City Can’t Use Its Sign Code to Silence Its Critics
Jim Roos might still be the victim of eminent domain abuse, but at least his First Amendment right to tell the world about it have been preserved. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, he’ll get to keep a big mural on the side of his building declaring “End Eminent Domain Abuse.”
Roos put the sign up in 2007 to protest the city’s repeated use of eminent domain to take property from his non-profit, which provides affordable housing for the poor, and give it to a private developer. The city then told Roos’ to take the mural down, claiming it violated its ordinances governing signs. Roos, with the help of the Institute for Justice, sued and won in federal court. The Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear the city’s appeal.
