A recently enacted Mississippi law cracking down on panhandling is being challenged in court.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi (ACLU-MS) are asking a judge to put a pause on Mississippi’s “Safe Solicitation Act,” which went into law in July 2025. Specifically, the two organizations are suing the Capitol Police Department in Jackson and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
The Safe Solicitation Act was authored by Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, and passed in both chambers overwhelmingly before being signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, with proponents arguing that it will make communities safer. The measure created a permit system for public panhandlers, meaning people cannot solicit on public property without prior approval in participating cities.
SPLC and ACLU-MS officials took specific exception with a provision in the new law that allows municipalities to charge a $25 fee for panhandling permits, arguing that many homeless and poor people cannot afford to cover that cost, though municipalities are not required to opt in to the permit system.
Regardless, the organizations maintain that the constitutional rights of impoverished individuals are being infringed upon because some agencies, with Capitol Police being referenced, impose the $25 fee to hold signs or engage in other non-criminal acts to seek financial aid from the public.
“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness and poverty. Responding to homelessness with police and jails only fuels mass incarceration, keeping people in an endless cycle of poverty, incarceration and institutionalization,” ACLU-MS Executive Director Jarvis Dortch said.
“The First Amendment protects everyone’s right to ask for charity when we need help or have fallen on hard times. Housing, not handcuffs, is the solution to homelessness. Mississippi should invest in affordable housing to end homelessness, not criminalize speech,” SPLC Senior Supervising Attorney Micah West added.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees and operates Capitol Police, has not weighed in on the lawsuit at this time.
