Opinion ID: 218050
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Law After World Wide Rush and Metro Lights

Text: Several points can be gleaned from the decisions in World Wide Rush and Metro Lights. First, the City's sign ban can withstand a Central Hudson attack so long as it is not so pierced by exceptions and inconsistencies, as to directly undermine the City's interests in traffic safety and aesthetics. World Wide Rush, 606 F.3d at 686. And those exceptions cannot be viewed in isolation or parsed too finely; the exceptions must be looked at holistically in the context of the entire regulatory scheme. Id. at 685-86. Second, a Central Hudson challenge is not focused on the particular plaintiff; instead, the Court must look at the whether the City's ban advices its interests in its general application, not specifically with respect to a particular speaker. Metro Lights, 551 F.3d at 904. Third, the court must defer to the reasonable legislative judgement of the City on how best to advance its own interests in aesthetics and traffic safety. Id. at 910. To combat the proliferation of supergraphics that have blanketed the City, the City may take a graduated response, even going so far as granting exceptions for thousands of signs over which it can exercise control. Id. at 910. That response unquestionably includes exercising its classically legislative function of creating exceptions to the sign bans for SUDs and development agreements, so long as those judgments are reasonable in light of the City's interests. World Wide Rush, 606 F.3d at 687-88.