Judge strikes down N.Y. village's sign ordinance
By The Associated Press
07.09.02
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — A federal judge struck down the village's sign ordinance, ruling that it violates the First Amendment by making content-based distinctions about which signs require permits.
U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue upheld the legal challenge by Peter Savago, who had hung a 4-by-25-foot sign from his New Paltz building on Sept. 11. The sign depicted two American flags and said: "Keep looking over your shoulder terrorists — we're coming for you. God bless America."
Savago took the sign down in December, but said he intends to display it again should the U.S. face another terrorist attack.
The village amended its sign ordinance Jan. 9, requiring permits for erecting or altering signs, with exemptions for real estate, construction, historical, traffic and municipal signs, posters, and small non-commercial signs.
Savago argued in federal court that he'd now have to get a permit subject to the "whim" of New Paltz officials, chilling his and others' right to free speech.
New Paltz attorneys argued that the ordinance doesn't actually prohibit any class of signs, but only regulates their size and duration.
Mordue, however, rejected this argument, ruling that the law is a content-based restriction on speech.
"Content-based regulation of speech presumptively violates the First Amendment," Mordue wrote, citing Supreme Court decisions. "To withstand strict scrutiny, the ordinance must be shown to be necessary to serve a compelling governmental interest and narrowly drawn to achieve that end."
Mordue struck down the entire sign regulation section of the village zoning ordinance, enjoined New Paltz from enforcing it, and said in the July 3 ruling that he would address the issue of damages later.
"New Paltz is considered an open-minded and liberal college town, but it caved in and trampled on the Constitution when tourists complained about the sign," said Stephen Bergstein, attorney for Savago. "Big Brother cannot pick and choose what speech it will tolerate. That is what happened here."
A call to New Paltz's attorneys was not immediately returned.