too
early to say whether the city
will appeal the ruling.
The Reed case “has
placed literally every pan-
handling ordinance in the
United States at least under
risk,” said First Amendment
scholar Enrique Armijo,
associate dean for academic
affairs at Elon University
School of Law.
Plenty of cities around the
country have seen their pan-
SALEM — The Ore-
gon Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee heard public testi-
mony Tuesday morning for
an omnibus bill combining
several proposed gun laws.
If passed, the bill
would give fi rearms deal-
ers the option of raising
the minimum purchase
age to between 18 and 21
and require fi rearms to be
securely stored when not
in use. Depending on the
specifi cs, violations of the
safe storage law could be a
Class A violation, a Class B
misdemeanor or a Class A
misdemeanor.
The bill also places
restrictions on the sale of
unfi nished and 3D-printed
fi rearms — sometimes
called “ghost guns.” Other
rules in the bill would add
hospital reporting require-
ments for patients injured
by fi rearms and would
allow colleges and univer-
sities to ban fi rearms on
campus.
Experts and advocates
both for and against the leg-
islation packed the Capi-
tol hallways Tuesday and
passed through tighter than
usual security before head-
ing to testify. Many people
also submitted written com-
ments on the omnibus bill.
Hilary Uhlig, a volunteer
with the gun safety group
Moms Demand Action,
voiced their support for the
Senate bill, and a similar
piece of legislation in the
House.
“Both bills will make
great strides to prevent gun
violence in Oregon and
make Oregonians much
safer,” Uhlig told Oregon
Public Broadcasting while
waiting to enter the hear-
ing hall.
The House held hearings
on a separate bill that would
refi ne a law passed last year
that closed the so-called
boyfriend loophole — a
gap in federal law that pro-
hibited convicted domestic
abusers from owning a fi re-
arm but not did not apply
to intimate partners so long
as they didn’t live or have
children with their partners.
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The crowd gathered at
the Capitol was passionate,
but cordial.
A few feet away from
Uhlig, Scott Freshwa-
ters was waiting to enter
the hearing and reading a
book called, “Navy SEAL
Shooting.” He had a mes-
sage on his jacket that said
“NRA — Stand and Fight.”
He pulled a second sticker
from his breast pocket that
said, “I will not comply.”
Freshwaters said he had
a “nice” conversation in the
cafeteria with a supporter
of the bill but they avoided
politics.
“Everybody on either
side of the debate have good
intentions,” he said. “It’s
just some are misguided,”
he added with a laugh.
After the House hearing,
Rep. Jennifer Williamson,
D-Portland, the commit-
tee’s chairwoman, said her
colleagues are serious about
gun safety.
“The chiefs and the
sheriffs have been really
involved in this as well,”
she said. “I appreciate
everybody coming together
and treating this like a pub-
lic health issue.”
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10TH STREET
By JONATHAN
LEVINSON
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Astoria on Monday
approved an ordinance that
makes it a $75 traffi c viola-
tion to give or take something
from a car window while the
vehicle is on the roadway.
City leaders said the ordi-
nance, modeled after sim-
ilar restrictions in other
Oregon cities, is meant to
improve traffi c safety. But it
was passed after complaints
about panhandling outside a
McDonald’s drive-thru and
near Safeway.
Consult a
ASTORIA
TRANSIT CENTER
Oregon lawmakers take up a raft of new gun restrictions
handling laws struck down,
Armijo said. Others have
changed them to try to fi t the
new constitutional landscape.
Hot Springs “did a better job
than most cities with respect
to defi ning the banned activ-
ity in a way that refers more to
the conduct than the speech,”
said Armijo, who thinks the
judge’s ruling could be over-
turned on appeal.
“It reads the First Amend-
ment a little too broadly,
given precedent,” he said.
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