HELP! Anti-Business Town is Taking Away Constitutional Rights

[litlux]

It is just my way of thinking, but advertising is not consiedered part of "free speech" any more than libelous speech is. Advertising can be regulated by the feds, states, cities and towns, and indeed it is.

Whether your local situation is covered or not, and the applicable law cited is the one that would be used to enforce it remains to be seen.

Remember too that despite all the folk wisdom that says there is not such thing as bad advertising, there is. Your actions could very well repel people from buying from you, and damage realations with TPTB at town hall.

Still it is a free country, and it will be up to them to tell you "no".

You can parade around town in whatever getup you want until they haul you off to jail, or serve a cease and desist order on you. But you are playing with fire, so to speak.

[tallrick]

It's funny how you see people wearing brand name T-shirts and carrying gym bags, wearing caps and such, there's NOTHING anyone in Government does about those situations. Imagine if a city started fining somebody for wearing a Nike shirt, because it is advertising. I see those "ad mobile" trailers driving all over, even in Coral Gables- and trucks like UPS, Publix and such drive through as well. It's routine to see people walking with signs or wearing sandwich boards in any city as advertising. The only way I could see there being a problem is if someone viewed it as "obscene" or if the person with the sign was considered to be loitering. If you can get the news involved, that's a great idea. Unfortunately I have never been able to get so much as a response from any local news reporter in South Florida for my county problems. They just don't care.

Go to the law library and research case history, or find a good lawyer.

[emilybh]

it is too late for the press release. you should have sent that out announcing the campaign (when you assumed it would not be a problem).

Now that you know it IS against the law, I'd write a Letter to the Editor of your town paper and tell everyone how unfair you think it is. I'd also call the news dept and ask if the paper has ever done any stories on that law. If your town has a local news talk radio show, I'd call into the host and let him know about this law and what you think about it. You could get lots of free publicity out of it (by spear heading a campaign to get rid of it) if other businesses feel like you do.