THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT has reminded us that we are not going to ban our way to social justice and public safety. The SJC on December 15 declared that the state ban on panhandling is in violation of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, our state constitution. The court ruled on a Fall River case […]
panhandling
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC pans state panhandling law
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Tuesday overturned Massachusetts’s anti-panhandling statute, concluding that it unconstitutionally abridges free speech. Massachusetts state law prohibits a person from signaling or stopping a car for the purpose of soliciting charity or selling merchandise. But the SJC, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Barbara Lenk before her retirement, ruled that because […]