Judge Denounces NYC on Panhandling Law

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NEW YORK ? A federal judge said Friday that she will consider holding the city in contempt after learning that police have been enforcing a panhandling law ruled unconstitutional 15 years ago.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said more than 700 summonses had been issued to people since she ordered the city to stop using the unconstitutional law.

"I'm mystified how 15 years later you can issue a warrant for a statute that's been declared unconstitutional," U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said. "That's really terrible."

In October 1992, a federal judge ruled that a city law violated the First Amendment when it allowed the arrest of anyone who "loiters, remains or wanders about in a public place for the purpose of begging."

The City Council then passed a new law to outlaw "aggressive panhandling."

But the police department continued to make arrests under the old law.

In June 2005, a class-action lawsuit was brought on behalf of anyone arrested on charges resulting from the unconstitutional law and Scheindlin had ordered the city to stop enforcing it.

City lawyer Rachel Seligman said it was not surprising that between four and six summonses a week had been issued since Scheindlin's order in a city where a half million summonses are issued each year.

The judge criticized the city for only notifying police officers who wrote the summonses that the law was unconstitutional after they had issued a summons.

She said the city should consider putting a notice about the old law inside every police officer's paycheck envelope.

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