1st Amendment and Free Speech/political signs in your yard

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Expert: - 11/1/2006


Question
Hi! I'm the president of a homeowners association, and in our Declarations of Restrictions it's states that you can only have 2 politcal (2ftx3ft) per lot. We have a homeowner that is saying this is an infrigement on his 1st amendment rights - and that he can post as many signs as he wants. Is this true? Thanks in advance for your time.  

Answer
Generally speaking, you cannot restrict the content of signs, but you can restrict signs generally.  If you limit political signs, but not other signs, that is usually considered content discrimination.  If you limit all signs of any content (including "for sale" or commerical signs) in the same way, that is usually considered legitimate.  There usually has to be some accomodation of signs, but reasonable content neutral rules are usually allowed.

The controlling Supreme Court Opinion on this topic is City of Ladue v. Gilleo.  You can read it here

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1856.ZS.html

I hope this helps!
- Mike  

1st Amendment and Free Speech

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Michael Troy

Expertise

I will answer general questions regarding freedom of speech, petition, or religion. I specialize in cases involving public employment or education, as well as issues related to campaign finance. But I can`t give specific legal advice involving specific cases you might have.

Experience

As an attorney for the Center for Individual Rights, I worked on a number of free speech cases, including Rosenberger v. Univ. of Virginia, in which the Supreme Court upheld my clients' right to run a student newspaper without discrimination because of its religious conent. I also worked on White v. Julian, which protected the right of people to protest against a homeless shelter in their neighborhood.

I also worked for the Federal Election Commission on several cases regarding the right to participate in the election process.

Organizations
Former Attorney for Center for Individual Rights.

Publications
Washington Post
Washington Times

Education/Credentials
J.D. from Univ. of Michigan Law School

Awards and Honors
Truman Scholar

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