Jeff Lee’s GEFT Outdoor has initiated a Reed v Gilbert lawsuit against the city of Westfield, Indiana.   GEFT wishes to put up a digital billboard in the city and has sued the city for damages because the city’s content-based sign code prohibits the digital billboard.  You can read the complaint here.

Insider’s take:  GEFT won a similar case against the city of Indianapolis.  Instead of making a simple distinction between on and off premise signs Indianapolis micromanaged the kinds of signs which were permitted based on the content of the sign.  GEFT won damages for being denied digital sign permits under an unconstitutional sign code.  Looks like Westfield committed the same mistake.  Here are the permitted exemptions to sign permit requirements in Westfield:

This level of complexity in a sign code invites a court to throw out a code because it is a content based restriction of free speech.  A sign inspector needs to read a sign’s content to determine what regs apply.  That creates Reed v Gilbert problems.  We’ll write more about this case next week.

Any of you lawyers have an opinion?  Send us a comment

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