Sign Codes

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A mobile billboard in Miami, Florida. Source: mobilebillboardmiami.com.

This post was authored by Otten Johnson summer law clerk Alex Gano.  Alex is a rising third-year law student at the University of Colorado Law School.

Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lone Star Security v. City of Los Angeles revisited an earlier opinion regarding the content neutrality of ordinances in five Southern California cities that banned mobile billboard advertising.  In upholding the municipal bans a second time, the court held that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert did not create heightened judicial scrutiny for restrictions on the “manner” of advertising.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit: Local Restrictions on “Mobile Advertising” Still Content Neutral post-Reed

This post was authored by Otten Johnson summer law clerk Matt Bender.  Matt is a rising third-year law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

A Tennessee case is inquiring into the “similarly situated” requirement for Equal Protection claims and will likely decide the constitutionality of the Tennessee Billboard Act (TBA).  While the outcome of the case is far from finalized, Thomas v. Schroer, which stems from the denial of the plaintiff’s sign application, has already raised some interesting questions about the reach of the First Amendment under Reed v. Town of Gilbert.
Continue Reading How Similar is “Similarly Situated”? And the Constitutionality of the Tennessee Billboard Act

This post was authored by Otten Johnson summer law clerk Matt Bender.  Matt is a rising third-year law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Herson v. City of Richmond was all set on October 21, 2014, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its first opinion on the case, affirming the dismissal of the plaintiff’s First Amendment claims.  However, after the United States Supreme Court decided Reed v. Town of Gilbert, the Supreme Court vacated the original Ninth Circuit Herson decision so that the case could be reconsidered under Reed.  A year and a half later on January 22, 2016, the Ninth Circuit again issued an opinion on Herson v. City of Richmond.  While the Supreme Court thought things had changed due to Reed, the Ninth Circuit apparently did not as this second opinion is word-for-word identical to the first.
Continue Reading A Pre-Reed Case Decided in a Very Similar Post-Reed World

In a case that we reported on back in March, the California Supreme Court denied to review a state appellate court decision upholding Los Angeles’s ban on off-premises billboards.  The billboard company that was the plaintiff in the case sought to have the California courts interpret the state’s constitution to prohibit the on-premises/off-premises distinction…

Last week, a federal district court in Indiana rejected a billboard company’s claim that sign code amendments passed by Indianapolis following the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert violated the company’s First Amendment rights.  Although the decision was a win for the city’s current code, the city is being forced to pay damages to the billboard company for the monetary losses faced by the company prior to the city’s passage of the sign code amendments.
Continue Reading Post-Reed Indianapolis Sign Code Amendments Survive Judicial Scrutiny; City Must Pay Damages for Past Errors

Following cross-motions for summary judgment, last week, a federal court determined that a Michigan township’s billboard restrictions were constitutional, but found that the variance provisions contained in the township’s zoning ordinance were an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.  In the same order, the court rejected a billboard owner’s regulatory taking, equal protection and unconstitutional tax claims.
Continue Reading Federal Court in Michigan Upholds Township Billboard Regulations, but Variance Criteria are too Subjective

The proposed billboard in this case was over three times the maximum sign area permitted by the City's sign code.
The proposed billboard in this case was over three times the maximum sign area permitted by the City’s sign code.

In a recent decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals, an applicant challenged a provision that gave the board of zoning appeals (BZA) discretion to approve signs that do not comply with the sign ordinance. The applicant, who had submitted an application for a sign that did not comply with the sign ordinance, brought an appeal to the BZA in accordance with a provision that said the BZA may grant a special permit for signs that do not otherwise comply only if the proposed sign meets certain specific standards. Those standards generally required that the sign be consistent with the purpose and intent of the sign code, be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, and not be detrimental to the public safety or welfare or any adjacent land use, but reserved the discretion to grant the special permit to the BZA. The applicant’s facial challenge alleged that the discretion to grant the special permit constituted a prior restraint that “has the potential for becoming a means of suppressing a particular point of view.” The court disagreed, noting that the applicant could have received a permit for a billboard that met the sign code without applying for a special permit (and thus being subject to the BZA’s discretion), and moreover that the discretion, absent any evidence of an unconstitutional application, was sufficiently limited by the requirement that a proposed sign meet the specifically enumerated standards for approval.
Continue Reading Optional “Special Permit” Process Does Not Place Unbridled Discretion in Government

Last month, a federal court held that a billboard company’s motion to revise the court’s earlier denial of summary judgment to a Pennsylvania township’s sign regulations was not ripe.

The billboard company, Nittany Outdoor Advertising, LLC, desired to post messages written by a non-profit organization, Stephanas Ministries, on billboards in College Township, Pennsylvania.  The township…

For those wading through the sign regulation muddle post Reed v. Town of Gilbert, check out my latest article in The Urban Lawyer, Sign Regulation After Reed: Suggestions for Coping with Legal Uncertainty.  Co-authored with Professor Alan Weinstein of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, the article provides practical advice to local government planners…