Story Archive

Get Outta Town

Edward Gillespie and Brandalyn Orchard held a sign: “Traveling. Anything helps. God bless.” But Miner, Mo., police told them to keep traveling or they’d be arrested “in five minutes.” The cops showed the couple local laws banning vagrancy and begging — ordinances, the city clerk later said, that don’t exist. According to an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, which is representing Gillespie and Orchard in suing the 980-person municipality, the Supreme Court has ruled vagrancy laws unconstitutional, and the sign was constitutionally protected free speech. The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction against unconstitutional “policies and customs.” (AC/Reuters) ...Stop enforcing unconstitutional laws that don’t even exist, or you’ll be ... sued and maybe eventually fined for contempt.
Original Publication Date: 29 December 2013
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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