Judge hears arguments on house sticker law

BRISTOL, R.I.—A law allowing police in a beach town to place orange stickers on homes that have hosted loud parties creates a “system of public humiliation” and unfairly targets and shames college students living there, a lawyer told a federal judge Tuesday in urging that the ordinance be struck down.

The Narragansett law, passed in 2005, was intended to curb raucous gatherings among University of Rhode Island students who rent off-campus homes there. The law allows police to place 10-inch-by-14-inch stickers on the front doors of properties where loud parties involving five or more people have occurred.

The first sticker carries a warning, while the next noise violation carries a $300 fine. About 350 stickers have been issued in the last four and a half years, said H. Jefferson Melish, a lawyer representing URI students who sued last summer with the backing of the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The stickers remain posted for the entire school year, and defacing them carries a $100 fine.

Students who receive them can have their names forwarded to the university and can be prosecuted for municipal violations if they have repeat noise violations, Melish said. Landlords who get the stickers say they can make it difficult to rent out their properties to potential new residents.

“The town is punishing landlords,“ Melish said, “punishing people who rent and have the house - whether they did anything wrong or not, whether they were at the location when there was a disturbance.“

But town lawyer Marc DeSisto said noisy parties among students and seasonal renters have been a constant problem and impede the quality of life for year-round residents. Relations between the town and students at URI, whose main campus is in nearby South Kingstown, have been tense for years, lawyers for both sides said.

DeSisto said the stigma of receiving stickers is not so great as to make the law unconstitutional. And he said the law didn’t deprive anyone of constitutional rights; people can gather with friends, he said, but they just can’t break the law by allowing public drunkenness, underage drinking or excessive noise.

He said the law applied to all residents, not just students.

“If anyone engages in this, they have a problem,“ DeSisto said. “If I own my home for 20 years and I have a party with all this stuff, then I’m subject to it.“

U.S. District Judge William Smith, who heard arguments in a packed courtroom at the Roger Williams University School of Law, said he hoped to rule within 60 days.