In 2025, Mississippi passed a law requiring a permit for individuals to ask for money on the street - any street in the entire state. Violators, who will most often be unhoused people and panhandlers, face financial penalties and jail time, ensnaring some of the most vulnerable in our society in a cycle of arrest, fines and jail.

The ACLU of MS is looking for firm co-counsel to file a lawsuit in federal court challenging this law as unconstitutional.

This law violates the First Amendment because it is content-based and is not narrowly tailored. Federal courts apply strict scrutiny to such content-based regulations. Mississippi's new law cannot pass strict scrutiny because it is not narrowly tailored to achieve its purported goal of public safety. Requiring a permit to ask for money on every street in the state of Mississippi burdens much more speech than necessary to achieve public safety. Indeed, the state will be hard pressed to show that there is in fact a public safety issue on every street in the state.

A lawsuit challenging this new law will combat the criminalization of homelessness, help protect some of the most vulnerable in society, and vindicate the First Amendment.