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Preliminary Injunction Allows Religious Sign To Remain Near US Highway

By Howard M. Friedman

In ema href="http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BurrittDecisionOrder.pdf"Burritt v. New York State Department of Transportation/a, /em(ND NY, Dec. 18, 2008), a New York federal district court issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state of New York from enforcing its regulations relating to highway signs against a businessman who displayed a large religious sign on his property adjacent to US Route 11 in northern New York. Daniel Burritt believes he has a religious duty to communicate the Gospel of Jesus in all aspects of his life, including his business. At issue was a sign displaying a religious message placed on the side of a semi-trailer parked on Burritt's property.br /br /Under the New York regulations, a sign on the premises of a business identifying the business can be displayed without a permit even adjacent to a highway, but a special permit is needed where the sign visible from the highway carries a different message. In enjoining enforcement while litigation on a permanent injunction is pending, the court said in part:br /blockquoteThe State has not demonstrated a compelling interest for the Sign Laws' restriction on "off-premises" signs.... Plaintiff's trailer sign is apparently adjudged an "illegal sign" not because of its location on his property or its dimensions, but because of its content. It seems that a sign containing the same physical characteristics as Plaintiff's trailer sign but announcing the name of his business, "Acts II Construction, Inc.: Building Bridges for Jesus," would be allowed under the regulations. The Court cannot see how aesthetics and traffic safety are protected by a sign that displays the name of business, but are jeopardized by a sign of the same size and location that contains a religious message.... [T]he regulations are not narrowly tailored to achieve the ends that the regulations are intended to achieve./blockquoteAlliance Defense Fund yesterday issued a a href="http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4779"release/a discussing the decision, including a photo of the disputed sign. (See a href="http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2008/05/truck-owner-says-town-is-discriminating.html"prior related posting/a.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 23, 2008 (boomark / email).