Item 24 - Ordinance Establishing Distance Requirements for Targeted Residential Picketing

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ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX AN URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA IN ACCORDANCE WITH SANTA ANA CHARTER SECTIONS 415 AND 417 TO ESTABLISH DISTANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR TARGETED RESIDENTIAL PICKETING WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana, California (“City”) is a municipal corporation, duly organized under the constitution and laws of the State of California; and WHEREAS, Section VII of Article XI of the California Constitution provides that a city may make and enforce within its limits all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws; and WHEREAS, demonstrators and protestors have a right, protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to express their views and to convey their message to both a general audience and a particularly targeted audience; and WHEREAS, persons and/or groups have a right to engage in picketing on public streets and sidewalks within residential areas; and WHEREAS, recently, an increasing number of picketers in the City of Santa Ana and surrounding areas have targeted specific residences (and, at times, on private property of the targeted residence), expressing their views at the targeted residence and captive audience therein; and WHEREAS, the City acknowledges that the act of picketing at, near, on or about a particular residence whose occupants do not welcome such activity is an invasion of residential privacy for its occupants and if picketers are positioned at, near, on or about a targeted residence, it becomes impossible for the occupants to access or leave their homes without having to confront picketers; and WHEREAS, the City acknowledges that the act of picketing at, near, on or about a particular residence whose occupants do not welcome such activity instills feelings of captivity, fear and intimidation to the target occupants; and WHEREAS, in developing this ordinance, the City has been mindful of legal principles relating to the regulations of targeted residential picketing and considered decisions in Carey v. Brown (1980) 447 US 455, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that the government’s protection of the “well-being, tranquility, and privacy of the home is certainly of the highest order in a free and civilized society” and that preserving “the sanctity of the home, the one retreat to which men and women can repair to escape from the tribulations of their daily pursuits, is surely an important value.”; and Frisby v. Schultz (1988) 487 US 474, the United States Supreme Court concluded that “There simply is no right to force speech into the home of an unwilling listener” and that the “devastating effect of targeted picketing on the quiet enjoyment of the home is beyond doubt”.; and City of San Jose v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County (1995) 21