A divide over a mural at a donut shop has led to a First Amendment fight for one New Hampshire man.
A bakery in Conway NH is suing the town after being told their mural violates advertising signage laws. It seems the sign just has pastries and doesn't otherwise advertise the business, so they're calling it art and arguing it should stay. The town disagrees so they're going to court over it.
The bakery is suing the town for $1, and permission to keep the kids mural up.
This is a small business fighting to keep kids art on display. Suing for $1 is a way to signal that are willing to do this at a financial loss, and that the display isn't a means of enriching themselves but rather their community.
idk if NH is exactly the same, but Vermont has pretty strict signage laws, the point is to prohibit billboards and similar sorts of things, and the effect is pretty nice. Just because you're in public and have eyes doesn't mean advertisers should have a right to your attention.
Exactly, overall it sounds like a great law to have on the books because fuck ads. But there are going to be edge cases like this. In this case the mural obviously shouldn't be considered an ad but that needs to be decided on a case by case basis in court which it sounds like is what is happening.