OLC Files Federal First Amendment Lawsuit Against Anti-Yard Sign Village

For Immediate Release | Aug 25, 2024
https://olcplc.com/public/media?1724605256



On behalf of a candidate for re-election for the office of trustee in the small Saginaw County village of St. Charles, Outside Legal Counsel has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Village officials' newly adopted practice of banning campaign yard signs outside a 60-day election window. The federal suit alleges that such a ban violates the First Amendment.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that three St. Charles Village officials began enforcing a time-ban against campaign signs installed by Troy Freed, a candidate seeking re-election to local office. The suit explains that Village President Edgar Tithof began on Thursday riding his bicycle around the village and removed Freed's political election signs from private citizens' property. When Freed objected, Village Manager Hartmann Aue and Village Police Chief Jason Oliver backed the president's actions by posting on Facebook that starting Monday, August 26, 2024, village law enforcement "will be checking the entire village for political signs" and the Chief "will personally have to remove them."



The Chief further threatened that he will "notify the Bureau of Elections for any illegal signs that [he] take[s] down."

Such, according to the lawsuit, violates the First Amendment.

Village officials claim to be undertaking this aggressive stance because it is a Michigan Department of Transportation "rule" that signs cannot be placed in highway right-of-ways. But a simple review of the MDOT website confirms that such is not true. For highways with barrier curbs, the signs need only be three feet from the back of the curb.

Additionally, the Chief's social media post claims that political signs can only be placed in yards for a specified amount of time pointing to an undefined St. Charles Ordinance and a Saginaw County Ordinance. Such limitations have been held to be unconstitutional for decades.

The lawsuit seeks to have case-assigned US District Court Judge Thomas L. Ludington declare the actions of the Village officials as unconstitutional and enter an injunction against the local ordinances that the Village Chief claims to be enforcing. An award of damages and payment of attorney fees and costs are also sought.

"This is a classic example of government officials going politically haywire," states Philip L. Ellison, the attorney representing Trustee Freed. "Government officials cannot use the powers of their public office to stomp out free speech and the exchange of viewpoints in an election. They don't get to decide the number of days the electorate can publicly discuss who should lead our governments."

A court date has not yet been set.
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