New Law in Anaheim in Doubt After Krishna Victory on Solicitations

In striking down an Anaheim city ordinance regulating charitable solicitations, a federal appeals court also may have killed the city law enacted last November to replace it, a lawyer for the Hare Krishna group that won the federal case said Wednesday.

Los Angeles lawyer Barry Fisher, who has represented the Krishnas in similar cases over the last decade, said in an interview that the newer ordinance suffers from some of the same problems as the old law. City officials have contended that the new ordinance tightens up the language of the old one, giving city officials less discretion in deciding who or what group gets a permit.

Fisher has challenged the new law in a pending suit in Orange County Superior Court. He said he hopes the appellate court decision persuades the city to settle all the litigation.

The opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not only invalidated the old ordinance, it specifically found, contrary to a lower court ruling, that the Anaheim Stadium parking lot was a proper site for charitable or religious groups to ask for contributions.

No Immediate Plans

Alvin Marsden, the president of the Hare Krishna center in Laguna Beach, said Wednesday that the sect’s devotees had no immediate plans to solicit donations at the stadium and would not be present during tonight’s preseason football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the St. Louis Cardinals.

“We’re not able to move that fast,” he said. “We haven’t been able to solicit there since 1982. Now that we have permission, we have to make some plans.”

He did say, however, that he expects Krishna members to be in the parking lot for future football games and for California Angels baseball games, possibly as early as next week.

Devotees, he said, also are too busy preparing for their two-day “Festival of India” on Main Beach in Laguna Beach starting this Saturday. The Krishnas had sued the city after officials refused to allow the event on the beach, but the case was settled out of court, with no assurance that the group could have the site for next year’s festival.

“Even though everyone knows we’re entitled to these permits, we always have to put up a (legal) fight to get them,” Marsden said.

‘Immediate Concern’

In Anaheim, Deputy City Atty. Charles Redd said the 9th Circuit ruling creates “immediate concern” because the Krishnas, who possess a permit to solicit under the current ordinance, could “just show up” at the Rams game.

He said city attorneys hope to analyze the decision today to determine if the ruling on the stadium applies to the new ordinance as well. Then officials must come up with a plan by this afternoon to handle the possibility of the Krishnas’ appearance at the football game, he said.

Fisher and Redd had not received copies of the 9th Circuit opinion by Wednesday afternoon, and said they would have to read it carefully to determine what impact it has and what course of action they might follow.

But based on what he has learned about the decision, Fisher said, the opinion “is a very important decision in terms of helping municipalities and private stadium owners” decide what public areas are suitable for citizens to use in exercising their First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly and religion.

The ruling “has implications for Dodger Stadium, which is privately owned,” he said.

Forced to Allow Krishnas

Coupled with previous state Supreme Court decisions, the 9th Circuit opinion could mean that both publicly and privately owned stadiums throughout California may be forced to allow the Krishnas or others who seek charitable donations on their parking lots, Fisher said.

The court cases, including the 9th Circuit decision, have been limited to solicitation and free speech activity outside, not inside, buildings and other structures.

Fisher said the decision also seems to indicate that the revised ordinance suffers from some of the same defects as the one the court invalidated.

In a footnote, for instance, the court said the new ordinance “does not differ from the old ordinance in its failure to require a judicial hearing before final denial or revocation of a solicitation permit.”

Fisher said that “licensing has to be a ministerial act, with no discretion left to city officials to grant or deny permits.”

Redd acknowledged that city officials were not surprised at the finding that the old ordinance was invalid, partly because a Superior Court judge last fall had found the ordinance unconstitutional in a case involving another religious group.

But he was worried that the 9th Circuit opinion might be broad both in applying its decision to all religious and charitable groups and in opening the Anaheim Stadium parking lot to those groups.

The stadium issue arose only in the Krishna suit, he said.

Meantime, Anaheim Mayor Don Roth said he was “dismayed to no end” at the federal appeals court ruling.

Citing complaints from patrons about being pushed, intimidated and delayed by Krishna devotees in 1980-82, Roth said: “The purpose of the ordinance was to allow patrons to get into the stadium and see a ballgame (and not) be manhandled by the Hare Krishnas.”