One Man's Fight to Support Obama
Joseph Rudolph would really like to see Barack Obama make it to the White House and he wants everyone to know it. Rudolph has a sign supporting the presidential hopeful on his front lawn, and it has been the source of a major disagreement between Rudolph and the township of South Park, Pennsylvania.
The battle over the political sign has now escalated to the point that the matter will be decided in U.S. District Court. You guessed it; the American Civil Liberties Union has become involved.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on behalf of Rudolph, challenging the ordinance in South Park that limits the display of political signs in the township to 30 days before an election. The primaries in Pennsylvania will be on April 22, so according to the ordinance, Rudolph should not be allowed to display his sign until March 23.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania said that this case is a First Amendment issue and that freedom of speech cannot be limited to specific time periods.
For now, the sign is staying put. If Rudolph has his way, it will be there until Obama wins the presidential election in November. U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster has issued a temporary injunction allowing Rudolph to display the sign in his yard until further order of the court.
The solicitor in the township of South Park tells The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that as long as the sign is on Rudolph's personal property no action will be taken to make him remove it and he will not be fined. However, Rudolph says that he has been threatened with fines in the past for having signs on his lawn.
Last year Rudolph says that he received a letter from the township notifying him that the sign he had in his front yard that supported his son's candidacy for district judge was in violation of two township codes. The letter threatened fines of $500 per day if the sign was not removed within 10 days. The township of South Park apparently requires residents to get a permit to erect political signs and prohibits any political signs from being put up more than 30 days before an election.
After Rudolph received this letter in March, lawyers from the ACLU became involved and wrote a letter of their own to the township informing them that their ordinances were in violation of the First Amendment. The township notified the ACLU that they would suspend enforcement and review the township's code.
By fall, the township had completed their review of the township's code and determined that their ordinance did not violate the First Amendment. They wrote to Rudolph again to let him know that the ordinances would be enforced.
The solicitor in South Park now says that the reason Rudolph received the letter last fall was because he had placed the sign on the public part of his lawn, and the property where the sign was situated is technically owned by the township. When the sign was moved back from the street, the township decided not to fine him.
The ACLU still questions the legality of the township's ordinances and whether or not the 30-day rule applies to signs on private property. They have successfully sued six Pennsylvania municipalities over similar ordinances.
For those of us who are already sick of seeing political signs, Election Day can't get here soon enough.
