Abstract
Panhandlers often receive citations for violating municipal ordinances prohibiting solicitation for immediate donations for items of value. Anti-panhandling laws have a long history and are sometimes used to force the homeless to relocate to other towns. Federal appellate courts are split on the question of whether ordinances prohibiting panhandling represent content-based or content-neutral restrictions of free speech in the public forum. This Comment reviews the historical and legal background of such ordinances, and argues that panhandling is pure speech conveying a message of neediness, and that laws prohibiting solicitation for immediate donations for items of value represent content-based restrictions that should be subject to strict scrutiny analysis. Because of the unique characteristics of the public street, the state has a less compelling interest to regulate speech in the public forum.
Recommended Citation
Aaron O’Brien,
Excuse Me Judge, Can You Spare a Little Speech? Freeing the Beggar’s Right to Solicit Donations From Content-Based Restrictions in the Traditional Public Forum,
40
S. Ill. U. L.J.
537
(2016).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol40/iss3/10