United States Ninth Circuit

In a First Amendment challenge to a municipal sign regulation that prohibited all signs without a permit, subject to nineteen enumerated exemptions ranging from directional signs to ideological and political signs, a denial of a preliminary injunction is affirmed in part where the regulation was content-neutral and did not impermissibly favor commercial speech. However, the order is remanded in part where the district court did not address plaintiff's claim that the ordinance unfairly discriminates among forms of noncommercial speech.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/15/2009
• Decided 11/20/2009
• Published 11/20/2009

Judges

• McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:, Before:  STEPHEN REINHARDT, JOHN T. NOONAN and M. MARGARET McKeown, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Benjamin W. Bull, Jeremy D. Tedesco, Alliance Defense Fund, Scottsdale, AZ;  David A. Cortman (argued), Alliance Defense Fund, Lawrenceville, GA;  Deborah M. Sheasby, Peter A. Gentala, Center for Arizona Policy, Phoenix, AZ, for the plaintiffs-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert Grasso, Jr., Kim S. Alvarado (argued), Grasso Law Firm, P.C., Chandler, AZ, for the defendants-appellees.