Supreme Court Declares Chicago Anti-Gang Law Unconstitutional
The Supreme Court on this day struck down as unconstitutionally vague a Chicago ordinance restricting alleged gang activity, in Chicago v. Morales by a 6–3 vote.
The Gang Congregation Ordinance outlawed loitering by “criminal street gang members.” Police officers who observed an alleged gang member on the street with one other person were authorized to order them to disperse. If they failed to disperse the officer could arrest them under the law.
The Chicago Police Department had a formal policy designating areas targeted for enforcement, but the document was not made public, meaning that people had no idea where the law would be primarily enforced. The ACLU of Illinois brought the suit challenging the law and ultimately prevailed.
Justice Stevens for the Court: “This ordinance is therefore vague not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all.”
Listen to the oral arguments in the case: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1990-1999/1998/1998_97_1121
Read: Charles M. Katz and Vincent J. Webb, Policing Gangs in America (2009)
Learn more about gang-related laws across the country here