Aug 05 2009
ACLU Defends Cary Homeowner’s Property Rights
The ACLU told the town of Cary on Tuesday that David Bowden’s right to free speech would be violated if the town used a sign ordinance to get him to remove a spray-painted complaint from the siding on his home.
Bowden, frustrated over a water-drainage problem he blames on a city road-widening project, hired a painter to write in florescent orange on his home’s exterior, “Screwed by the Town of Cary.”
In response, a town official told him Monday that he could be fined up to $500 a day for violating the sign ordinance.
I’m not familiar with Cary’s sign ordinance, but I do know that painting words on the siding of your house does not constitute a sign even by a stretched definition and I’d be willing to bet a hefty some of money that there is nothing in any city ordinance decreeing what Bowden did as illegal. We have a right to free speech in this country and if the town of Cary fines him for it they are in violation of his Constitutional rights. Frankly, I think they are just embarrassed that Bowden has made them look like fools and now they are trying to threaten and intimidate him.
