Gaithersburg soon will become the first jurisdiction in Montgomery County to explicitly ban workers and contractors from soliciting business on the city’s streets, a move that is outraging the American Civil Liberties Union.
In passing the ordinance, the mayor and City Council voted 4-1 to expand the scope of unlawful loitering to prohibit anyone from seeking employment along roadways and in shopping center parking lots.
Although the law change applies to anyone, the ordinance unfairly targets day workers, many of whom are new immigrants, according to opponents of the legislation.
Meredith Curtis, a spokeswoman for the ACLU’s Maryland chapter, said her group believes it’s unconstitutional to limit speech in this manner to a small population such as these immigrant workers.
“We’re very concerned about it,” Curtis said. “What’s at issue is that a particular segment is being singled out for a ban.”
Mayor Sidney Katz said the justification for the ordinance expansion is to improve public safety and that the law won’t take effect until a new day labor center serving Gaithersburg opens next month.
“As we looked into the issue, there were many concerns voiced that with people looking for daily work, it was not an organized situation,” he said. “Basically this would create a safer situation for all involved. … We want the center to be successful and do what it’s set up to do.”
Curtis, in turn, said opening the day labor center is “certainly a good idea.”
“But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re limiting their freedom of speech,” she said.
Other jurisdictions in Maryland have prohibited standing in the street, but to ban people from verbally asking for employment crosses a different line, she said.
At this point, Curtis wouldn’t say whether the ACLU will take legal action to block the ordinance.
