Vegetarians, peaceniks and other activists are free to hawk their wares on the Venice Beach boardwalk after a federal appeals court overturned a city ordinance Monday that severely limited street vending.
In a unanimous decision, the three judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Los Angeles ordinance violated the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech protections.
"Even though I'm an anarchist, I'd be a fool not to admit that in this case the court system worked in our favor," said Robert "Jingles" Newman, one of two longtime Venice street vendors who sued the city.
Newman runs a "Meat Is Murder" booth, selling T-shirts and bumper stickers to promote his group, Animal Freedom Fighters. Police cited Newman and co-plaintiff Harry Perry, a roller-skating street musician, for violating the law in April 1995.
The 1991 law, passed after nearby merchants complained that unlicensed street vendors were unjustly taking away their business, allowed street sales only by newspapers and nonprofit organizations. It banned many of the counterculture activists whose sales of buttons, religious tracts and other items help give Venice Beach its unique flavor.
"Now we have a situation where the law says that we're all equal," said attorney James H. Fosbinder, who represented the plaintiffs. "If we had lost, it would have meant that the 1st Amendment in Los Angeles applied to the L.A. Times and not much else."
The city attorney's office--which had not enforced the law since 1995, when Fosbinder's clients obtained a court injunction--said the City Council would decide whether to appeal Monday's ruling.
At issue in Perry-Jingles vs. Los Angeles et al. was whether the unlicensed vendors, lacking nonprofit status, were protected under the 1st Amendment when they sold items espousing "religious, philosophical or ideological messages."
The judges said the plaintiffs' activities were protected under the Constitution. They also criticized the city ordinance for failing to make a reasonable case for granting an exemption to nonprofit organizations.
Newman promoted vegetarianism, while Perry solicited donations and sold recordings of music with religious overtones. The court ruled that both men had their constitutional rights violated when they were cited by police.
"These are expressive items, and they do not lose their constitutional protection simply because they are sold rather than given away," the judges wrote.
