Recent comments in /f/newhampshire

TurretLauncher t1_j85ac0b wrote

A bakery owner filed a federal lawsuit against the town of Conway, New Hampshire, on Tuesday after officials demanded he paint over a mural that local high school students created last summer. Leavitt’s Country Bakery owner Sean Young teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file the lawsuit, which argues that Conway’s sign code violates his and other town residents’ First Amendment rights.

Leavitt’s is so loved that a group of Kennett High School students offered to paint a mural for the business. The students decided that the mural should depict a colorful mountainscape of baked goods with the sun rising behind them, in honor of the nearby White Mountains. The mural, which was unveiled in June 2022, became an instant hit with Leavitt’s customers.

The assistant building inspector informed Sean that he could apply for a variance to keep the mural up. When Sean did so in September 2022, he had the backing of Conway residents: More than 1,000 people commented on Leavitt’s Facebook page in support of the mural and scores of letters to the editor have been published in the Conway Daily Sun arguing that the mural should stay. Yet the Conway Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) voted unanimously against granting the bakery a variance. Then, in November, the ZBA doubled down, again denying the variance.

“I couldn’t believe the town was going after me for giving high school students a way to express their artistic passions and contribute something fun and delightful to the community,” Sean said. “This mural isn’t hurting anyone. If anything, it has brought the community together.”

Trying to right this wrong and avoid litigation, IJ sent a letter to Conway officials in December 2022 urging town officials to back off Leavitt’s. As IJ’s letter explained, the town’s sign code was both confusing and unconstitutional. Although IJ offered to help the town craft a new sign code, it refused the offer, instead sending Sean yet another letter ordering him to either get a sign permit or take down the mural forever.

“Leavitt’s mural is beautiful and showcases what can be accomplished when a community comes together,” IJ Litigation Fellow Betsy Sanz said. “Conway’s crackdown on this artwork serves no legitimate government interest.”

IJ’s fight against similar violations of the First Amendment rights of small business owners throughout the country includes a 2020 victory that allowed a North Dakota saloon to keep up its mural, a 2017 win for a Florida video game store that wanted to display an inflatable Mario in front of its store, and a 2013 ruling which permitted a California gym to advertise on a sandwich board out front.

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TurretLauncher t1_j858959 wrote

That's called majoritarianism, and it's exactly what the Bill of Rights was meant to prevent:

> The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.

US Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

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cwalton505 t1_j856kev wrote

they can be more restrictive but not in violation of. FFS you and the sundown laws..

You can prohibit the sale of alcohol in a county or town. That's more restrictive but not in violation of the fucking constitution. What do you not understand? A permanent sign on a business is not protected via the first amendment or the constitution. Good lord.

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starhoppers t1_j855snk wrote

If the people Conway don’t want the eyesores of big signs, they have every right to put that in zoning laws. It’s called democracy! Enjoying your Freedom responsibly doesn’t mean doing anything you want to do and the hell with everyone else.

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cat-gun t1_j853vlx wrote

I didn't say they were equivalently evil acts. I used the "sundown laws" as an example to establish the principle that there exist a ) immoral laws that should not be obeyed b) laws that can't be easily changed by the victim of the law.

While suppressing the baker's free speech rights is not an equivalent offense, it's a violation of his free speech rights (and therefore immoral) and trying to change the law is likely to be a futile effort (which I think the people making the suggestion know).

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cwalton505 t1_j852x6n wrote

Your continued correlation of this sign issue to historical abject racism in multiple threads is fucking weird and I am not going to get into it past here. This is not even close from a morality standpoint, and its gross to compare the two like they are equivalent. The people in the town can change the sign law as they all agree on and deem fit. A sign is not a person. Comparing this silly sign issue as a tribulation to those oppressed by sundown laws is fucking disgusting honestly.

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