At Professor Mead’s urging, Toledo City Council unanimously repealed several local restrictions on charitable solicitation Tuesday evening.  First, Toledo repealed a law that requires any nonprofit seeking donations to apply for a permit every month.  Toledo’s permit law and other municipal regulations of charities had been discussed by Professor Mead on the Nonprofit Law Professor Blog, (where he serves as contributing editor) and at a presentation to a national research conference on nonprofit organizations in November.

Second, Toledo repealed a set of restrictions on panhandling, making it the fourth Ohio city (following Akron, Dayton, and Fairlawn) since May to repeal an anti-panhandling law.  The argument against the anti-panhandling law drew on a series of Professor Mead’s articles as well as a lawsuit against the City of Akron that was co-counseled by the Cleveland-Marshall Civil Litigation Clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.