Pubdate: Thu, 18 Oct 2001
Source: Cincinnati Post (OH)
Copyright: 2001 The Cincinnati Post
Contact:  http://www.cincypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/87

COURT OVERTURNS DRUG ZONE LAW

A Cincinnati ordinance prohibiting convicted drug offenders from 
entering ''drug-free'' zones was declared unconstitutional Wednesday 
by a 6-1 vote of the Ohio Supreme Court.

The city has not enforced the ordinance enacted in 1996 since a 
federal court last year also declared the practice unconstitutional.

The law attacks conduct that might be completely innocent, Chief 
Justice Thomas Moyer wrote for the majority.

''A person subject to the exclusion ordinance may not enter a 
drug-exclusion zone to speak with counsel, to visit family, to attend 
church, to receive emergency medical care, to go to a grocery store, 
or just stand on a street corner and look at a blue sky,'' Moyer 
wrote.

He said governments are entitled to attack the problem of 
drug-infested neighborhoods aggressively.

''When legislation addressing the drug problem infringes certain 
fundamental rights, however, more than a compelling interest is 
needed to survive constitutional scrutiny,'' he wrote.

The case involved the 1998 arrest of George Burnett on a drug-related 
charge. After his conviction, he was barred from a drug-exclusion 
zone in Over-the-Rhine for one year.

Burnett was arrested and charged with criminal trespass in the 
neighborhood in June 1998.

He appealed, arguing the law was unconstitutional.

A trial court and state appeals court both upheld Cincinnati's law.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh