The care and feeding of lawn signs
I’ve been following Mimi’s thread about the timing and regulation of lawn signs on Left in Lowell, which is up to 20 comments now. Some people think that signs are simply a free speech issue and others think they ought to be controlled at least a bit. Apparently the Supreme Court disagrees and not just the current court: in 1994, a Missouri city law prohibiting lawn signs was struck down and lower courts have used this case as a precedent in challenging any regulation of political signs. What surprises me is how long the Supreme Court decision can take to filter down through all the courts. For some reason I thought a Supreme Court ruling immediately becomes the law of the land, but it doesn’t appear to be so. As Mimi points out Lowell still has an ordinance on the zoning book dated April 3, 2007 that declares that political signs must be temporary, with temporary defined as 30 days or less. Maybe it takes the ACLU or other challenger to enforce the rulings of the higher court. (Perhaps a lawyer could comment on this?) The excellent First Amendment Center website has a timeline of such challenges from 1994 through September 2006, and in every case the challenger won. Meanwhile in Lowell, I’ve seen signs go up only to be taken down right away, and I recall much confusion in the 2005 election about when the signs could go up. Rules aside, there are those whose sign “manners” are not about to gain my vote. I’m thinking of the Rita Mercier bumper sticker on a telephone pole. Right now there is a truck parked on the side of a nearby street with a large McMahon sign displayed on the roof. The truck is always there and since I have to look at it several times a day as I leave my neighborhood, whether on foot, on a bike or in my car, I am not inclined to feel kindly toward the candidate. As for the fifth district race, a few signs are beginning to pop up: Barry Finegold is on Westford Street, and in North Chelmsford today (I forgot about the bridge construction), I counted 6 Tom Tierney signs in a row.