FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ A federal judge in northwestern Arkansas has
overturned an anti-panhandling ordinance in Rogers.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks on Monday ruled that the ordinance unconstitutionally violates the right to free speech.
The ordinance prohibited people from approaching vehicles in traffic on city
streets.
Brooks wrote the city’s claim of addressing traffic safety “is totally unsupported” by research and that “it would curtail, if not eliminate, free speech on the streets of Rogers.”
A federal judge in Little Rock has previously overturned a state law that
banned public begging, saying it was unconstitutional.
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