(Federal appeals) Court OKs ban on day laborers soliciting work

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(06-09) 17:30 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Cities can prohibit day laborers from soliciting work from passing drivers, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said an ordinance in Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) prohibiting anyone on a street or sidewalk from seeking work from motorists, and prohibiting drivers from stopping to offer a job, is a valid safety measure that does not interfere with free speech.

The ordinance does not regulate the content of a day laborer's speech, only the location, Judge Sandra Ikuta said in the majority opinion. She said workers can reach out to prospective employers "in safer and less disruptive ways," such as by handing out leaflets, speaking to pedestrians or canvassing door-to-door.

Dissenting Judge Kim Wardlaw said the law punishes constitutionally protected expression and "eliminates the only means by which day laborers can communicate their availability for employment."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/09/BAS81DSOQE.DTL

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Ikuta is a Bush 43 appointee; Wardlaw is a Clinton appointee. Federal courts have blocked enforcement of laws against day laborers in Bay Area cities. And Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law has a provision about day laborers just like Redondo Beach's, so that provision might as well survive a federal court challenge. In that law (Sec. 5. Title 13, chapter 29):

A. It is unlawful for an occupant of a motor vehicle that is stopped on a street, roadway or highway to attempt to hire or hire and pick up passengers for work at a different location if the motor vehicle blocks or impedes the normal movement of traffic.

B. It is unlawful for a person to enter a motor vehicle that is stopped on a street, roadway or highway in order to be hired by an occupant of the motor vehicle and to be transported to work at a different location if the motor vehicle blocks or impedes the normal movement of traffic.

[eggplant]

1. This is also an effective anti-prostitution law

at least for streetcorner soliciting. I wonder if that was part of the thinking?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Do those other ways of finding work actually result in as many jobs as the

standing by the roadside tactic? Will there still be a lot of people trying to solicit by the roadside even with the law in place if they don't think they can find work any other way?

[Merlot]

3. So having someone hand me a flyer, knock on my door, or speaking to

me when I'm walking in public is safer and less disruptive?

[damntexdem]

4. If "safety" were really the concern, cities would establish day-labor pick-up sites off of streets.

That's what exists here in Denton.

Safety is not an adequate excuse to prohibit job solicitation.