Longing for Burma Shave Billboards

Image by jason0x21 via Flickr

U.S. District Court Judge for the District of South Carolina Cameron McGowan Currie has ruled that a state law that prohibited billboards displaying adult-oriented businesses within a mile of public roads constitutes an unconstitutional prior restraint on the First Amendment.

The statute, which took effect in February 2006, and required compliance within three years, was challenged as a violation of free speech by the Lion's Den Adult Superstore in Orangeburg County, which boasted four billboards advertising the adult bookstore along Interstate Highways 26 and 95 between Columbia and Charleston.

Judge Currie issued a permanent injunction against the removal of the billboards by state officials. Last week, a federal judge in Kansas approved an agreement between Lion's Den and the Attorney General's office concerning a similar statute under which the AG acceded not to enforce highway sign size and content restrictions (see "TUOL" 7/2/09).