Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
At 0900 tomorrow, the Flathead County Commissioners will again take up whether Flathead County’s law on signs should be brought into constitutional compliance by removing durational limits on political signs. The commissioners discussed the issue on Friday, 25 April, but tabled the matter so they could further study the proposed amendment.
That’s the official story. Unofficially, the commissioners find themselves between a rock known as the U.S. Constitution, and a hard place comprised of Flathead residents who want to encounter as few political signs as possible for the least possible amount of time. The commissioners are looking for compromise that runs afoul of neither the Constitution nor the Flathead sign haters.
Citizens for a Better Flathead, the ringleader for the durational limits lovers, advocates a compromise that would lift pre-election durational limits but retain post-election limits and ban certain content:
“We do feel that the county is within sound legal ground to retain some limits to the duration of these signs or to require them to be current,” said Mayre Flowers, the executive director of Citizens For A Better Flathead. They’re worried that if the time limit is lifted, then old signs might pile up and become an eyesore. [Parker Collins, ABC Fox Montana.]
These are feeble arguments. The moment an election ends, the next election begins; politics is always in a pre-election phase. And requiring that a sign “be current” is neither content neutral nor message neutral. It’s prior restraint, pure and simple.
CBF’s solution assumes that a little bit of prior restraint is constitutional. But it’s not. It’s of the little bit of pregnancy genre. What Citizens proposes is unconstitutional and would not survive a challenge in court.
I wish CBF’s leaders and members had more confidence in the good judgment of their fellow citizens. Just because a homeowner has the right to display a political sign forever doesn’t mean he will. Virtually all of us want to be good neighbors and act accordingly. Very few political signs will be displayed forever. And they who do encounter political signs out of season will not be struck blind or dead by the sight.