Leonard F. Jobe v. City of Catlettsburg
2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 7890, 2005 WL 1048780, 409 F.3d 261 (2005)
Premium Feature
Subscribe to Lexplug to listen to the Case Podcast.
Rule of Law:
A municipal ordinance that prohibits placing leaflets on private vehicles without the owner's consent is a constitutionally permissible time, place, and manner restriction on speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Facts:
- In 1952, the City of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, enacted an ordinance (§ 113.05) making it unlawful to place any handbill or sign on a vehicle without first securing the owner's written consent.
- The city also has other ordinances that prohibit general littering but expressly permit distributing literature door-to-door if it is handed directly to a resident or otherwise secured.
- The city does not prohibit individuals from handing out leaflets face-to-face to people on public streets and sidewalks.
- In 2002, Leonard Jobe, the head of a local American Legion post, began distributing leaflets on behalf of the organization by placing them under the windshield wipers of cars parked on public property.
- The City of Catlettsburg enforced the ordinance against Jobe and fined him $500 for his actions.
- The city's mayor explained that the ordinance helps the municipality address a general problem with littering.
Procedural Posture:
- Leonard Jobe filed a declaratory judgment action against the City of Catlettsburg in federal district court.
- Jobe sought a declaration that the ordinance was unconstitutional and an injunction against its future enforcement.
- Both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.
- The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City of Catlettsburg, upholding the ordinance as a valid time, place, and manner restriction.
- Jobe, as the appellant, appealed the district court's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Premium Content
Subscribe to Lexplug to view the complete brief
You're viewing a preview with Rule of Law, Facts, and Procedural Posture
Issue:
Does a city ordinance that prohibits placing leaflets on vehicle windshields without the owner's consent violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments' guarantees of free speech?
Opinions:
Majority - Sutton, Circuit Judge
No, the city ordinance does not violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The ordinance is a valid content-neutral time, place, and manner restriction on speech. The court reasoned that privately owned vehicles parked on public streets do not constitute a 'public forum' for speech, analogizing to the Supreme Court's decision in Taxpayers for Vincent, which held that public utility poles are not public fora. Therefore, the court applied the time, place, and manner test. The ordinance is content-neutral, as it applies to all leaflets regardless of their message. It serves two significant government interests: preventing litter and visual blight, and protecting the private property rights of vehicle owners. The ordinance is narrowly tailored because it directly addresses the problems of littering on cars and the unauthorized use of private property, eliminating the 'exact source of the evil it sought to remedy.' Finally, it leaves open ample alternative channels for communication, such as face-to-face leafletting, door-to-door distribution, and mailings, which are all permitted in Catlettsburg.
Analysis:
This decision reinforces the principle that private property does not become a public forum for First Amendment purposes simply by being located in a public space. It establishes that municipalities have a significant interest in both preventing litter and protecting private property from being used as an unwilling platform for speech. By upholding the ordinance, the court provides a clear legal endorsement for laws that narrowly target specific, disruptive methods of speech delivery, so long as ample alternative avenues for expression remain available. This precedent makes it more difficult to challenge similar ordinances across the country that prohibit placing flyers on car windshields.
