In August, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision holding that the Philadelphia airport’s advertising policy was unreasonable in light of the purposes of the advertising space, in violation of the
The editor and authors of the Rocky Mountain Sign Law blog are pleased to announce that we will be participating in several upcoming programs on the topics of sign regulation and other free speech and land use matters. We hope that our readers will have the opportunity to attend or tune into one of these
In a case that we reported on last year, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a federal district court’s decision to dismiss a case involving an illuminated peace sign high above the sidewalks of New York City. Bridget Vosse desired to display a lighted peace sign from her condominium in the
In 2014, a labor union decided to protest the practices of an employer in Grand Chute, Wisconsin by placing large inflatables in public right-of-ways. These inflatables included a giant rat and a large cat wearing a suit and strangling a worker. Grand Chute’s sign code prohibited the placement of private signs in the right-of-way. After the town government took enforcement action against the union, a federal district court denied the union’s request for a preliminary injunction and granted summary judgment in favor of the town.
On appeal from the summary judgment order, however, Judge Easterbrook, writing for the panel, questioned whether the case involved a live controversy.
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: Wisconsin “Rats and Cats” Case May Be Moot
Late last month, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision finding that a New Hampshire law prohibiting digital photography of completed election ballots violated the First Amendment. In the case of Rideout v. Gardner, the court found that the law was not narrowly tailored to a significant governmental interest, and therefore failed intermediate scrutiny review.
The New Hampshire law in question was commonly referred to as the “ballot selfie” law, since it prohibited individuals from taking cell phone photographs of themselves with their completed ballots. The law was a 21st century update of an earlier state law dating back to the late 1800s
Continue Reading First Circuit Rejects New Hampshire “Ballot Selfie” Law
Halloween is a time for ghouls, goblins, monsters, and . . . scary sign regulation problems.
An interesting Halloween tradition in West Hartford, Connecticut has taken on a political dimension in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Matt Warschauer has constructed,
Late last month, a federal district court in Louisiana upheld the City of Shreveport’s ban on door-to-door commercial solicitation, finding that the ban was supported by a substantial governmental interest in community safety, and further finding that the ban directly advanced the government’s interest. The plaintiff, Vivint Louisiana, LLC, is a maker and seller of
In a surprising decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court found earlier this month that a township ordinance prohibiting digital billboards violated the free speech provisions of the U.S. and New Jersey constitutions.
Franklin Township, New Jersey, a suburban community in Somerset County, enacted sign regulations that allowed billboards in zoning districts near interstate highways. The regulations prohibited digital billboards. The township justified its regulations on the basis of traffic safety and aesthetics. Various township bodies suggested that the ban on digital billboards was enacted because the township did not have sufficient information on the safety of digital billboards in order to craft appropriate regulations. Because state law imposes dispersal requirements on billboards, it was established that the township could have just three static billboards and just one digital billboard.
In 2009, E&J Equities sought a variance to allow the placement of a digital billboard in the township. Because digital billboards were not allowed, the request was brought before the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment. The ZBA did not approve the application.
Thereafter, E&J brought an action against the township in state trial court. The trial court found that the township failed to meet intermediate scrutiny
Continue Reading New Jersey Supreme Court: Digital Billboard Ban Unconstitutional
The City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania enacted a “buffer zone” ordinance that disallows an individual to “knowingly congregate, patrol, picket or demonstrate in a zone extending 20 feet from any portion of an entrance to, exit from, or driveway of a health care facility.” A group of plaintiffs, protesters and sidewalk counselors near abortion clinics, challenged
Last month, a federal magistrate judge in New York recommended invalidating yet another sign code as content based in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In February 2015, a resident of the Village of Perry, New York, Carolyn Grieve, posted signs complaining about the village’s spending policies. Grieve received a notice of