A U.S. district judge ruled that Las Vegas ordinances banning leafleting violated the First Amendment. The city wrote the law mainly to keep adult businesses from distributing the leaflets in the downtown business hub. –DB
First Amendment Center
March 23, 2009
LAS VEGAS — A federal judge has sided with free-speech advocates in a legal battle over laws that prohibited adult businesses and other groups from soliciting in a downtown Las Vegas tourist hub.
In a ruling issued March 17, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra of Honolulu declared unconstitutional several city ordinances aimed at ending aggressive leafleting and advertising at the Fremont Street Experience.
The laws applied to the pedestrian walkway were revised in 2006 in response to a prior court order. Ezra ruled in ACLU of Nevada v. City of Las Vegas that the revised laws violated the First Amendment.
“These ordinances clearly include the sale of merchandise that carries political or religious messages or the use of tables for religious, political, or charitable solicitation, which are fully protected speech,” Ezra wrote.
One of the ordinances prohibited unauthorized vending, and another prohibited unauthorized structures, including chairs and stands used for solicitation.
The American Civil Liberties Union first filed the lawsuit in 1997. The Sin City Chamber of Commerce, which represents about 100 adult businesses, later joined as plaintiffs.
The case was appealed three times to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also briefly visited the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to get involved.
“Hopefully the city, after having these numerous decisions against them from the federal district court and the Court of Appeals, will cease to enact unconstitutional ordinances violating the free-speech rights of people at the Fremont Street Experience,” said ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein.
City Attorney Brad Jerbic did not respond to a call seeking comment in time for this article.
The ACLU has waged and won a similar battle against Clark County officials. In 2007, Senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George declared the county’s anti-handbill ordinance unconstitutional following a decade of litigation.
Commissioners had passed the measure, which was not enforced during much of the court fight, as a way to rid the Las Vegas Strip of peddlers promoting adult businesses.
Copyright Associated Press 2009