Photo: Banbillboardblight.org
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that municipal ordinances banning mobile billboards do not violate the First Amendment.
Santa Clarita and three other defendant cities – Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga and Loma Linda – were vindicated by a three-judge panel that upheld an earlier district court ruling.
Mobile billboards are signs affixed to or pulled behind trucks or trailers and parked or left standing on public streets.
The Legislature enacted laws between 2010 and 2012 that allowed cities to regulate mobile billboards on grounds they create blight, endanger motorists and pedestrians, and reduce available on-street parking. The four cities subsequently banned them.
Mobile billboard owners Lone Star Security & Video Inc. and Sami Ammari sued on grounds that barring them from using the boards to advertise their security business and political causes infringed on their free-speech rights.
The court disagreed, saying the ordinances were narrowly tailored to serve the governments’ “aesthetic and safety interests,” and that the plaintiffs have other communication options.
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1 Comment
Finally level heads prevail. These things trash up a neighborhood where the sign owners don’t live. I bet they don’t put one in their neighborhood.