Editorial: Constitutionally challenged

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

I n what has become a nasty habit, the Las Vegas City Council is flouting the U.S. Constitution in its attempts to run the homeless out of town, largely by restricting public parks to certain members of the public. In the council's view, the homeless are not part of the public.

As reported Monday by Mark Hansel in the Las Vegas Sun, council members have seen several of their attempts to restrict civil liberties shot down either in court or, thankfully, in challenges before the ordinances could be passed.

The most recent example is a proposed ordinance that would make it illegal for people older than 12 to be near play areas or water features of city parks unless they are the parents or guardians of the children playing there. Faced with objections - and, no doubt, the thought of 13-year-olds facing prosecution for hanging out at a park - a council committee delayed action on the proposal this month.

The committee should have killed the proposal, but there is a lack of understanding or respect for the Constitution in City Hall.

Last summer the council made it against the law to feed the homeless in a public park. By the fall a federal judge had ordered the city to stop enforcing the ordinance because of constitutional issues.

Council members have twice tried to pass a vague and clearly unconstitutional measure that would make gatherings in the city parks illegal if those gatherings cause a "disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of private or public property." Although the council may struggle defining what a disturbance is, anyone with a basic understanding of the Constitution would know that with such a proposal , the council is treading on the First Amendment right of assembly.

City leaders are embarrassingly spending too much time and taxpayer money creating and defending unconstitutional ordinances. They either don't know or don't care about the Constitution. That needs to change immediately.