City Can Enforce Ban on Job Seeking in Streets

Redondo Beach police can now enforce a 23-year-old local law that prohibits day laborers from seeking jobs on the city's streets.

A federal appeals court ruled that the law can be enforced after it reversed a lower-court decision. City officials said the ordinance would help ensure traffic  safety and reduces nuisance crimes.

The appeals court said the law was a reasonable response to traffic congestion. Redondo Beach officials said the traffic problems are caused when job seekers gather at city intersections.

The law was passed in the 1987 but enforced for the first time six years  ago, when when Redondo Beach police ran an undercover sting that resulted in  the arrests of 60 day laborers.

The "Comite de Jornaleros de Redondo Beach" and the National Day  Laborer Organizing Network challenged the ordinance in federal court. U.S.  District Judge Consuelo Marshall decided against the city in 2004, and ruled  that the law violated First Amendment free-speech rights.

The ordinance was originally modeled after a Phoenix ordinance upheld by  the same court. That ordinance prohibits anyone from standing on a street or highway and trying to solicit employment or money from anyone in a motor vehicle.