Abstract
In the aftermath of Reed, municipal officials face the question of how to regulate signs to promote legitimate governmental purposes without violating the First Amendment.
This article first seeks to provide answers to this important question by providing a historical context for the Reed v. Town of Gilbert decision by examining several earlier Supreme Court decisions that considered the constitutionality of sign regulations and the principles it used to determine when these laws violated the Free Speech Clause.
Secondly, the article examines several Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and Federal District Court, post-Reed, decisions that have interpreted and applied the 2015 opinion to recent challenges to sign regulations. Third, the article turns its attention to Reagan National Advertising of Austin v. City of Austin, a recent case in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Federal District Court ruling that the city’s billboard regulations were facially content-neutral and constitutional. The article will conclude by discussing the impact that Reed has on a municipality’s ability to use its police powers to regulate the presence of signs within its jurisdiction.
Recommended Citation
James V. Ferolo, J. A. Wall & Jonathan M. Priest,
Municipal Sign Ordinances in the Post-Reed World: How Can Municipalities Continue to Regulate Signs Without Violating the First Amendment?,
46
S. Ill. U. L.J.
711
(2022).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol46/iss4/5