TRI In The News
County's Seal Ordinance Declared Unconstitutional
9/6/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: COUNTY'S SEAL ORDINANCE DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
From My San Antonio
Original article available here.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — An ordinance prohibiting the unauthorized display of the Fluvanna County seal violates a blogger's free-speech rights, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon ruled in favor of Bryan Rothamel, who challenged the ordinance.
Rothamel's blog, FLUCO, occasionally posts images of the county seal to illustrate his writings. He also sometimes scans county news releases, including the seal, onto his website. Moon noted that Rothamel does not use the seal for commercial purposes.
In his lawsuit, Rothamel claimed that when county officials saw what he was doing they drafted an ordinance specifically aimed at stopping his publication of the county seal. He sought an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the law, saying his use of the seal was protected speech under the First Amendment.
Moon agreed, writing that "the deprivation of Rothamel's First Amendment freedoms easily outweighs whatever burden the injunction imposes on the County."
A telephone message left for County Attorney Fred Payne at his Charlottesville law firm was not immediately returned.
The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-based free-expression advocacy group, filed the lawsuit on Rothamel's behalf in January.
"This was a governmental attempt to censor a citizen's free-speech and the court rightly condemned the county for it," said John W. Whitehead, the institute's president.
Rothamel's attorney, Jeffrey Fogel, said Moon's ruling has broad implications even though it is specific to Rothamel and his use of the seal. Fogel said it's clear, based on Moon's analysis, that the county cannot prohibit anyone from publishing the seal along with reporting or commentary.
Fogel said the ordinance was modeled after a state law that says the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia cannot be reproduced unless specifically authorized by law. The state filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging Moon to uphold the Fluvanna ordinance.
A federal statute protecting the U.S. seal is more specific and does not violate the First Amendment, Fogel said. That law says the seal can't be used for commercial purposes or to simulate an official government document.
