Sandy Springs City Council approved three new ordinances that city attorney Dan Lee said would give the police department a greater ability to protect First Amendment rights, but critics said they would infringe on those rights.
The ordinances ban the overnight door-to-door soliciting and canvassing, require a buffer zone for entrances to private property, and set a buffer zone for people who don’t want to be accosted, Lee said. He said the ordinances were content-neutral.
The overnight door-to-door soliciting and canvassing passed by a vote of 5-1, with Council member Jody Reichel voting against it. The buffer zone for private property entrances passed unanimously. Reichel and council member Melody Kelley voted against the buffer zone for persons who don’t wish to be accosted, which passed by a 4-2 vote.
Sandy Springs used draft ordinances developed by the Anti-Defamation League to create its ordinances. Council members, local residents, and the ACLU of Georgia said the ordinances may violate First Amendment rights and may lead to legal challenges.
“We share your dismay at the distribution of antisemitic propaganda across the City of Sandy Springs and metro Atlanta more broadly. We write to express our deep concerns that, despite their good intentions, the ordinances would violate speakers’ right to free speech,” the ACLU of Georgia wrote in a letter to the city council.
The overnight solicitation/canvassing ordinance would ban those activities in any residential neighborhoods between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Current law bans those actions where property owners post signs against solicitation. That includes entire neighborhoods, even if a no solicitation sign is posted at their entrances, Lee said.
Sandy Springs resident Mike Petchenik said he supports steps to prevent spreading propaganda. His neighborhood was among those that a neo-Nazi group papered with hate-filled leaflets that he said sought to sow fear in the Jewish community. Sandy Springs Police officers told him they could do little because the messages didn’t overtly threaten anybody.
“As a recovering journalist and a proponent of free speech, I would ask you to proceed with caution and not to throw out the baby with the bathwater,” Petchenik said.
Petchenik asked the council to carve out an exception for legitimate media outlets and legitimate free speech. as not to restrain freedom of the press in the name of stopping antisemitism.
Council member Jody Reichel said she was concerned that the ordinance would violate First Amendment protections, which could lead to a lawsuit.
“I have lived in Sandy Springs for over 30 years. In that time, I have not seen this as a major issue facing our residents. I’d rather see our energy focused on matters that truly need attention such as expanding our parks and recreation, building owner-occupied housing, and development of City Springs 2,” Reichel said.
Sandy Springs police often cite people with municipal disorderly conduct charges because the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and Solicitor’s Office are too crowded with cases, and handling the case in Sandy Springs Municipal Court is quicker. Adopting the new ordinance for a buffer zone at property entrances also helps the police with a better definition of disorderly conduct.
Lee and Police Chief Ken DeSimone said the city had problems with crowds of protests blocking entryways at the Indian and Nigerian consulates. The ordinance offers instructions on what protestors can do and gives direction to police.
The third ordinance establishes an eight-foot buffer between someone speaking and promoting the delivery of pamphlets, brochures, or an idea and someone who tells them they are not interested in getting information.
“The Supreme Court has established many times that persons have a right to be free from being accosted, just as much as a person has a right to free speech. And this, we believe, is an ordinance that gives balance to that,” Lee said.
The buffer applies to any place in the city where people are in the same common area where they have the right to be. Someone handing out pamphlets doesn’t have to get permission before making the offer, but if the person they approach tells them they don’t want it, they must give them space.
The ACLU of Georgia said in its letter that the buffer zone ordinance’s broad prohibitions on passing leaflets, displaying signs, or engaging in protest “burden substantially more speech” than is necessary to further that interest to protect the public.
Council member Melody Kelley said she respected the spirit of the ordinances but not the language. She said she wants to protect schools, places of worship, and first responders. If the language of this buffer ordinance was specific to those goals and not applied across the city, she could have supported it.
