Billboard companies have been persistent in challenging local zoning ordinances dealing with signs for many years now. In a case decided August 10, 2023, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Troy, Michigan, in...more
Sign law is a historically convoluted and ever-evolving legal topic. The court system is continuously issuing decisions expanding and restricting the scope of the government’s authority to regulate signage in an attempt to...more
Lawful or Landmine? Court Rules on First Amendment Snares - Municipalities throughout the country regulate signs and set policy for flag-flying on public property. Done right, these are lawful functions of local...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion on April 21 addressing the regulation of “off-premises” signs, holding that such regulations are not subject to strict scrutiny under the First Amendment. City of Austin v. Reagan...more
The US Supreme Court decided City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Austin yesterday. The case got the Court back into deciding what kinds of outdoor signs can be regulated. You might think that driving down the...more
Court Invalidates Common Sign Ordinance on First Amendment Grounds - A federal appeals court cited the First Amendment in invalidating some portions of the City of Troy, Mich.’s sign ordinance that are very common to many...more
First Amendment challenges to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) are in the midst of a revival. The TCPA makes it unlawful to call or text a cell phone using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) or...more
Are we heading for a constitutional showdown over Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act? Will the Supreme Court strike down this prohibition on disparaging marks as an abridgement of First Amendment rights? It is certainly...more
Two recent Supreme Court decisions provide timely guidance on the First Amendment implications of publicly displaying the Confederate Flag or other symbols or signage related to protected beliefs. First, in Walker v. Sons of...more
Local agencies urged to review sign codes in favor of content-neutral rules - The United States Supreme Court recently struck down portions of an Arizona town’s sign code that subjected ideological, political and...more
In the case of Reed v. Town of Gilbert, the United States Supreme Court recently issued a significant decision regarding municipal sign regulation The Town of Gilbert regulated signage differently based on the content of the...more
Last week, we reported on the potential impact of Reed v. Gilbert, the sign regulation case that has municipalities across the nation concerned about the enforceability of local sign ordinances. This week, we’re happy to...more
The Supreme Court of the United States handed down today an important First Amendment case concerning governments’ ability to regulate commonly displayed informational signs. In Reed v. Town of Gilbert,...more
On June 18, 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided Reed v. Town of Gilbert, No. 13-502, holding that a municipal code subjecting signs to different regulations depending on whether the sign displayed an ideological...more