A Sign from Above
- From: Ed Chapin <edchapin01@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:14:47 -0700 (PDT)
As one raised in a military family, I journeyed through thirteen
different schools in ten different locales prior to graduation.
Subsequently, I have lost touch with nearly all of my classmates. One
of the few people I still associate with from those days is a guy I
have known for 30+ years and who lives a few towns over--a diligent
steward of the environment by trade, and sporadically active in local
and state politics over the years. To the chase, I stopped by today
and was offered a Barack Obama sign that he had picked up at the
campaign headquaters in Dover. It is a small sign, maybe 16" x 24",
and reads in fairly bold print:
Barack Obama
Presidend 2008
I have recently entertained the thought of using one of my living room
windows for political purposes, as the second-story location has the
potential to grab the attention of hundreds of cars backed up on my
short, but busy street each day. I accepted the sign and taped it to
the inside of my storm window. Looks nice, and given the location, is
immune from thievery, which is apparently a current problem in many
areas.
Out of curiosity, I then read up a bit on issues regarding campaign
signs. Seems as though many cities and towns around the U.S. have
unconstitutional ordinances pertaining to political signs displayed
from windows or yards of private residences. These constitutional
infringements include, inter alia: any limits on the duration of
display, unreasonable limits on the number of signs, requiring a
permit, and collecting a fee.
I found no such restrictions in my local ordinances, but decided to
pass this along in case someone here does live in a locale that
imposes one or more of these restrictions. The very strong current in
legal cases involving political signs displayed from private
residences is in the direction of free speech. The ACLU, e.g., has
been quite relentless in this area of constitutional law, successfully
challenging several of these types of cases in several states, with a
stated commitment to continue doing so. I'm not going to go off on a
long diatribe on legal matters I am not qualified to discuss, but the
overall jist of the collective rulings appears to me to be quite
straightforward; the 1st and 14th Amendments pack a lot of clout in
these matters.
See for yourself...
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legal_issues/legal_activities/policy_papers/kenney.htm
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14059
http://lw.bna.com/lw/19990216/1964.htm
Ed
.
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