ACLU wants 304 Colorado communities to drop panhandling bans

The American Civil Liberties Union wants 34 Colorado cities and towns to get rid of ordinances that bar panhandling.

The ACLU sent letters to the communities across the state on Wednesday asking them to scrap the laws and not enforce them in the meantime.

Last year, the ACLU successfully blocked a Grand Junction law that limited when and where people could ask for money. Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs changed their similar laws or stopped enforcing them following that ruling.

The ACLU says the laws it’s challenging now are much more restrictive and make it illegal to ask for charity anywhere at any time.

It’s not clear how many of the communities are enforcing them. The ACLU reviewed court records for 10 of them and found eight have been.