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The Changing Landscape For Billboard Regulation, Daniel R. Mandelker

Scholarship@WashULaw

Expectation turns to the Supreme Court as it once more takes up a free speech dispute about billboard regulation. On June 28, 2021, the Court granted the City of Austin’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari in Reagan National Advertising of Austin, Inc. v. City of Austin, 972 F.3d 696 (5th Cir. 2020), in which the Fifth Circuit struck down the city’s ban on digitizing off-premises signs. Billboards have a long history of legal contention, and billboard intolerance is historic. Billboards have their place, but they can overpower the aesthetic environment and threaten traffic safety. Before they were regulated at the …