Delaware will no longer enforce its loitering and soliciting statutes after a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Delaware last year.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Food Not Bombs, a mutual aid organization that raises awareness about poverty and hosts public gatherings in Wilmington. The group offers resources and free meals to those in need at the events, and the ACLU says the organization was targeted by law enforcement several times using the statutes.
Continuum of Care, Friendship House and the NAACP joined as additional plaintiffs in October 2023.
The lawsuit contended the use of loitering and solicitation statutes is an infringement of First Amendment rights. The lawsuit also argued law enforcement disproportionately targeted unhoused populations and people of color.
ACLU of Delaware Legal Director Dwayne Bensing said he’s pleased Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings agreed to stop enforcing the statutes.
“It's been nearly two years of advocacy, of us reaching out for exactly this result, and it shows that the arc toward justice is long, but we get there.”
In a letter to the ACLU, Jennings said the Department of Justice will will propose legislation with constitutional protections and provide expungement opportunities for those convicted under the statutes.
Bensing said the way the laws are currently drafted leaves a lot of discretion to police officers.
“They're not doing any work now that the Attorney General has agreed not to rely upon them for enforcement activities,” Bensing said. “We should just strike them from the books altogether, and we should reaffirm our commitment to free public spaces, to a free country, not a police state.”
