On November 7, 2015, Bobby Honicutt, a 61-year old Springfield resident, was threatened with criminal charges after silently holding a sign on a public sidewalk that read “Trying to Support My Sick Wife| Please help.” Today, the ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit against the City of Springfield on Mr. Honicutt’s behalf.
Unable to secure steady full-time employment after the recession, Mr. Honicutt made the difficult decision to solicit contributions in order to support his wife, who suffers from congestive heart failure and needs costly medical care. First, he went to City Hall to ask for guidance on how to comply with the law where he received a document interpreting the city’s panhandling ordinance. It stated it was lawful to hold signs quietly on city sidewalks as long as passersby were not verbally solicited for donations.
On November 7, 2015, Mr. Honicutt was holding his sign on a public sidewalk when an officer threatened him with a criminal citation on the basis that the city did not permit even passive panhandling and wanted to eliminate panhandlers because they make some people uncomfortable. Two days later, Mr. Honicutt sent a letter to his Springfield City Council representative seeking clarification. His letter was never answered.
“Springfield’s panhandling ordinance is both confusing and overreaching in that it states it does not intend to limit any person’s constitutional rights and then proceeds to profoundly restrict acts that are well-established examples of free speech,” explains Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri.
What happened to Mr. Honicutt is not an isolated incident. A couple weeks earlier, a Springfield attorney received a citation for panhandling after he held a sign and accepted donations for the American Cancer Society following the cancer-related death of his friend. Following an ACLU of Missouri lawsuit (Hill v. City of Bolivar), the nearby City of Bolivar recently repealed its panhandling ordinance, which included excessive restrictions on similar speech.
“For people like Mr. Honicutt, free speech means the difference between caring for an ailing loved one, honoring the memory of a friend, or going without,” said Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri. “Instead of attempting to shield pedestrians from seeing the vulnerable among us this holiday season, Springfield should revise its ordinance so that it no longer shields those most in need from the protection of the First Amendment.”
