New Yorker Fined for Hanging Peace Sign in Window Sues City

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

New Yorker fined for hanging peace sign in window sues city

By Joseph Ax

Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:54pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman who was forced to pay an $800 fine for nailing a peace sign to her window frame in violation of zoning regulations sued New York City in U.S. federal court on Friday, claiming the law infringed upon her right to free speech.

Brigitte Vosse, who owns a condominium on Manhattan's Upper West Side, received a ticket from the city's department of buildings for the peace symbol she hung in her living room window for a year and a half.

The city's zoning laws prohibit people from placing signs more than 40 feet above curb level in Vosse's zoning district, according to the lawsuit. But exceptions are made for signs that are placed on buildings whose uses are primarily "of a civic, philanthropic, educational or religious nature."

That demonstrates that the restriction is content-based in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, the lawsuit claimed.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE89P19020121026

[silverweb]

1. Good for her!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I hope she wins.

[SoapBox]

2. Bloomy was probably offended by the sign...

[surrealAmerican]

3. The ordinance was probably intended ...

... to apply to commercial advertising. They're taking it too far when they apply it to personal expression.

[left on green only]

4. NYC must be quite the city filled with law abiding residents.....

....if the people in law enforcement have time to be spending public money to safeguard the public's well being as a result of that sign......not. I can't understand why the person(s) who authorized that use of public funds is still working at their job. I mean, it gives whole new meaning to the term "using good judgement".

[fasttense]

5. Those peace sign hangers are such a threat to civil order.

Must arrest anyone for expressing a political opinion not in line with our plutocrats opinion. It would have been fine if she had hung a sign saying "Bomb Iran for Jesus" - Religious and politically correct.

[Jim Lane]

6. I don't understand her constitutional argument.

Per the OP, the exception in the ordinance doesn't depend on the content of the sign (which would give her a strong First Amendment case). It depends on the nature of the building. If the OP is correct, then a "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran" sign would also be prohibited.

Therefore, the issue is whether this is a reasonable restriction on the time, place, or manner of speech. Her real argument is that the City can't show reasonableness because it can't show a governmental interest that's served by barring such signs.

[hedgehog]

7. I think what this is really about is that rich people are too delicate

to have their sensibilities offended by commercial advertising!