Two adult entertainment establishments feature live nude dancing ("strip clubs") in City. Because the clubs are competing for customers, they buy advertisements on large electronic billboards in the town square of City. These billboards feature scantily clad dancers (think string bikinis).

After City receives complaints, it conducts and investigation and discovers the following:

• The billboards are distracting to drivers, and traffic accidents have increased in the area; and
• The billboards have caused small businesses near them in the town square, such as a florist and a bakery, to lose customers. The small businesses report that less customers frequent the area because it is less aesthetically pleasing and the customers think the area is less safe.

As a result, the city passes a sign ordinance that regulates public signs that advertise for an "adult establishment." An "adult establishment" is defined as a business that features live nude dancing. All such signs:

• Can be no larger than three square feet; and
• Cannot be located within the town square of City

After the law is passed, a strip club pays Dana, a dancer at the club, to pass out fliers in the town square that advertise for the club. At the lunch hour, a number of small business owners crowd around Dana and ask her to leave. When she refuses, Becky, the owner of a small family bakery, tells the crowd that she recognizes Dana, Dana lives at 1576 Wilbur Dr., and they should show her what it is like to have someone ruin their neighborhood with smut. Vickie is part of the crowd and hears Becky's remarks. Later that afternoon, Vickie vandalizes Dana's home by spray painting obscenities and vulgar pictures on her fence and the side of her house.

Becky is prosecuted under a "Sedition Statute" that prohibits "any person from teaching the duty, necessity, or propriety of imminent crime, violence, or unlawful acts." Vickie is prosecuted

under a statute that prohibits the vandalism of private property. The statute provides extra penalties for vandalism that uses (1) profanity; or (2) obscene images, which are defined as "images that appeal to the prurient interest, depict sexual organs or conduct in an offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

1. Whether City's sign ordinance violates the First Amendment.

2. Whether the prosecution of Becky for violating the Sedition Statute violates the First Amendment.

3. Whether the enhanced penalties given to Vickie violate the First Amendment.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 The Citys sign ordinance likely does not violate the First Amendment The regulation of signs advertising for adult establishments such as strip club... View the full answer