Word: mclu
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...suit is a "test case" in Massachusetts, said Sarah Wunsch, an MCLU staff attorney, though there have been cases elsewhere in which similar vagrancy statutes have been struck down. While the Massachusetts vagrancy statute has been challenged before, said Wunsch, "This is the first direct challenge...to the 'begging' part...
Contending that a state law prohibiting begging is unconstitutional, the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union (MCLU) is suing the City of Cambridge, its police department and the Middlesex District Attorney for upholding the statute...
...MCLU decided to challenge the state law when Craig Benefit, a homeless man, asked the group for assistance. Benefit has been arrested twice in the Harvard Square area for begging. After his first arrest in March, Wunsch said she got two or three calls from Harvard students who supported Benefit. One student said that the homeless man had repaired her bike, Wunsch said...