Fact brief: Can cities ban panhandling?
No.
City ordinances can regulate the time, place and manner of panhandling. However, they cannot completely ban panhandling because that could interfere with people’s First Amendment right to free speech.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 “that solicitation to pay or contribute money is protected under the First Amendment.”
Federal courts have since struck down city laws like the attempt to ban panhandling on median strips in Portland, Maine, along with a proposal to ban oral requests for immediate money in Springfield, Illinois.
The Supreme Court has allowed other more narrow rules limiting panhandling, including a 1990 New York City ban on begging in the subway and rules against begging at a state fairground, on sidewalks outside of a post office and within an airport terminal. Fort Worth’s Code of Ordinances bans panhandling aggressively.
Violations of most of these ordinances are punished as a misdemeanor.
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Sources
Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University Panhandling LawsVarghese Summersett Panhandling in Fort WorthJustia https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/444/620/Fort Worth Code of Ordinances § 30-16 AGGRESSIVE PANHANDLING OR SOLICITATION
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