Regarding "Hoping OKC's panhandling ordinance survives challenge" (Our Views, Nov. 11): The ordinance criminalizes “standing, sitting, or staying” on public medians throughout the metropolis, including on the beautiful landscaped public spaces running through the historic neighborhoods at its heart.

By its broad terms, the measure banishes from the literal center of the public square not only the panhandling that many find discomforting to confront on their daily commute. It also sweeps away from those highly visible spaces the charitable solicitations of firefighters and the grassroots speech of political candidates and other engaged citizens who might lack the means to fund mass media campaigns or who might wish to take part in a time-honored tradition in our democracy.

Along with the ACLU and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, I represent a cross-section of the Oklahoma City community whose First Amendment freedoms are substantially burdened by the ordinance. Our plaintiffs challenging it include panhandlers, a former candidate for state office, the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma, a news organization, and ordinary individuals who jog and visit with their fellow citizens on neighborhood medians.

However, I write not as a volunteer attorney but as a law professor at the University of Oklahoma. For more than a decade, I have had the privilege of teaching future lawyers and leaders of our communities the First Amendment principles that protect the people by ensuring that the robust exchange of ideas essential for democratic self-governance is not stifled by those who wield the levers of power.