Attorneys with the Goldwater Institute are calling foul on the City of Phoenix for its plan to grant the NFL the authority to censor signs on private property during the Super Bowl.
As a result, the Institute is representing a local business owner in their demand that Phoenix “end this blatant, unconstitutional attack on Phoenicians’ fundamental right to free speech.”
According to a staff attorney, John Thorpe, the Goldwater Institute, “ sent a letter to the city of Phoenix yesterday on behalf of Bramley Paulin, a Phoenix resident and business owner who has been unable to lease out his property for temporary signage placements due to the city’s restrictions. The letter requests written assurance from the city that Bramley and anyone approved by him may advertise on his property without unreasonable restriction and without any input or review by the NFL or the Super Bowl Host Committee.”
Thorpe notes in a blog post, that the Super Bowl, which will be played in nearby Glendale, “has designated a nearly two-square-mile area (virtually all of downtown Phoenix) as a “Special Promotional and Civic Event Area.” Through February 19, 2023, no resident or business in this city-imposed “clean zone” is allowed to display temporary signage without the approval of the city and two private organizations: the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. In other words, the city has banned hundreds of businesses, and thousands of residents, from speaking freely without permission from the government and two of the government’s handpicked entities.”
Thorpe points to both the U.S. and Arizona constitutions which “guarantee individuals’ right to express themselves freely, without government censorship—and this includes the right to display signs on private property.”