Harvard Law Review has a May 10, 2016 article titled “Free Speech After Reed v. Town of Gilbert.” Some of the article’s conclusions:
- Lower courts have begun narrowing the scope of Reed v Gilbert.
- Lower courts are using Reed v Gilbert to invalidate sign codes which treat different forms of noncommercial communication differently (e.g. if a sign code has different rules of yard sale signs church signs, real estate signs, political signs).
- Most lower courts have mostly found that Reed v Gilbert does not invalidate a sign code which distinguishes between on and off-premises signs. One lower court (the District Court for the Western District of Tennessee), however, has found that a sign code which distinguishes between on and off-premise signs is content-based and potentially invalid under Reed v Gilbert.
- A First Amendment challenge to the Highway Beautification Act seems inevitable under Reed v Gilbert.
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