Second Solicitation Lawsuit Filed Against Florida County

By DEBRA E. BLUM and GRANT WILLIAMS

A Florida county’s law requiring charities across the country to register with local officials before soliciting donations from county residents has been challenged in federal court for the second time.

The new lawsuit, among other things, attacks a Pinellas County requirement that a nonprofit organization register with the county if it receives a donation as a result of an Internet solicitation.

Two coalitions of charities — American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation and the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation — filed the lawsuit in Tampa, alleging that Pinellas County’s ordinance is “unduly burdensome,” duplicates many state regulations, unconstitutionally stifles free speech, and restrains commerce.

Also suing were Public Citizen, an organization founded by Ralph Nader that works to promote consumer rights, and Greenpeace, whose mission is to inform the public about environmental problems.

Carl Brody, an assistant county attorney for Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, said that the lawsuit had no merit. “The main goal is to make citizens of Pinellas County aware of who they are providing contributions to,” he said.

Pinellas County’s ordinance regulates fund-raising solicitations by requiring that both charities and fund-raising professionals register and pay fees annually, as well as report details of their finances, clients, officers, and fund-raising materials. More than 700 charitable organizations and fund-raising professionals are currently registered in the county.

Pinellas County is among many cities and counties that have enacted ordinances to crack down on what they perceive as a wave of fraudulent and misleading charity fund raising.

American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation was created to oppose laws that its supporters believe to be unreasonably onerous or restrictive. In 1997, the coalition took Pinellas County to federal court over the law’s requirement that fund-raising consultants must register with the county if any of their paying clients send fund-raising letters or make other appeals to county residents. The suit is pending.

In a statement explaining the new lawsuit, Public Citizen said, “Not only does the law require charities to provide highly detailed, burdensome, and invasive information as a condition of obtaining and keeping a license to solicit contributions from Pinellas County residents, it even gives the county discretion to deny groups the right to solicit donations based on a review of the wording of solicitation letters — a form of censorship.”

The lawsuit also charges that the county’s provision on Internet solicitations is particularly restrictive. The lawsuit said the ordinance applies “regardless of whether the charitable organization purposefully directs any solicitation, or gears its Web site, Internet advertising, or e-mail, toward Pinellas County residents.”

What’s more, Public Citizen said, “the law also requires nonprofits to register with the county simply because they receive an unsolicited contribution via the Internet, thereby sweeping within its reach charitable groups worldwide that have no connection whatsoever with the county.”

The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, is available at http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/PinellasComp.htm