Life Without Free Speech
Life Without Fair Courts Editorial Cartoon Series by Mikhaela Reid
City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43 (1994).
Plaintiff: Margaret Gilleo
Defendant: City of Ladue, Missouri
Issue: Can a municipality prevent a resident from displaying signs on his or her private property?
Case Summary:
Margaret Gilleo, who lived in a town outside St. Louis, wanted to express her opposition to the first Gulf War. She placed a sign on her lawn that read: “Say NO to War in the Persian Gulf, Call Congress Now.” That sign was stolen, and her next sign was vandalized . She complained to the city but was informed by the city council that most types of signs, except for those identifying the residence or selling a house, were prohibited in order to “reduce visual clutter.” So she put an 8.5 by 11 inch sign in her window that read: “For Peace in the Gulf.” The city responded by amending its no-lawn-signs ordinance to include any sign placed in a window.
With no other recourse, Gilleo took her case to court, arguing that the ordinance stifled her constitutional right to free speech. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, stating: “Residential signs are an unusually cheap and convenient form of communication. Especially for persons of modest means or limited mobility, a yard or window sign may have no practical substitute….A special respect for individual liberty in the home has long been part of our culture and our law, and that principle has special resonance when the government seeks to constrain a person’s ability to speak there.”
