Regarding lawn signs, the Mn Supreme Court has ruled on this in the past,
when some suburbs tried to ban them. They said that it was NOT
constitutional to ban political lawn signs, but that cities could pass
regulations limiting them, like limits on sign size & length of time they
were displayed. But they stressed that the regulations had to be
"reasonable", and not have the effect of banning signs.
So cities CAN put 'reasonable' time limits for lawn signs. Limits like the
current one, about 6 weeks before the primary and 12 weeks before the
general election, seem likely to meet the court's "reasonableness" test. I
don't think you'd get very far claiming that it's an unreasonable
restriction on your freedom of speech to not allow signs now, weeks the
legal filing period has even opened.
Besides, it's vanishingly rare for such laws to ever be enforced. Most
city or county attorneys would run like crazy from the political bees' nest
of such a case. The most I've ever seen was a letter, ordering a campaign
to remove their signs by a specified date, or face legal action. And the
date given was 2 days AFTER the election.
And people are very passionate about 'their' lawn signs. In my District, I
suggested that we should organize a post-election effort to go around and
pick up all the remaining Kerry lawn signs. I was roundly derided for
this, with many people saying they had 'paid good money for that sign, and
were going to leave it up as long as that idiot is in the White
House'. And there are still many houses in my neighborhood with such sign
still up.
In fact, you'd have a real hard time trying to get me to take down my
black-bordered Wellstone lawn sign.
Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson
REMINDERS:
1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If
you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL
PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn
E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[email protected]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
