One of my favorite articles I write toward the end of each year (or when I’ve been unduly procrastinating around the first of the new year) for Billboard Insider is to recount the various news, developments, cases, and statutes involving billboard law from around the Country during the year. And, then I boldly prognosticate for the upcoming year my predictions for the legal side of the billboard industry.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but it turns out my annual predictions for 2025 and lately in general have actually been pretty accurate. However, I’m not patting myself on my back too vigorously, as it doesn’t take a crystal ball to figure out these types of obvious legal trends in the industry. For example, the so-called “Infrastructure and Jobs Act,” actually passed prior to 2025 during Biden’s term, poured billions into federal highway construction and improvement, prompting an influx in the condemnation of billboards and other properties acquired adjacent to the highways. This dramatic increase in eminent domain litigation involving billboards inevitably resulted in cases across the Country developing different standards for the characterization and valuation of condemned billboards. Of course, President Trump commenced his second term in 2025, and he proclaims a similar affection for infrastructure improvements and the use of eminent domain (remember “The Wall”). So, I predict this trend toward increased condemnation litigation will continue throughout 2026 as well.
Similarly, the demise of the so-called administrative or “Deep State” seemed inevitable as well, and it was on full display throughout 2025. Society in general has become intensely suspicious of excessive government intervention, especially when from unelected bureaucrats perceived as unfairly dictating personal choices. During the second Trump administration, politicians have effectively exploited this administrative overreach, rendering it popular to cut personnel from or even eliminate federal agencies and departments, such as the Department of Education. So far, I haven’t seen any reason to suspect the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration may be vulnerable, or that the Federal Highway Beautification Act may be in similar jeopardy. Nevertheless, I predict this type of general distrust for administrative agencies, heretofore manifested at the federal level, in 2026 will expand to those in the various states as well, including to the state departments of transportation.
Finally, the threats to the First Amendment, and therefore concern over what the billboard operator must display or can refuse to display on his billboard, seemed to be at an all-time high in 2025. The industry just endured nearly a decade of litigation and legislation over content-based challenges to sign regulations; specifically, whether the businesses, goods or services displayed on the sign are located on the same or different premises. The Supreme Court’s decisions in Reed v Gilbert to Reagan v Austin seemed to resolve this constitutional conflict, but the lower courts continue to examine content based sign codes under less rigorous intermediate scrutiny. Now, however, the controversy seems to be from more direct governmental impairment of Free Speech, and from both sides of the political aisle. For example, President Trump’s proliferation of defamation cases against the “Fake Media,” the ban of Tik Tok during the Biden administration, and the cancellation and deplatforming of social media accounts by Face Book and You Tube signal concern to the billboard industry as well. Ultimately, billboards are a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment; so, there’s a slippery slope from the forms of social, print, and broadcast media to outdoor advertising. I predict, therefore, that the threats will continue, the controversies will intensify, and the litigation will increase over Free Speech and the First Amendment in 2026.
And, on that happy note, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!
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