FORT LAUDERDALE — Mike Messina and Bernard McDonald, who are lifelong Broward County residents and have been homeless at various points in their lives, are challenging Fort Lauderdale’s anti-panhandling laws. They say the measures are an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.
One of Fort Lauderdale’s ordinances prohibits anyone from requesting donations in all public parks, city parking lots, transportation centers, government buildings and near sidewalk dining areas. The other ordinance the group is fighting prohibits asking for donations or offering items for sale to people in cars along certain roads, and along all city roads if the person is holding a sign, the Florida Justice Institute said in a news release.
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