By: Derek Hawkins//August 22, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Construction and General Laborers’ Local Union No. 330 et al v. Town of Grand Chute, Wisconsin
Case No.: 15-1932
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and POSNER and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges
Focus: Content Discrimination
Township did not allow Union proper amount of time to remove signs on public highway.
“Finally, the Union contends that the Town has allowed other speakers 30 days to remove structures that violate the ordinance, while it insisted that the Union remove the rat and cat immediately. Yet again the district judge did not decide whether this contention is true. The Union put in the record some printed notices that the Town has used, and these notices indeed say: “All cited violations shall be corrected within 30 days after written notification”. One notice has a handwritten addition changing 30 days to 48 hours, but others left the form as is. A Town employee testified that the printed notice is wrong and that there is no 30‐day grace period. It may be, as the Town contends, that allowing such a delay would undermine the ordinance unduly. Still, if the Town does allow other speakers more time than it allowed the Union, it has engaged in content discrimination. The district court needs to make findings about the Town’s actual enforcement practices—unless this controversy is moot.”
Vacated and remanded