Court Rejects Appeal in Day Laborer Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down without comment Redondo Beach's appeal to reinstate an ordinance that stopped day laborers from congregating at street corners and soliciting work from passing drivers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The ordinance was originally upheld by a three-member panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2010, reversing a 2008 lower court ruling that the law was unconstitutional; however, the full 11-member panel of the Ninth Circuit struck down the ordinance on First Amendment grounds in September of last year, 9-2.

Redondo Beach decided to appeal the decision in October on the strength of Judge Alex Kozinski's scathing dissent, which called the reversal "folly," especially because "the city adopted (the law) to deal with a festering problem."

Lawyers from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund who were representing the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Comite de Jornaleros de Redondo Beach had argued that the city's ordinance so overly broad that it applied to children shouting, "Car wash!" at passing vehicles.

In a statement explaining its decision to appeal back in October, Webb called the precedent set by the Ninth Circuit's decision "unworkable."

"The majority opinion has set forth the novel and frankly startling conclusion that the ordinance is 'geographically over inclusive' because it applies citywide to all streets and sidewalks in the city," Webb wrote.

The solicitation ordinance was passed in 1987; however, it was enforced for the first time in 2005, when Redondo Beach police ran an undercover sting that resulted in the arrests of 60 day laborers. Those convicted of violating the ordinance were given 180-day suspended jail sentences, put on three years' probation and ordered to stay away from the sidewalk where they were arrested.

The ordinance was crafted based on a 1986 court opinion from the Ninth Circuit stemming from a lawsuit filed by ACORN against a similar law in the city of Phoenix, Webb told Patch in 2010.

Previously:

• City to Appeal Day Laborers Ruling
• Court Strikes Down Day Laborers Law
• Opinion: Redondo Right All Along in Day Laborers Case
• Appeals Court Upholds Day Laborer Ordinance