More On That Pesky Banner-Towing Airplane

by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation.com July 24, 2014

Civil Beat has a piece by Ian Lind ("Hawaii Monitor: Why Has Florida Company Picked a Fight Over Aerial Advertising?") that has more on that story we first posted about here ("Hawaii Under Attack From The Air!"). He writes:

Local attorney and blogger, Robert Thomas (InverseCondemnation.com), has commented that the prior court cases have “pretty definitively” determined that Honolulu’s ban on airborne advertising is neither preempted by federal law, nor a violation of Free Speech rights. I certainly hope he’s right.

In our original post, we linked to the two Ninth Circuit decisions Ian mentions.

All we have so far is questions. Is there room for the aerial bannerist to navigate over Honolulu? Does the ban survive strict scrutiny (which is usually fatal scrutiny) as the Ninth Circuit twice concluded? Have Honolulu residents really called 911 to report the plane as the mayor requested? Is the pilot hoping for SCOTUS review and reversal of the Ninth Circuit? All we can say is good luck with that, man.

---30---