Word: sand
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...poor have a constitutional right to beg? Yes, says New York federal district-court judge Leonard Sand. In a novel ruling, Sand found that panhandling is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. "A true test of one's commitment to constitutional principles," he wrote, "is the extent to which recognition is given to the rights of those in our midst who are the least affluent, least powerful and least welcome...
...ruling, handed down two weeks ago, Judge Sand indicated that the MTA had gone too far by imposing a total ban instead of specifying the times, places and types of begging that it considered out of bounds. "While the government has an interest in preserving the quality of urban life," wrote Sand, "this interest must be discounted where the regulation has the principal effect of keeping a public problem involving human beings out of sight and therefore out of mind...
...Judge Sand's opinion runs contrary to the traditional American legal view of begging. Although panhandling involves speaking, the activity has not generally been viewed as a First Amendment issue. Throughout history, begging has been regulated, monitored and sometimes prohibited; half the states in the U.S. currently have statutes that limit or ban begging. Yet Sand's reasoning could prove persuasive to other courts in search of answers to the problem of panhandling by the homeless. Moreover, his ruling is in line with three cases in the past decade in which the U.S. Supreme Court has held that professional fund...
Overly aggressive or dangerous panhandlers, however, will not automatically enjoy legal protection. "Judge Sand's ruling doesn't say a beggar can corner people or abuse them," explained Columbia law professor Vincent Blasi. "The First Amendment protects only the right to ask, not the right to harass." In fact, several days after his ruling, Judge Sand modified the decision to allow the MTA to regulate panhandling more selectively by banning solicitations on moving subway cars and near token booths...
With a philosophy that he dubs "kick them when they're up," Safire has made enemies. The West German government was enraged by his early 1989 columns that helped reveal that nation's complicity in the construction of a Libyan poison-gas factory, which Safire dubbed "Auschwitz in the sand." Nancy Reagan in her autobiography, My Turn, denounces various Safire columns as "heartless and dumb" and "vicious and unbelievable...