Palin Billboard Fight 'a Crusade' for First Amendment Rights (poll too)

[Omaha Steve]

Current poll results: Should the city allow a Palin 2012 billboard?
Yes 53%
No 43%
Not sure 4%
Total Votes: 45,166

http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/12/battling-for-palin-billboard-in-democratic-stronghold/?icid=main|aim|dl1|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2F2009%2F11%2F12%2Fbattling-for-palin-billboard-in-democratic-stronghold%2F

(Nov. 12) -- Alan Herson and his son, Jeffrey, have been fighting for years for the right to build billboards in Western states. Jeffrey Herson runs commercial billboard companies. His father, an attorney, files lawsuits on his behalf.

"It's a crusade," says the elder Herson, who won a landmark billboard case in Oregon in 2006. "We fight for truth, justice and the American way."

Their latest target is the city of San Carlos, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco where they hope to erect a billboard promoting Sarah Palin for president in 2012. The sign, which could also display commercial messages, would be visible to many thousands of motorists daily who pass through a busy stretch of Highway 101.


Cheryl Senter, AP
A campaign poster at a Palin rally in Dover, New Hampshire, in October 2008.

San Carlos, which hasn't allowed a new billboard in more than a decade, rejected his application.

The Hersons, arguing that the city had denied the younger Herson's right of free speech, immediately filed suit in federal court and won the first round. On Tuesday night, the San Carlos City Council countered by approving an emergency ordinance reaffirming a city ban on new billboards and removing restrictions on political signs that the court had found offensive.

Whether the city's new law will now allow San Carlos to block the Palin billboard remains to be seen.

FULL story and poll at link.