Featured Inquiry (12/18/06)

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Question

Can a city or county enforce an ordinance that makes all uninvited commercial solicitation a public nuisance?

Answer

Ordinances that broadly prohibit door-to-door soliciting, sometimes called "Green River" ordinances (after a city in Colorado whose anti-soliciting ordinance had been challenged and upheld), were at one time very common. However, more recent court decisions have raised doubts as to whether such ordinances would be similarly upheld today.

A federal court decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a city ordinance that prohibited door-to-door solicitation unless the homeowner placed a "solicitor's welcome" sign on their door was an unconstitutional infringement of free speech rights. The court held that the ordinance did not provide the least restrictive alternative available to accomplish the legitimate governmental interests of protecting residential privacy and preventing crime.

Some jurisdictions still have these types of broad prohibitions in their ordinances and may therefore be subject to similar court challenges. This does not mean that cities and counties cannot regulate peddlers or solicitors at all. Cities and counties may still require commercial solicitors to register and obtain a license. These ordinances can also contain more limited prohibitions, such as prohibiting solicitors from contacting residences that have posted "no soliciting" signs.

For more information and some sample ordinances, see MRSC's Web page on "Regulation of Peddlers, Solicitors, Temporary Merchants and Mobile Vendors."