Salesmen fight for right to knock

Door-to-door salesmen are fighting back after many Utah cities told them to get off the front porch.

With "do-not-knock" lists multiplying across the state and a growing number of laws restricting door-to-door sales, cities have tried repeatedly to shut out solicitors along the Wasatch Front.

But now, a Davis County attorney is trying to pry open the door.

Craig Taylor is taking solicitation restrictions to court on behalf of cleaning product company Kirby of Utah and Idaho and several other distributors. Taylor has filed lawsuits against 25 Utah cities and counties including Salt Lake and Utah counties. Cities under fire for curbing solicitors' rights span from Logan to Sandy, and even to St. George.

"The lawsuits are an assertion of our clients' First Amendment commercial speech rights that are being overly burdened by oppressive ordinances by the cities," Taylor said. "It's just an attempt to keep out door-to-door soliciting."

Though the ordinances vary between cities, Taylor said the most common restriction is making salesmen undergo lengthy federal background checks and get a city license to pitch their product door to door. That license usually carries a fee, Taylor said, which could be the death blow to vendors relying on daily sales for a living.

"It would cost one solicitor over $43,000 a year to get licenses in every city from Logan to Spanish Fork," Taylor said. "I mean, come on, it's impossible. Our people can't do that."

Some cities like Draper have even started citywide do-not-knock lists where residents can sign up to blacklist solicitors from their property.

Draper's list, instituted only a month ago, already has 400 residents on it who can now report solicitors as trespassers to the police department. Draper's new ordinance also requires solicitors to be city licensed, but is actually a less restrictive version of the city's previous law that essentially banned door-to-door sales.

Eric Keck, Draper city manager, said the new rules give residents control over who can knock on their front door.

"It's nothing against these people's lifestyle, but we find there are a number of scams going on by the door-to-door people," Keck said. "They gave the whole soliciting industry a black eye."