PRESS RELEASE: GREEN HOMELESS ADVOCATE TAKES ON SACRAMENTO CITY HALL TO DEFEND 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
PO Box 485, San Francisco, CA 94104
http://www.cagreens.org

For Immediate Release: July 5, 2018

Contact: Laura Wells, 510-504-4254
Erik Rydberg, 530-781-2903
James Lee "Faygo" Clark, 916-706-4605

Sacramento, CA - Green Party member and homeless advocate James Lee Clark aka "Faygo" is scheduled to appear in court today for his suit filed against the City of Sacramento to defend the first amendment rights of the homeless. Named as a Plaintiff along with the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, Clark's lawsuit challenges a law recently passed in Sacramento to criminalize those who ask for assistance in public areas. The suit is being heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.

Abre' Conner, a Staff Attorney for the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (who is arguing for the plaintiffs) stated, "Solicitation and Panhandling are squarely protected under the First Amendment. The City of Sacramento is trying to criminalize activity which judges and courts all across the country have ruled to be protected activity. We are partnering with Legal Services of Northern California to represent individuals who are not housed, and local services providers. So we are really just asking the City of Sacramento to follow the law."

Clark added, "Before this ordinance passed, as long as you were not being aggressive, you could hold a sign in most places, and for the most part the cops would leave you alone. Panhandling basically enables me to get through day to day. But if this ordinance is upheld, homeless people, and others in need, will be relegated to areas where there is nobody to ask for help. It's a very slippery slope when you start attacking people's ability to exercise their rights to assemble, exercise free speech, and redress grievances, even if their grievance is that they are hungry."

For the Sacramento code being disputed see Ordinance No. 2017-0054 at:
http://www.qcode.us/codes/sacramento/revisions/2017-0054.pdf

For more information:
https://www.aclunc.org/news/lawsuit-charges-sacramento-s-anti-panhandlin...