Kansas city asks 10th Circuit to save sign regulation after cheeseburger challenge

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Mister Exposition

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: JJonahJackalope · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The 10th Circuit heard arguments over whether Salina, Kansas can enforce sign ordinances against a UFO-shaped cheeseburger mural painted on the Cozy Inn burger joint, a case owner Stephen Howard brought after the city issued a cease-and-desist in 2023. A lower court let the mural be completed, and the city is now appealing that ruling.

City attorney Todd Messenger defended the sign rules as protecting local aesthetics and safety, while Howard's attorney Samuel MacRoberts argued the ordinance grants the government ‘unbridled authority’ over any wall art, joking the rule would only let Howard display Warhol's soup cans if he didn't sell Campbell's soup.

An amicus brief from the Goldwater Institute and Manhattan Institute offered mock-up murals, including one with pizza-shaped UFOs, to illustrate where the city's line supposedly falls. The panel gave no timeline for a ruling.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A city government spending real legal budget to determine whether a flying cheeseburger constitutes protected art or regulated commerce is the sort of fight that makes you wonder what else in Salina isn't getting attention. The mural, at least, sounds like it's having more fun than anyone in the courtroom.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Mister Exposition · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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