SJC pans state panhandling law
Court says it unconstitutionally limits free speech
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Tuesday overturned Massachusetts’s anti-panhandling statute, concluding that it unconstitutionally abridges free speech. Massachusetts state law prohibits a person from signaling or stopping a car for the purpose of soliciting charity or selling merchandise. But the SJC, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Barbara Lenk before her retirement, ruled that because(...)