As you may have seen, or heard, or read, we had a trial last week in U.S. District Court in our challenge to the constitutionality of a Portland ordinance that prohibits people from using median strips for free speech (or any other) purposes. We do not expect a decision in this case until early next year, but in the meantime, the Portland Press Herald today published a very thoughtful op-ed on the subject of panhandling. In it, the author, a social work student at the University of Southern Maine, makes this point about the law at issue in our case: "Unfortunately, this new ordinance does not help to eradicate poverty and homelessness; it only frees the Portland community from having to see and think about it." The whole piece is worth reading.
