03/05/2026
GOOD NEWS: The U.S. Supreme Court has left in place a ruling that protects rights of people experiencing homelessness to ask for help to meet their basic needs. This reinforces a basic understanding that asking for assistance is constitutionally protected speech.
Since 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center and co-counsel National Homelessness Law Center have represented Jonathan Singleton, an unhoused Montgomery resident who sought charitable assistance by holding signs such as “Homeless. Today, it is me. Tomorrow, it could be you.” Until the district court invalidated the laws, Alabama made it illegal to ask for financial assistance and those who did could face fines or jail time. In the two years before the SPLC filed its lawsuit, the city of Montgomery alone arrested or ticketed nearly 200 people for holding signs expressing that they needed support from their community.
Singleton and others settled the lawsuit against the city of Montgomery in 2020. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to stop arresting or ticketing people who asked for financial assistance, dismissed all pending charges in the Montgomery Municipal Court, and waived outstanding fines and court costs.
In September 2025, following the SPLC’s win in the Eleventh Circuit, the state filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Hal Taylor, the secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, seeking to overturn the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling.
The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection at Georgetown Law joined SPLC and NHLC as co-counsel in defeating the atate’s request for review by the Supreme Court.
https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/supreme-court-review-singleton-v-taylor/
