Gaithersburg anti-solicitation law spurned by AG

The measure makes curbside hires a misdemeanor for both hirers and workers. However, they agreed to delay enforcing it until the county opened its day-laborer center just outside city limits. The center opened in April.

When Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy expressed reservations, the city called for Gansler to weigh in. His opinion is non-binding.

Coming on the heels of the city’s inability to establish a day-laborer center within its borders, the law touched off a heated and public debate, with the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant advocates Casa of Maryland blasting the law as racist and discriminatory.

‘‘The thing to take from this is that the First Amendment applies to everybody – not just citizens, not just you or me, not just property owners, but everybody,” said Maryland ACLU attorney David Rocah. ‘‘That’s what protects all of our rights.”

Stalwart in the law’s defense, city leaders have been adamant that it aims only at improving pedestrian and vehicle safety, powers which former City Attorney Cathy Borten said should fall under a municipality’s purview.

Gansler’s 14-page opinion, issued Feb. 27, agreed that the law is ‘‘content neutral,” but found that it is ‘‘not narrowly tailored to serve the designated purposes of public safety and traffic flow.”

‘‘In our view, the ordinance would not survive constitutional challenge,” read the opinion.

That comes as little surprise to city leaders, who earlier this year began considering alternatives in helping create ‘‘the safest situation for all involved — the neighborhood, the workers, people looking for workers,” Katz said.

In that, City Councilman Henry F. Marraffa Jr. railed against Gansler’s opinion, saying it was more about ‘‘caving in to the politically correct illegal [immigrant] movement” at the expense of the safety and aesthetic issues that Olde Towne Gaithersburg has faced.

‘‘My first response is to the constituents in the neighborhoods bordering these areas, and I will do everything in my power to protect those neighborhoods,” he said.

Immigrant advocates are heralding Gansler’s opinion as a key victory amid Maryland’s increasingly contentious immigration debate — and a message to others that might be contemplating similar steps.

‘‘We think the passage of the ordinance was a manifestation of rating those voices as though they were legitimate,” said Casa activist Kim Propeack. ‘‘... And just as we’ve seen in other parts of the country, this position by the Attorney General underscores that there are constitutional limits on what local officials can get done.”