Legal

Johnson City TN Wants Lamar to Remove Billboard By Sept. 1

The Johnson City Press reports that after recently being approached by Lamar about entering into a new contract for a billboard location, Johnson City, TN city officials realized the structure was on city property and have asked that it be removed by Sept. 1. The history is that Lamar originally […]

Rothfelder On Political Billboard Advertising

Billboard Insider gets a lot of questions from readers, and especially in light of the upcoming election, on political billboard advertising in particular. Here’s a recent example: “We have a person here in Vegas that wants to run some pro Trump messaging on our units. He is not affiliated with […]

OSHA fines and out of home

Insider reviewed 81 OSHA citations written to display advertising companies (NAICS Code 541850) for the last 24 months (January 2018 to January 2020).  Three takeaways. Citations declined in 2019 versus 2018.  OSHA wrote $49,000 in fines against display advertising companies in 2019 versus $179,000 in fines during 2018.  The large […]

Supreme Court Declines to Review Thomas Case

The US Supreme Court declined to review the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that Tennessee’s billboard law was unconstitutional.   The ruling invalidated Tennessee’s sign code.  On June 25, 2020 Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee signed legislation to revise Tennessee’s sign rules to fix the […]

Rothfelder On the Texas Fix for Tennessee – Part 2

Yesterday, I reported on Part 1 of the Tennessee Billboard Law Fix, under which Governor Bill Lee signed into law an amendment to Tennessee’s Highway Beautification Act, thereby “curing” the First Amendment defects found by the District and Circuit Courts in Thomas vs Bright. However, while the Tennessee Act is […]

Rothfelder On Tennessee’s Billboard Law Fix

As Billboard Insider reported in its June 25th edition, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law last week HB 2255, which is designed to fix the First Amendment challenges to Tennessee’s version of the Highway Beautification Act raised in the Thomas vs Bright case. Thomas secured rulings from the Federal […]

California Privacy Law Enforceable Against OOH Companies Effective July 1

Insider’s note: California’s privacy law is enforceable on July 1.  Insider asked the OAAA for an update and the OAAA provided this Q&A from an attorney who specializes in privacy.  Regulatory work like this is a reason why membership in the OAAA is a must for your out of home […]

Tennessee Gov Signs Fix to Billboard Law

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has signed legislation (HB 2255) which moots a pending constitutional challenge to the State’s billboard control act. The Tennessee House voted unanimously to approve the legislation on June 11; the state Senate passed the bill 31-0 on June 4. In 2017, a federal judge in Memphis […]

OAAA Special Report on Cannabis

An OAAA Special Report Expect three “more” trends: more legal cannabis, more demand for cannabis advertising, and more debate. Here are highlights of OAAA’s June 17 webinar: Revenue-hungry state and local governments are collecting millions in taxes and fees. Cannabis is legal (in some form) in 33 states; legalization measures […]

Cincy Billboard Tax Case Setback

Yesterday a three judge court of appeals in Hamilton County Ohio reinstated the Cincinnati billboard tax by a 3-0 vote.  A lower court had blocked the tax on a first amendment challenge in October 2018. The Ohio court explained the decision as follows:  “The city’s billboard tax applies to billboards […]