ACLU Victory: Political Signs Allowed in Prairie Village

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 1, 2006

Kansas City, Mo. – The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri sued the City of Prairie Village on behalf of John Quinly. In September 2005, the City cited Mr. Quinly for violating the City's ordinance pertaining to political signs. Mr. Quinly displayed in his front yard signs containing the message: “Dubya-End the occupation. Stop murdering the poor in Iraq and help the poor in New Orleans!” The City initially prosecuted Mr. Quinly for violating the sign ordinance and fined him $300.00 plus court costs. The ACLU defended Mr. Quinly and, on his behalf, asserted that the City's sign ordinance violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In early January 2006, the City dismissed the prosecution of Mr. Quinly and began working on a new sign ordinance. Volunteer ACLU Attorneys John Simpson and Doug Bonney tried diligently to work with the City of Prairie Village to come up with a constitutional sign ordinance. But, in early June 2006, the City adopted a new sign ordinance that discriminated against residential political and issue signs based on their contents.

On Aug. 7, 2006, the ACLU filed suit and, on August 8, moved for a preliminary injunction to prohibit the City from enforcing the challenged provisions of the ordinance while the suit proceeded. The ACLU challenges four provisions of the sign ordinance: the provision limiting the individual and aggregate sizes of political signs displayed at residences, the prohibition against “profane and indecent” sign language, the durational limits on the display of signs generally and the requirement that citizens must remove “signs tied to an election . . . immediately after the date of the election,” and the requirements that political signs meet stability requirements not imposed upon other types of signs.

On Aug. 31, 2006 in a detailed and well-reasoned opinion, the court enjoined the enforcement of all of the provisions of the new sign ordinance that the ACLU had contested.

The Prairie Village sign ordinance has the effect of chilling and suppressing speech protected by the First Amendment. This decision is especially important as we approach an election year. Political speech is a central tool in the democratic process. This decision reinforces the First Amendment. The ACLU, through its cooperating volunteer attorneys, hopes to use the court's opinion to negotiate an appropriate ordinance with the City of Prairie Village.

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