DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Southern Legal Counsel, along with pro bono attorneys Sabarish Neelakanta of SPN Law and Paul George of Holland & Knight, filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Daytona Beach ordinance that prohibits asking for donations in certain public spaces.

Recognizing they were likely to lose a potentially costly legal fight, City of Lake Worth Beach officials repealed two ordinances at the center of a federal lawsuit Southern Legal Counsel and West Palm Beach pro bono attorney Sabarish P. Neelakanta of SPN Law filed in June.

The lawsuit challenged the city’s enforcement of local ordinances that unlawfully prohibited public charitable solicitation, which is protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Legal Services of Greater Miami, Southern Legal Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, and ACLU of Florida Greater Miami Chapter today filed a federal lawsuit challenging the City of Miami’s practice of destroying the personal property of people experiencing homelessness in violation of their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizure, as well as their right to due process.

OCALA, FL – Southern Legal Counsel and the ACLU of Florida filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Ocala on behalf of Roger Luebke, Kimberly Burnham, William Anthony Taylor, Victor Hoyt Cox, Dustin Damico, and Patrick McArdle, who have been arrested for asking people for help.

“Ocala’s ordinances prohibiting people from asking for help are unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth amendments,” said lead counsel Chelsea Dunn of Southern Legal Counsel. “Every individual in this case has been subject to arrest based on the content of their speech. They have been jailed and assessed fines for acts as harmless as asking a stranger for a cigarette.”

(Feb. 8, 2021, OCALA, Fla.) – Three Ocala residents who are experiencing homelessness and thus had been repeatedly arrested under the city’s open lodging ordinance today won their case challenging the ordinance’s constitutionality when U.S. District Court Judge James S. Moody ruled that the ordinance “unlawfully punishes an individual based on their homeless status.”

(October 15, 2020, Jacksonville, FL) – In a major First Amendment victory, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has declared Florida Statutes 316.2045 and 337.406—which prohibit the solicitation of charitable contributions on Florida roadways except by charitable organizations or when a local government permit has been issued— unconstitutional.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (May 14, 2020) ‒ With complete disregard to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 guidance, this morning at 10 a.m. Gainesville Police Department and Florida Department of Corrections officers ordered those living in a homeless encampment near Grace Marketplace to vacate the area.

The City of Fort Lauderdale will consider amendments to its camping ordinance tonight at 6pm. The proposed amendments will expand the geographic scope of the City’s current camping ordinance to much of the City during an unprecedented public health emergency.

In February of this year, Southern Legal Counsel and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty sued St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar and Florida Highway Patrol Director Gene Spaulding on behalf of Peter Vigue, a St. Augustine resident who has been repeatedly arrested for standing on the public right of way and asking for help in the form of money or other charitable assistance.

Ocala resident Anthony Cummings, who is homeless, was arrested three times in 2012 and 2016 for violating Ocala’s open lodging ordinance, the legality of which Southern Legal Counsel and the ACLU of Florida are now challenging in a federal class action lawsuit in which Cummings is one of three named plaintiffs.

Less than two months after filing suit against the City of Ocala for enforcing an open lodging ordinance specifically targeting people who are homeless, Southern Legal Counsel, the ACLU of Florida and pro bono attorney Andy Pozzuto passed their first legal hurdle when the city failed in its attempt to have the suit dismissed.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida compared the negative effects of adult entertainment to those of food sharing in a public park by Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs, Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) is appealing the case once again to the US. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Southern Legal Counsel, the ACLU of Florida, and pro bono attorney Andy Pozzuto today filed a federal class action lawsuit against the city of Ocala on behalf of named plaintiffs Patrick McCardle, Courtney Ramsey, Anthony Cummings and more than 200 other similarly situated homeless persons who have been arrested for sleeping or resting on sidewalks and other outdoor areas.

On August 16, 2019, U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch upheld the City of Fort Lauderdale’s zoning ordinance and park rule restricting food sharing as a “social service” in public parks. Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs and its members, represented by Southern Legal Counsel and lawyers Mara Shlackman and Andrea Costello, challenged the City’s food sharing restrictions for violating their freedom of expression, association, and right to due process. The case was on remand from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which had issued an opinion in favor of Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs that the First Amendment protects outdoor food sharing as “expressive conduct” under the First Amendment.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development May 22 proposed new rules that would weaken protections for transgender people who are experiencing homelessness by allowing federally funded shelters to deny them admission or require them to share bathrooms and sleeping areas with people of a different gender identity.

Under current federal regulations adopted by HUD, sex-segregated homeless shelters must admit all transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and house those individuals according to their gender identity.

May 7, 2019, JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A federal district court Monday issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of a statute restricting charitable solicitation while a lawsuit filed on behalf of Peter Vigue, a homeless resident of St. Augustine, is allowed to proceed. Vigue has been repeatedly arrested by state and local law enforcement for standing in the public right of way holding a sign that says, “Please Care God Bless Love” or other similar messages asking for help.