Colorado’s branch of the ACLU on Tuesday filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Fort Collins, claiming the city’s anti-panhandling ordinance is a violation of free speech.
The lawsuit follows similar challenges filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado against the cities of Colorado Springs, whose ordinance was repealed, and Grand Junction, which altered its ordinance.
The ACLU claims Fort Collins police have issued several dozen citations, “vigorously” enforcing the ordinance. The organization says the ordinance amounts to an unconstitutional law that criminalizes those who are displaying a sign asking for help.
“The ACLU does not object to a narrowly and carefully tailored ordinance that targets truly threatening, coercive or menacing behavior that actually interferes with the rights of others,” Mark Silverstein, the ACLU of Colorado’s legal director, said in a statement. “But Fort Collins has gone too far.”
“The Fort Collins law and its enforcement,” he said, “have unjustifiably turned polite and harmless pleas for help into a crime.”
Carrie Daggett, Fort Collins interim city attorney, said her office is reviewing the lawsuit and won’t comment until it has evaluated the suit. A police spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Fort Collins’ ordinance blocks panhandling in specific locations and circumstances, including from people over the age of 60 and people with disabilities and within 100 feet of a bus stop, the ACLU branch says.
“A review of citations reveals that police are not only broadly applying those parameters, but are also in many cases enforcing the law as if it were a complete ban on any panhandling anywhere in the city,” the ACLU said.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four homeless people and Greenpeace Inc., whose street canvassers were warned by police that their contribution requests violate the ordinance.
A 76-year-old Fort Collins woman is also listed as a plaintiff in the suit because she objects to being classified as “at-risk” because she is over 60 years old, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit, filed in Denver federal court, requests a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop enforcement.
