It’s no secret that local governments are willing and eager to give the owners of sports teams huge amounts of taxpayer money to build new stadiums. But Glendale, Arizona, the site of this year’s Super Bowl, took catering to the NFL and its owners to a new level.
The city passed an ordinance that gave the NFL the right to censor any signs property owners in parts of town could erect on their own land. The Goldwater Institute took the city to court over this clear abridgment of free speech.
And it won:
The Goldwater Institute scored a major victory for residents and business owners in downtown Phoenix…when an Arizona trial court judge ruled that the city’s Super Bowl Censorship Ordinance violated their free speech rights and unconstitutionally delegated power to the National Football League (NFL) and Super Bowl Host Committee.
The ruling came just weeks after the Goldwater Institute sued the city over the ordinance, which barred residents from placing signs on their own property without first getting approval from the NFL and the Host Committee—two private entities that were empowered to choose what kind of speech people were allowed to engage in. Declaring the ordinance “an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech and an unconstitutional delegation of power,” the court gave the city 48 hours to review businessman Bramley Paulin’s request to put up an advertising sign at his business—and to do so without restricting what he’s allowed to say.
Phoenix officials first adopted the Super Bowl Censorship Ordinance last fall, declaring a section of downtown a “clean zone” in which people were prohibited from putting up a sign without having it reviewed and approved by the NFL and the Host Committee. Because those are private businesses, though, the ordinance effectively gave for-profit companies the unrestricted power to choose what messages they were willing to allow in a large section of one of the nation’s biggest cities. Bramley, a business owner in the area, hoped to sell space for advertising signs to businesses—but they shared concerns regarding the city’s prohibition on free speech.
That’s a victory worth celebrating – for common sense and the Constitution.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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If these crooks use Taxpayers money for stadiums then No Taxpayers should NOT have to get a ticket to go to the games they have already paid. For Good seats first come first served, others that don’t go to games should get a refund for a least half the games in there stadiums
In case you’re wondering, the binding (fascia)of private industry and the State is called FASCISM.
Host city just shows the world just what communism is all about. NFL is a total joke.. How much money does the city host get to be unamerican subcreatures? Children going hungry and sex grooming but the NFL is worried about a ad! Grow up owners and players. You think losing money and people not watching football you would start being Americans. Greed and communism is what NFL knows.
Devil take Officialdom or should it be spelled Officialdumb, this option being more likely, and the NFL along with them.
Indeed the Devil HAS taken them and therein lies the problem. Leave speech to the guardians of custom and good taste, NOT to the Speech Police Nazis.
Who the hell cares what the no fun league does – haven’t watched a no fun league game since ’95/’96, and gosh, don’t think I have missed a thing. I remember years ago when Mr Bill Russell stated something to the effect that “they pay us massive amounts of money to play a silly kids game”. Yes I know he played in the nba, but it holds true in every so-called major league sport!
And from what I hear this years fiasco will probably be the longest game in the history of that game – so enjoy your 2 hours worth of commercials, folks!!!!!!
more govt overreach of our 1st amend.