Your Legal Rights

If you simply cannot get the sign you need, and complying with the city’s code will leave you with an ineffective sign, it is a good idea to know some things about your legal rights.  Based on numerous U.S. Supreme Court decisions, your on-premise commercial sign is protected by the First Amendment.  It is speech – a civil right – and it may only be limited in certain circumstances. 

 

The sign code must be content-neutral regulation of time, place and manner (or size, height, placement and illumination) of display.  It can only control a sign’s content or restrict a sign’s size, height, placement and illumination in a way that makes the sign difficult to see and/or read if doing so serves a substantial government interest in a direct and material way, if the code is narrowly tailored to serve that interest, and if there is no other way to serve that interest without restricting speech even more. 

 

The sign code must allow you a realistic and effective alternative way of communicating to your customers. The restriction cannot be based on “common sense” or subjective personal tastes.  Instead, it must be based on scientific research and provable data.  If you challenge the law in court, the burden of proof is on the government, not on you.  If the municipality fails to prove to the court that its restrictions complied with these guidelines to protect your free speech rights, you may file a claim for a civil rights violation, and if the Court agrees, the municipality will be required to pay your legal fees and may also have to pay you damages.

 

Your sign is also protected by the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects you from being treated differently than others under the law.  Further, its due process clause protects you from a sign code with broad or arbitrary standards, with no provision for timely decision and appeal, or that grants too much discretion to the permitting authority.

 

How Can I Tell If a Sign Regulation Is Potentially Illegal?