A federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Kentucky’s billboard violates constitutional protection of free speech. Bottom line: the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals repeated its legal standard. That standard says regulations which distinguish between on-premise and off-premise signs are based on content, and, therefore, violate the […]
Constructing a billboard without a permit to block a competitor can lead to massive fines. That’s the lesson of Tennison Brothers v William H Thomas, Jr. Yes, that’s the same William H. Thomas who convinced a judge to throw out the state of Tennessee’s sign rules on a first amendment […]
By Kerry Yoakum, VP of Government Affairs, OAAA Last week the State of Tennessee’s Solicitor General filed a Petition to the Supreme Court to take the case that challenges the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Billboard Control Act (Thomas v. Bright). The pace of Supreme Court action is likely to be impacted […]
The Tennessee House Transportation Subcommittee on Infrastructure passed two bills to amend the State’s sign regulations. Both bills are designed to fix Tennessee’s sign regulations which were overturned by the Thomas v Bright court challenge. HB 1071 is legislation prepared by various stakeholders including the out of home advertising industry. HB […]
Tomorrow the Chattanooga city council will vote on an ordinance instituting a 180 day moratorium on accepting and processing permits for new outdoor advertising signs or permits for the conversion of static billboards to digital billboards. The moratorium says that the city’s sign ordinance is modeled in part on the […]
See the billboard in the picture? It started the Thomas v Bright challenge to Tennessee’s billboard rules. The site is a vacant lot next to I-40 in Memphis Tennessee. William Thomas tried to get a permit for a billboard on the site, was denied because of spacing restrictions and […]
Since I still haven’t taken down my Christmas tree or lights, despite my wife’s justifiable and persistent encouragement to do so, I suppose its not too late to offer my annual legal predictions for the outdoor advertising industry for 2020. I recently re-read my 3 Legal Predictions for 2019 published […]
A three-judge panel of US Sixth Court of Appeals upheld a federal trial court ruling that Tennessee’s billboard law is unconstitutional (William Thomas v. Clay Bright, decided September 11). A three-judge panel of the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal trial court decision that Tennessee’s billboard control […]
