Opinion: What's Wrong With This Picture?

When Charlie Patel decided to put a 30 percent off sign in the window of his Lakeside Cleaners business in Dallas, little did he realize he would run afoul of a city law, or that he would find himself at the center of a lawsuit that will help determine the limits of government-imposed restrictions on free speech.

Patel's sign violated a Dallas ordinance, passed in June 2008, that prohibits companies from putting commercial signs in the "the upper two-thirds of a window or glass door." It also restricts the signs to 15 percent of the shop window. As of May, the city had issued 150 violations.

What's the big deal with signs in the upper two-thirds of the window? The city says it's to protect public safety -- so police can easily see into and out of businesses. And it's meant to help support property values by minimizing visual blight.

But these arguments don't hold water.

It's true that governments routinely put limits on signs for public safety reasons and to maintain some visual standards. But in this case, the law only applies to commercial signs in shop windows. Matt Miller of the Institute for Justice's Texas Chapter says this means a business could emblazon its windows with Dallas Cowboys images, but would have to take the signs down if they mentioned that the store sells Cowboys merchandise inside.

What about the property value argument? Does hanging signs in the upper two-thirds of a window announcing "half off" sales violate reasonable expectations for the visual standards of a community and, in so doing, drive down property values? It's hard to see the rationale here, since companies are free to put other noncommercial signs on that same space.

The Institute for Justice filed suit against the city earlier this month on behalf of local merchants to have the law overturned on the grounds that it violates these businesses' free speech rights.

But the law also hurts these small businesses in other ways.

Those hit hardest by the ordinance are mom-and-pop shops with the smallest budgets to advertise. Putting simple signs in the windows telling passersby about weekly specials and deals -- in spots where customers can actually see them -- is often the only advertising they can afford. Public safety is a feeble excuse to take this opportunity away.

The outcome of this case could have ramifications beyond Patel's dry cleaning store, and beyond Dallas. Miller notes that a dozen other cities in Texas have opted for similar restrictions as Dallas, and the outcome of this case will have implications there and in communities considering similar restrictions.

But you don't need a law degree to understand that, in this case, the restrictions went too far. The opportunity here is for the court to send a message that businesses, particularly small businesses, have free speech rights, too.