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Tag: Gaines Township

First Amendment Victory in Michigan!

By Croton Crier, Section News
Posted on Fri Apr 05, 2013 at 08:24:18 AM EST
Tags: Gaines Township, Michigan, free speech, First Amendment, constitutional, Howard VanDenHeuvel, ACLU Michigan, liberty, property rights (all tags)

After three plus hours of testimony and the agony of parsing definitions, Mr. Vern Verduin of Gaines Township wins the right of Free Speech!

A definitive victory over out of control government.

Mr. Verduin parked two semi-truck trailers on his 40 acre farm that violated the 20 square feet allowed for political signs. His signs stated: Marxism/Socialism = Poverty and Hunger and Obama's 'Mission Accomplished' : 8% Unemployment 16 Trillion Debt.

If the signs advertised his business, the signs could have been twice as big. He was fined for violating the township ordinance after declaring his right to free speech by leaving the signs up.

Gaines Township cited Mr. Verduin in an attempt to force him into compliance. After deliberating permanent vs temporary, content based vs content neutral, and debating the definition of vehicular signs, Judge Steven Servaas, 63rd District Court Kent County, declared Gaines Township's sign ordinance unconstitutional "because there is a distinction between commercial and political". The Judge added that the law has to treat commercial and political speech the same. The Township's ordinance allows a bigger sign to sell a product than a political idea.

Constitutionally, this ordinance is upside down.

(4 comments, 433 words in story) Full Story