FREE-SPEECH WATCH : Begging Off

The history of religious begging is a venerable one. In the West, Roman Catholic religious orders have for centuries taken vows of poverty; and the founding generations of the mendicant orders--notably the Franciscans--were literal beggars. For generations, in the Latin cultures most deeply marked by the mendicant ideal, the beggar on the church steps was a tolerated, if not exactly celebrated, figure. There were, however, no beggars on the church steps of Protestant Northern Europe.

The United States, though religiously tolerant, is culturally Protestant in its attitude toward begging. With a few tolerated exceptions, like Salvation Army Santa Clauses once a year, this country frowns on public, personal solicitation. What then of those who, practicing a very different, Eastern religion, presume to beg in the public setting of an American airport?

Friday, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishnas) may distribute leaflets in airports, but by a 6-3 vote it ruled that the group may not solicit funds inside the terminals proper.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the minority on the first decision, said: “The weary, harried or hurried traveler may have no less desire and need to avoid the delays generated by having literature foisted upon him than he does to avoid delays from financial solicitation.” No doubt; but once again, we applaud the practical wisdom of the court in finding a middle path that, albeit with an occasional sigh, a pluralistic society can walk.