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- Advocates supporting the Safe Solicitation Act in 2025 cited the need for local law enforcement to have more ability to crack down on panhandling while those opposed to the measure claimed it adversely impacted the homeless population seeking assistance.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi (ACLU) have filed a class action complaint challenging Mississippi’s law aimed at giving local governments an option to regulate panhandling.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs Brittany Black, Preston Owens and Rachel Wright against the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and Capitol Police.
The Safe Solicitation Act was passed by the Mississippi Legislature and signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves (R) in March 2025.
Counties and municipalities had 6 months, or until the end of 2025, to opt out of the state law by vote of their local governing body. If they did not, the law would be considered binding across the state.
Under the law, those wishing to solicit or panhandle must now apply for a permit from their local governing body prior to doing so on a Mississippi road, street, highway median, traffic island or highway intersection. The permit fee is not to exceed $25.
Limits were then set on when and where panhandling could occur. They include:
- No solicitor may impede traffic at any time.
- Only one permit is to be issued for an intersection on any given day.
- All solicitors must enter or remain in a roadway, street or thoroughfare only while the controlling traffic signal prohibits vehicular movement.
- All solicitors must remain within 100 feet of or from the intersection approved under the permit
- All solicitations must occur during daylight hours only, from 9 a.m. until one hour before sunset.
- Solicitation activities are not to interfere with the safe and efficient movement of traffic and shall not cause danger to the participants or the public.
- No person engaging in solicitation activities is to persist after solicitation has been denied, act in a demanding or harassing manner, or use any sound or voice-amplifying apparatus
or device. - The governing authority is allowed to stop solicitation activities at any time if any conditions or requirements of the law are not met.
Failure to comply with the law could result in a misdemeanor crime, where upon conviction a violator would be subject to a fine of not more than $500, imprisoned in county jail for not more than six months, or by both.
Persons convicted of the misdemeanor crime of “forgery of a solicitation permit” will be subject to a fine of not more than $300, imprisoned not more than six months in the county jail, or both.
During debate in the Legislature on the measure, advocates supporting the Safe Solicitation Act cited the need for local law enforcement to have more ability to crack down on panhandling while those opposed to the measure claimed it adversely impacted the homeless population seeking assistance. That line of argument, primarily from the Democrat members in the Mississippi House and Senate, was what the SPLC and ACLU are now using as the crux of their legal challenge.
The SPLC and ACLU lawsuit claims the legislation is unconstitutional because it violates the 1st and 14th Amendment rights of the plaintiffs to request help because of hunger, poverty and homelessness without having to first pay the government to get permission to make those requests.
“The First Amendment protects everyone’s right to ask for charity when we need help or have fallen on hard times,” said Micah West, senior supervising attorney, SPLC. “Housing, not handcuffs, is the solution to homelessness. Mississippi should invest in affordable housing to end homelessness, not criminalize speech.”
The law, which was authored by State Rep. Shanda Yate (I), passed the House by a vote of 81-30 and in the Senate 39-12.
