By The Vanguard Staff
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The ACLU of Northern California Friday applauded a decision by a San Francisco court to deny a motion for a preliminary civil injunction to ban four people forever from the Tenderloin District, a 50-square-foot block area.
The pleading, filed by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, would have singled out the four people in an area that is “abundant with services, businesses, and other opportunities that 
support marginalized communities,” said the ACLU.
The four people allegedly were involved in isolated drug transactions—all “low-level”—and should be “banished….forever,” said the city in their court filings.
The ACLU said the court “denied the motion because the solution was overbroad—instead of targeting the alleged unlawful conduct, it would have targeted people’s mere presence in the neighborhood.”
“As Judge Schulman recognized, the effort to exclude our clients from an entire neighborhood lacked precedent (and) would be an unconstitutional violation of our clients’ right to freedom of movement,” said Annie Decker, staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.
“We are grateful that the Court rejected the City’s massive overreach and its attempt to scapegoat four individuals for its own policy failures to address real needs in the Tenderloin. The City should instead work with the many community partners in the Tenderloin, including those who support our clients in this case, to find more effective solutions than what the City attempted here,” said the ACLU.
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