▪ Ninth Circuit: Some Billboard Restrictions Violate First Amendment, Some Don't

In Desert Outdoor Advertising, Inc. v. City of Oakland, No 01-15501 (Oct. 30, 2007), the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld most of Oakland, California's billboard restrictions against a free speech challenge.  The court summarized the case:

Desert Outdoor Advertising, Inc., wants to display three billboards, each of which would be primarily viewed from a freeway, in Oakland, California. The City of Oakland has refused to permit the signs, citing specific City ordinances.  Desert filed this action to challenge those ordinances on First Amendment grounds, seeking injunctive relief and money damages. In particular, Desert argues that Oakland Municipal Code § 1501, which generally prohibits advertising signs designed to be seen from a freeway, favors commercial over noncommercial speech and imposes content-based restrictions on noncommercial speech. Desert also contends that Oakland Planning Code § 17.148.050(A), which limits advertising signs more generally, provides City officials with unbridled discretion to permit or deny the display of signs. Finally, Desert challenges the specific application of these ordinances to the signs it erected or attempted to erect.

The district court concluded that one provision of § 1501 was a content-based regulation of noncommercial speech in violation of the First Amendment. It severed this provision and held that the remainder of that ordinance, as well as § 17.148.050(A), was constitutional. Desert appeals. We affirm.

Full opinion here.