Ninth Circuit

by Jeremy Leaming

While some lawmakers and politicians are working to end a few of the nation’s inequalities, like the one centering on the right of gays and lesbians to wed, others are keeping up the ignoble work of trying to hobble or defeat efforts to advance equality.

For example, in many of the states where marriage equality is advancing, special interest groups have mounted, or in the midst of doing so, campaigns to ensure that government recognition of marriage belongs exclusively to men and women.

After Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire enacted marriage equality legislation, social conservatives promised to gather enough signatures to place the newly gained civil liberty before the voters. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has endorsed placing civil liberties before the voters when he vetoed a bill allowing lesbians and gays to wed. (Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker took issue with Christie’s tactic, saying equal rights should never be placed before the whims of the majority.)

Religious right groups are also promising to topple the effort by Maryland to allow same-sex marriage. The Maryland Marriage Alliance, which calls itself a an “interfaith coalition dedicated” to keeping marriage an exclusive institution, has promised to launch a petition movement to place the law before voters, provided it passes the Maryland Senate and is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, both highly likely. The Maryland Senate passed a similar measure last year, and O’Malley (pictured) has said he would sign the new measure. The governor has also upped his involvement this time around – he’s sponsoring the equality legislation that is moving through the legislature.

Following the approval last week by the Md. House of Delegates, O’Malley applauded the outcome, saying the chamber had “voted for human dignity.”

The marriage alliance, a gathering of primarily evangelical Christian groups, issued a press statement decrying the House’s vote as undermining the exclusive definition of marriage and noting, “thankfully,” that the state “allows for a referendum process by a people’s vote, and we are committed, if needed, to bring this issue to the vote of the people of Maryland.”

Like the law enacted last year in New York, the Maryland marriage equality measure includes a provision granting an exemption for houses of worship to refuse to marry lesbians and gays. The Maryland Senate is expected, The Washington Post reports, to promptly take up the equality bill. The newspaper says the senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee and the full chamber “quickly could approve the bill” with the possibility of sending it to O’Malley by week’s end. The state is moving quickly to become the eighth one to allow lesbians and gays to wed, joining Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Iowa. The District of Columbia also recognizes same-sex marriage.

By Rebecca Smith, Coordinator, Immigrant Worker Justice Project, National Employment Law Project

For more than two centuries, especially in times of national political and economic upheaval, disenfranchised populations have taken to the streets and sidewalks to find jobs and to demand change. During that same period, it has been those most marginalized who have defended the bedrock right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. So it is fitting that day labor groups have achieved a reaffirmation of this Constitutional and human right in a recent opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Every day, some 200,000 workers search for day labor jobs or work as day laborers across the country. Just like the residents of Hoovervilles in the Great Depression, day laborers have become a symbol of much that is wrong with our society and economy – a national trend of reliance on a “just-in-time” workforce, where jobs are subcontracted out to the lowest bidder who pay rock-bottom (and often sub minimum) wages, and a reflection of a broken immigration system that excoriates those who are its victims. In today’s economic and political climate, day laborers are the quintessential example of jobless members of our society who most need the sidewalks to communicate.

For prospective employers, day laborers fill a niche labor market for which there is huge demand – as landscapers, household workers and home repair experts for urban and suburban families and businesses. For the workers themselves, day labor presents a daily opportunity to avoid destitution and a potential to make the transition to a more stable job.

Just like the Wobblies of a century ago – who engaged in free speech struggles up and down the Pacific Coast as they organized hobo workers – day laborers have become targets for those who would suppress their presence and their speech. Along with many cities nationwide, the city of Redondo Beach, Calif. passed an ordinance broadly outlawing solicitation of employment, business or contributions on city streets and sidewalks, citing supposed concerns about traffic safety and traffic flow. In 2004, the city began the Day Labor Enforcement Project. Undercover officers arrested dozens of day laborers.

But as we all know, the First Amendment protects speech regardless of the popularity of its content or its messenger. The workers sued to stop the arrests and uphold their right to search for work in public spaces. Last week, on the eve of Constitution Day, a full eleven-member panel of the Ninth Circuit held in the workers’ favor. In no uncertain terms, the Court said: “We agree with the day laborers that the Ordinance is a facially unconstitutional restriction on speech.” Guided by “well-established principles of First Amendment law,” the Court confirmed that day laborers have a Constitutional right to gather in public places and communicate their need for work.