LOS ANGELES, CA – Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the plaintiffs’ request for rehearing en banc in Comite de Jornaleros de Redondo Beach v. City of Redondo Beach, a challenge to an ordinance barring speech of day laborers seeking employment. The effect of today’s order is to render the panel decision of several months ago, which upheld the ordinance, of no further controlling effect. A larger en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit will rehear and reconsider the case, with oral argument set for March 2011.
Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF, issued the following statement in response to the ruling this afternoon in Comite de Jornaleros, et al v. City of Redondo:
“The Ninth Circuit decision to rehear en banc the 2-1 panel decision upholding Redondo Beach’s unconstitutional attempt to restrict the free-speech rights of day laborers is welcome and not unexpected. The two judges who voted to uphold the ordinance deviated from a long pattern of federal courts appropriately striking down such anti-solicitation ordinances as violating longstanding constitutional principle. We look forward to having the case considered anew by an en banc panel.”
Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) made the following statement:
“After years of organizing in defense of their constitutional rights, day laborers look forward to their next day in court. We have always known Redondo Beach’s ordinance is immoral because no one should be punished simply for seeking work in public.”
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