Are political signs on lawns free speech or litter?
As spring blooms, political signs are sprouting from lawns and roadsides faster than weeds.
At least you can kill weeds with a little fertilizer.
Some signs seem to live forever. You see them months after Election Day, when many candidates are long forgotten.
That’s annoying. But trying to regulate them is futile. Municipal governments should stop trying.
The latest controversy about political sign ordinances flared up in western Pennsylvania recently, in Connoquenessing Township, Butler County.
It came under fire for its law that requires people to get a permit, at a cost of $30, to place a sign on their property.
The township no longer is enforcing the law after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it on behalf of a property owner.
Permit requirements for signs on private property are invalid because they are a prior restraint on free speech, ACLU attorney Rich Ting, who handled the case, told me Monday.
There’s no difference between a political sign in a yard and a sports flag waving from a porch. Or a bumper sticker on a car.
As a Steelers fan, I may not care to see flags of other teams flying in my neighborhood. Especially after football season. But homeowners have the right to display their allegiance.
The same goes for political signs.
There have been plenty of battles in the Lehigh Valley over this issue, too.
South Whitehall Township revised its ordinance in 2011 after it was sued by Richard Orloski, a state senate candidate. He sued
after the township told him he needed a permit to place his signs on lawns or anywhere else in the township.
The Northampton County Democratic Party sued 19 municipalities in 2004 over their sign laws. The lawsuit challenged the cost of sign permits and restrictions on the size of campaign signs and when and where they could be placed.
Nearly all of the municipalities loosened their laws after being sued.
The ACLU frequently receives complaints about sign ordinances, Ting said.
Many include unconstitutional time limits for displaying political signs and unconstitutional distinctions that treat signs differently
based on content, he said. Political signs may have restrictions but “for sale” signs don’t.
A 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling clarified that restrictions violate the First Amendment, Ting said. But many local governments have not revised their ordinances based on the ruling.
Municipalities wrote their laws because they recognize some people don’t want to see political signs all year, said John Brenner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League. Some communities also want to regulate where signs may be placed in public rights of way, for safety reasons.
He said York, where he was mayor, prohibits signs in a grassy island that separates traffic on a
busy street.
Those regulations have a purpose. There is a law against putting any signs, including political signs, on the right of way of state roads.
Yet there are more than you can read at some intersections.
PennDOT says it can remove signs, but that’s obviously not a high priority.
Signs along state roads are safety hazards, the agency says. They can block motorists’ sight at intersections, and their wire posts can injure PennDOT workers when they mow. Signs that are blown off their posts can clog drains.
Those concerns are legitimate, so rules make sense.
Former Morning Call columnist Bill White waged a war on political signs for decades. He’d go out after an election and see which candidates had failed to remove their signs from roadsides. Then he’d slam them for it.
The public shaming was deserved. After Election Day, political signs are no different from discarded water bottles and cigarette butts. They’re eyesores. They’re litter.
So there should be some limits to how long signs can stay on public property before they are treated like litter — picked up and deposited in the trash.
That’s different than telling someone how long they can keep a sign in their yard, though.
There should be no limit to that. And no permit required.
I’ve always wondered why politicians are so in love with signs. They’re a relic of the past. Candidates have far better ways to make themselves known today, with Facebook and other social media.
Do candidates truly believe that randomly scattered signs motivate voters?
Hey, that Mastriano sign is cool! It really stands out from the rest! He’s my guy!
Putting signs along roads seems to be a big waste of time and money.
That’s different from a homeowner deciding to put one in their yard. That’s someone offering their endorsement and showing their support.
Municipalities should have better things to do than to nitpick their residents over signs. There are potholes to fill and parks to maintain, not to mention the myriad public safety and health duties ranging from police to sewer systems.
Enforcing sign laws is a losing battle, anyway. Just like weeds, they always come back.