A federal district court in Texas recently found that the City of Cedar Park’s sign code was content based and unconstitutional due to its failure to distinguish between commercial and noncommercial billboards. A billboard company sought permits to convert existing billboards to digital signs, as well as to erect new signs.  The city denied the permit applications for failure to comply with the city’s sign code, and the billboard company sued.  In its lawsuit, the…

This past summer, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that a billboard company’s challenge to a billboard restriction in Bellwood, Illinois was mooted by the fact that the company lost its lease on the property that it intended to construct a billboard.  The court affirmed dismissal of the company’s First Amendment, equal protection, and antitrust claims. In 2005, Paramount Media obtained leasehold rights to a property in the village abutting I-290, a high-traffic interstate…

In a case that we reported on previously, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has entered a ruling in favor of a group of animal rights activists that wished to protest the Barnum and Bailey Circus in a government-owned convention center and arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The facts of the case can be found in our earlier posts.  At issue on appeal were questions of whether the government could limit the area allowed for…

Last week, in a case that we reported on several years ago, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an Illinois village’s restriction on painted wall signs passes constitutional muster.  The case, which originated with a challenge by a local moving and storage company, confirms that restrictions on sign materials are generally content neutral and legally defensible. The facts of the case can be found on our original post.  In ruling on…

Earlier this summer, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Sandy City, Utah’s restriction on sitting or standing in a street median of less than 36 inches in width met constitutional muster.  Although the regulation was principally aimed at addressing panhandling activity, the court found the regulation to be content neutral, affirming an earlier district court ruling in the case.  The court’s decision appears to offer an avenue for local governments to address safety…

We take a break from our regularly-scheduled program to advise our readers of a webinar that will be hosted by our friends at the American Planning Association’s Planning and Law Division: Gentrification, Displacement, and the Law Thursday, October 10, 2019 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. CT CM I 1.50 I Law CLE 1.50 through Illinois State Bar Gentrification is one of the complex planning challenges of our times, but the legal limits on how local communities can respond to…

Earlier this month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Tennessee’s outdoor advertising statute, finding it to be content-based in violation of the First Amendment.  The court’s ruling affirms an earlier ruling by a federal district court. A billboard owner challenged the Tennessee Billboard Act after he posted a sign supporting the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team.  The sign was located on vacant land, and the owner had failed to secure a permit from the…