A federal judge has granted a homeless man’s request for a temporary restraining order that prevents Hawaii County from enforcing its panhandling laws when he is soliciting money from passersby.
Judge Susan Oki Mollway issued the TRO for Justin Guy late Friday afternoon. Attorneys for Hawaii County and the American Civil Liberties Union argued the issue in front of Mollway in the U.S. District Court in Honolulu Friday morning.
“The County is temporarily enjoined from enforcing section 14-75 of the (Hawaii County Code) against Guy when he uses signs to seek donations in public areas along streets and roads,” Mollway wrote. “Guy restricted the requested TRO to sign-holding and to such locations, and the court in adopting those restrictions is not suggesting that section 14-75 may constitutionally prohibit oral or other forms of solicitation for money or such solicitation in all locations other than areas along streets and roads. This order does not restrict the County from enforcing other state or county laws.”
Attorney Matthew Winter of Davis Levin Livingston praised the ruling in a written statement late Friday afternoon
“All people have a constitutional right to express their views publicly — whether those views are popular or not,” Winter said. “This right of free speech applies with equal force to an unsheltered person asking for help as it does to a politician asking for votes. The government cannot suppress speech it does not like, and it is the ability to freely express oneself, which is the heart of our democracy. Today’s ruling is a victory for all residents of and visitors to Hawaii County, because it is a victory for the most fundamental of our civil liberties.”
Mollway wrote that Guy and the ACLU were likely to prevail in their arguments that the section cited, which prohibits aggressive panhandling, is actually content-based.
“Section 14-75 applies only to requests for an immediate donation of money or other thing of value; it thus singles out some solicitation speech for regulation while leaving other solicitation speech untouched,” Mollway wrote. “Section 14-75 bars a homeless individual, in certain areas, from asking passersby for immediate financial assistance, while not restricting individuals who ask others to sign petitions, participate in surveys, vote for political candidates, or accept certain religious beliefs in those very same areas. The latter activities have the potential of being intimidating to passersby, the very concern cited by the County as the motivation and justification underlying section 14-75.”
She said a solicitation that did not require the money to be immediately transferred would not be barred under the county’s law.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Laureen Martin, who appeared on the county’s behalf, noted the ruling is only temporary, until a motion for a preliminary injunction can be heard in January, and added that “even the ACLU agreed some provisions (in the code) were constitutional.”