Iowa Supreme Court Urged to Strike Down ‘Ban the Box’ Ordinance
An Iowa business association claims a Waterloo city ordinance protecting job applicants with criminal records conflicts with state law.
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ordinance
Street Painting
“No one wants a city awash in paint,” a federal judge in Washington ruled, denying two organizations’ challenge to the city’s defacement ordinance and request to paint on the street during an upcoming rally: “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter.” The court found that granting the request would likely encourage others “waiting in the wings with their own ideas for street art … espousing their own desired message.”
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Florida Court Rejects Local Rules Meant to Quell Gun Violence
As the U.S. reels from a pair of mass shootings, a Florida appeals court upheld an order striking down local gun-control measures.
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Florida Activists Argue for Second Chance to Fight Ban on Food Sharing in Parks
A Fort Lauderdale nonprofit that helps homeless people seeks to revive its challenge to a rule banning outdoor food sharing in parks after a federal judge sided with the city.
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Top Maryland Court Backs Baltimore in Billboard Tax Spat
Baltimore’s biggest billboard advertiser could not overcome the city’s power to levy taxes with a First Amendment challenge.
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Assault Weapons
A district court in Colorado ruled that state law preempts the city of Boulder’s ordinance banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
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Hazard Pay
Despite no luck so far blocking a Covid hazard pay ordinance in Southern California, the California Grocers Association sued the San Francisco Bay Area cities of San Jose and Daly City to block similar ordinances there.
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Restaurants Push Back on Berkeley Plan to Ban Gas
A restaurant industry group said the city is trying to push through a ban on gas appliances in violation of federal law, by mandating that all new buildings be 100% electric.
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Key West Wants to Ban People From Feeding Roaming Chickens
Feral chickens run free in Key West, just one of those things that keep the Southernmost City charmingly weird.
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A Law to Crow About: France Upholds Rural ‘Sensory Heritage’
From crowing roosters to the whiff of barnyard animals, the “sensory heritage” of France’s countryside will now be protected by law from attempts to stifle the everyday aspects of rural life from newcomers looking for peace and quiet.
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High Court Turns Away Challenge to Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones
The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up anti-abortion activists’ challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance creating protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics, but a conservative justice said the court should take up the issue when a more developed case comes before it.
Read moreCovid-19 Orders
A Texas court upheld the city of Austin and Travis County’s orders banning indoor and outdoor dining over New Year’s weekend between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who challenged the orders, immediately appealed to the state’s Court of Appeals for the Third Judicial District.
Read moreRent Ordinance
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging regulations relating to San Jose’s apartment rent ordinance that require landlords to provide information about rent stabilized units and condition their ability to increase rents on the disclosure of that information.
Read moreBillboard Fight
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a suit brought by Citizens for Free Speech challenging Alameda County’s ordinance prohibiting the erection of billboards on a man’s private property. The county provided the man with adequate procedural protections at the abatement hearing, so there is no due process violation.
Read moreMarijuana Growers
A federal court in California ruled against medical marijuana growers who claimed Shasta County violated their rights when it enacted a county ordinance banning the outdoor cultivation of marijuana. There is no “fundamental right to collectively cultivate marijuana,” the court ruled.
Read moreGun Policies
The West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s action challenging a state law that prohibits property owners from banning firearms in parking lot areas can continue, a federal court in the state ruled.
Read moreTrigger Activators
An appeals court in Ohio upheld a ruling in favor of gun rights groups that found Cincinnati’s ban on firearm “trigger activators,” such as bump stocks, unconstitutional. The city’s ordinance is an “invalid exercise of home-rule authority.”
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Report Names and Shames Countries Cozy With Big Tobacco
The global tobacco industry has aggressively lobbied governments during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand markets and blunt measures designed to curb their business, a report from watchdog groups aligned with the World Health Organization claimed on Tuesday.
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France Alarms Rights Defenders With Proposed Ban on Police Images
France’s lower house of parliament is opening debate Tuesday on a security bill that would permit the imprisonment of people who publish images of police officers with intent to cause them harm.
Read moreTobacco Ordinance
A federal court in Pennsylvania granted a group of cigar manufacturers and distributors’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Philadelphia from enforcing an ordinance that prohibits the sale of tobacco products flavors or aromas other than the flavor or aroma of tobacco.
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