The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) announced on April 21, 2022 that the traditional regulatory distinction between on-premises signs and off-premises signs (billboards) is content-neutral under the First Amendment.
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The recent Austin v. Reagan decision from the U.S. Supreme Court affects communities across the country and the way that sign companies can do business. Join this presentation to find out what the ruling means for sign regulations and your business model. Participants will also learn of other legal issues affecting the sign industry.
- Speakers: David Hickey, Vice President, Advocacy, International Sign Association, and Kenny Peskin, Director, Industry Affairs, International Sign Association
- Price: $0.00 for ISA members; $35.00 for non-members
A RECAP OF THE CASE
In City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had found in August 2020 that Austin’s sign ordinance was in violation of the Reed v. Town of Gilbert decision. The city’s sign ordinance allowed on-premise digital signs but prohibited digital billboards. The 5th Circuit decided that the difference in the two types of signs was content-based and therefore unconstitutional.
When the city of Austin appealed the Fifth Circuit’s decision to SCOTUS, ISA joined Scenic Texas and local chambers of commerce in filing a joint amicus brief urging the court to take up Austin’s case. When SCOTUS took ISA’s advice and granted Austin’s petition for certiorari in July 2021, ISA then wrote and submitted another “friend of the court” brief on behalf of the on-premise sign industry arguing that the Court should overturn the 5th Circuit’s decision.
On April 22, 2022, in a 6-3 decision, SCOTUS announced that the traditional regulatory distinction between on-premise signs and off-premise signs (billboards) is content-neutral under the First Amendment.
ISA has long argued that the traditional regulatory distinction between billboards and on-premise signs is location-based, not content-based, and that local governments should have the ability to treat on-premise signs different from billboards if they thought it was best for their communities.
“We submitted our briefs to educate the Court on the practical and legal differences between on-premise signs and billboards, and to point out the importance of on-premise signs to America’s small businesses, and it appears that the justices took our advice to heart,” said David Hickey, ISA’s vice president of advocacy. “Thanks to the Court’s decision in Austin v. Reagan, we will have regulatory certainty across the country and our industry can continue to succeed and grow.”
WHAT ISA IS DOING
ISA has long contended that the traditional regulatory distinction between billboards and on-premises signs is location-based, not content-based, and that local governments should have the ability to treat on-premises signs different from billboards if they thought it was best for their communities.
“We submitted our briefs to educate the Court on the practical and legal differences between on-premises signs and billboards, and to point out the importance of on-premises signs to America’s small businesses, and it appears that the justices took our advice to heart,” said David Hickey, ISA’s vice president of advocacy. “Thanks to the Court’s decision in Austin v. Reagan, we will have regulatory certainty across the country and our industry can continue to succeed and grow.”
While the Reed decision left some issues of sign regulation unanswered, the more focused issue in Austin has so far led to lower federal courts unanimously implementing the Supreme Court’s decision. This includes the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Adams Outdoor v. Madison and the remand decision in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Reagan v. Austin.
Other content-based questions involving sign codes remain, such as whether murals are art or signs, and whether commercial speech deserves the same level of constitutional protection as non-commercial speech.
ISA continues to monitor these legal developments and analyzing what they mean for the sign and graphics industry, and will keep members and the industry informed as we understand the implications more fully.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Research from the Sign Research Foundation
