GEFT Outdoor L.L.C. v. City of Westfield, Hamilton County, Indiana

Petitioner, GEFT Outdoor, L.L.C., buys and leases land on which to construct, maintain, and operate signs and billboards to be used for the dissemination of both commercial and noncommercial speech. Believing the City of Westfield’s regulations of signs to be unconstitutional, GEFT Outdoor, L.L.C. began erecting a digital billboard on land located within the City of Westfield without obtaining a permit. The City of Westfield sought, and obtained, an injunction against GEFT Outdoor, L.L.C., precluding it from any further construction on the billboard. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit affirmed, holding, in part, that GEFT Outdoor, L.L.C., was first required to obtain a court order invalidating the regulations before it could ignore them. (Pet.App. 23a). The question presented is: Whether a citizen who seeks to exercise core First Amendment rights must first seek and obtain an order from a court of competent jurisdiction invalidating a facially unconstitutional city ordinance before engaging in protected speech activity and desist completely while the validity of the ordinance remains before the trial court.