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"We must determine whether a city violates the First Amendment by prohibiting most offsite commercial advertising while simultaneously contracting with a private party to permit sale of such advertising at city-owned transit stops."

"We must determine whether a city violates the First Amendment by prohibiting most offsite commercial advertising while simultaneously contracting with a private party to permit sale of such advertising at city-owned transit stops." So begins the opinion that Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain issued today on behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Metro Lights, LLC v. City of Los Angeles.

Law professor Laurence H. Tribe argued on behalf of the plaintiff on appeal. The plaintiff won in the trial court but lost today before the Ninth Circuit. LA Weekly's blog covered the oral argument in a post that begins, "The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's Courtroom 3 - a miniature auditorium with comfortable, smoked salmon-colored seats - was mostly filled with law students who seemed to be interested in just one thing: listening to Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe argue constitutional law. It was a rare treat for law students, and they weren't disappointed. Tribe, nationally recognized as one of the foremost liberal constitutional law scholars and Supreme Court practitioners, was in town from his lucrative gig as a consultant to the international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to give oral arguments in the billboard case Metro Lights v. City of Los Angeles." You can download the oral argument audio via this link (6.01MB Windows Media Audio file).

And in April 2007, Los Angeles CityBeat reported on the case in an article headlined "Battle of the Billboards: L.A.'s plan to spiff up sidewalks leads to more street-level ads than it bargained for."

Full post as published by How Appealing on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).