Homeless Advocates Are Taking Houston's Cruel Food-Sharing Ban to Court
The ordinance also establishes a citywide program intended to distinguish between "charitable food services" such as Food Not Bombs and "recognized charitable food service providers," the latter, favored group including only people or organizations that have "received a certificate from the city designating said individual or organization as being in good standing in the City of Houston Recognized Charitable Food Service Provider Program."
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I first wrote about both awful prohibitions on sharing food with those in need and Food Not Bombs in a 2011 blog post for Hit & Run (R.I.P.). In that case, Orlando's own cruel food-sharing ban had resulted in the arrest of several local Food Not Bombs members. I've written about such bans many times since, and described them all as "unconstitutional, discriminatory, and wrongheaded."
Randall L. Kallinen, a Houston civil rights lawyer who filed the lawsuit this week, shares that assessment.
"Sharing food is a form of expression protected by the Constitution," Kallinen wrote to me in an email this week. "Likewise, Jesus taught his followers to feed the poor and others. Why should a few downtown Houston landowners that contribute to Mayor [Sylvester] Turner's elections campaign dictate the law under which all Houstonians must live[?]"
How difficult is it to get the certificate ?
and it is always amusing when some Progressives drags Jesus into their argument
The ordinance also establishes a citywide program intended to distinguish between "charitable food services" such as Food Not Bombs and "recognized charitable food service providers," the latter, favored group including only people or organizations that have "received a certificate from the city designating said individual or organization as being in good standing in the City of Houston Recognized Charitable Food Service Provider Program."
[clip]
I first wrote about both awful prohibitions on sharing food with those in need and Food Not Bombs in a 2011 blog post for Hit & Run (R.I.P.). In that case, Orlando's own cruel food-sharing ban had resulted in the arrest of several local Food Not Bombs members. I've written about such bans many times since, and described them all as "unconstitutional, discriminatory, and wrongheaded."
Randall L. Kallinen, a Houston civil rights lawyer who filed the lawsuit this week, shares that assessment.
"Sharing food is a form of expression protected by the Constitution," Kallinen wrote to me in an email this week. "Likewise, Jesus taught his followers to feed the poor and others. Why should a few downtown Houston landowners that contribute to Mayor [Sylvester] Turner's elections campaign dictate the law under which all Houstonians must live[?]"
How difficult is it to get the certificate ?
and it is always amusing when some Progressives drags Jesus into their argument
