Billboard victory in Alameda County, CA

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court ruled Thursday that the California Department of Transportation must allow noncommercial messages on billboards in areas where it allows commercial messages on signs.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer struck down a portion of a state law known as the California Outdoor Advertising Act. The ruling is a victory for Redwood City business owner Nano Maldonado.

The law, passed in 1933 and amended since then, prohibits most billboard advertising along highways classified as “landscaped freeways.” The only exception in the law is that a billboard can advertise commercial goods or services available at the property on which the billboard is placed. Such messages are known as “on-premises” advertising.

The owner of a promotions business, Nanz Productions, Maldonado launched his battle with Caltrans in 1993, when the agency denied him a permit to display advertisements on the billboard atop his warehouse next to Highway 101 just north of Woodside Road. He said the billboard dates back to 1956.

He fought to put paid political messages and free religious messages on the sign, claiming that a ban on posting the noncommercial messages violated his constitutional right of free speech.

Breyer agreed in a 15-page ruling, saying that the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal appeals courts have ruled that a billboard law may not impose greater restrictions on noncommercial messages than on commercial statements.

Breyer wrote, “The law is settled that billboard ordinances may not favor commercial speech by permitting on-premises commercial speech while prohibiting all noncommercial speech.”

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