Comite de Jornaleros de Redondo Beach v. City of Redondo Beach, 657 F.3d 936 (9th Cir. 2011) (en banc)

In May 1987, the City of Redondo Beach adopted an ordinance that prohibits any person to “stand on a street or highway and solicit…employment, business, or contributions from an occupant of any motor vehicle.” In 2004, the city initiated the “Day Labor Enforcement Project” in which undercover officers, posing as potential employers, arrested 35 day laborers “for soliciting from stopped vehicles.” In response to the arrests, the Comite de Jornaleros and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network filed suit, alleging that the ordinance is a facially unconstitutional restriction on day laborers’ and others’ first amendment rights. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment (over a “deep dissent” from Chief Judge Kozinski and Judge Bea), holding the ordinance to be facially unconstitutional because it was not narrowly tailored to achieve the city’s goals.