Latest news with #JosephLaplante
Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
US town tried to take down bakery's painting of pastries, muffins. What happened next
A US court has ruled that a New Hampshire town violated the First Amendment rights of a local bakery owner by trying to force the removal of a mural depicting pastries basking in sunbeams. District Judge Joseph Laplante found that the town of Conway's enforcement of its sign ordinance against Leavitt's Country Bakery constituted an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. The mural, painted by local high school students, features a mountain range made of doughnuts, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and other baked goods. But town officials argued that because the artwork portrayed items sold inside the bakery, it functioned as advertising—and therefore violated Conway's signage restrictions. Judge Laplante disagreed. In a decision issued Monday, he noted a 'complete disconnect between what the ordinance purports to regulate and the town's enforcement, as well as the illogical way it applied and explained that enforcement' in the case of the mural. He permanently barred the town from trying to enforce the sign code against the painting. Bakery owner Sean Young, who filed the lawsuit in 2023 after being threatened with misdemeanour charges and fines, celebrated the ruling. The dispute centered on whether the mural was art or advertisement. The town's zoning board concluded that because it depicted products sold inside, the mural qualified as a sign. At 90 square feet, it exceeded the town's size limit for signage by four times. Board members said that if the painting had shown unrelated images, it would not have faced removal. Young sought only $1 in damages, underscoring what his attorney called 'a principled fight for artistic expression and community pride.' Residents of the area also weighed in. 'It's a horrible message to send to students who worked hard to do something so beautiful for the community,' said Gay Moceri, a retired English teacher from nearby Freedom, New Hampshire, as quoted by the Associated Press. The town's broad definition of a sign including 'any device, fixture, placard, structure or attachment thereto that uses colour, form, graphic, illumination, symbol, or writing to advertise, announce the purpose of, or identify the purpose of any person or entity, or to communicate information of any kind'—was criticised in court for seemingly encompassing nearly all visual expression. The case touches on deeper national debates around commercial speech, one of the most contested areas of First Amendment law. According to the Cato Institute, since the Supreme Court's 1980 ruling in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, courts have allowed greater government control over commercial messages than political or artistic speech. This uneven protection has led to numerous legal challenges. When Chef Geoff Tracy, an award-winning restaurateur in Virginia, advertised happy hour specials using the phrase 'two-for-one,' state regulators shut it down, citing a law banning certain language despite allowing the deals themselves. Similarly, Native artist Peggy Fontenot was told by the State of Oklahoma that she couldn't market her work as 'American Indian-made' because her tribe wasn't state-recognised. As for Young, the ruling is a breath of fresh air. 'I'm thrilled that the students' artwork can remain up, I'm thrilled that my First Amendment rights have been vindicated, and I'm thrilled that the community can continue to enjoy the beautiful piece of art,' Young said in a statement. 'I think our mural is a wonderful depiction of everything that makes the Mount Washington Valley such a great place to live.'
Epoch Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
New Hampshire Bakery Wins First Amendment Battle Over Pastry Mural
A federal judge has ruled that the New Hampshire town of Conway violated the free speech rights of a local bakery owner when it attempted to force the removal or alteration of a colorful mural depicting pastries, concluding a closely watched First Amendment dispute. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante issued the decision Monday, siding with Sean Young, owner of Leavitt's Country Bakery, after a one-day trial earlier this year.
Washington Post
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting
CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute. The town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Judge rules town's attempts to force bakery to take down pastry mural 'unconstitutional'
A federal judge ruled Monday that the town of Conway's attempt to force a local bakery to take down a mural of doughnut mountains painted by high school art students was 'unconstitutional,' and he ordered local officials to stop any efforts at enforcement. Monday's ruling followed a one-day trial on Feb. 14, during which Judge Joseph Laplante heard testimony from Leavitt's Country Bakery owner Sean Young, along with several town zoning officials regarding the town's enforcement of its sign code against Leavitt's. 'Conway's enforcement is unconstitutional as applied to the plaintiffs' display,' Judge Laplante wrote in his ruling. 'Conway is enjoined from enforcing its ordinance against Leavitt's bakery in the operationally illogical, textually unsupportable manner it employed in this instance.' 'I'm thrilled that the students' artwork can remain up. I'm thrilled that my First Amendment rights have been vindicated, and I'm thrilled that the community can continue to enjoy the beautiful piece of art,' Young said. 'I think our mural is a wonderful depiction of everything that makes the Mount Washington Valley such a great place to live.' Young was represented by attorney Cooper Cargill. He also worked with attorneys with the Virginia-based Institute for Justice. The mural vs. sign debate was first raised in 2022 after a group of art students at Kennett High School painted the front of the store with bright colors depicting items sold within the bakery, such as muffins and doughnuts that were imagined as views of the White Mountains and the Mount Washington Valley. Leavitt's was found to be in violation of the town's maximum sign size regulations. According to town officials, the mural was an illegal sign because it depicted something Leavitt's sells: baked goods. But if it had depicted real mountains instead, no violation would have occurred, officials said. Young tried to apply for a variance to keep the mural up. When he did so in September 2022, he had the backing of Conway residents with more than 1,000 people commenting positively on Leavitt's Facebook page, and letters to the editor published in the Conway Daily Sun arguing that the mural should stay. The Conway Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) voted unanimously against granting the bakery a variance, and doubled down on that decision in Nov. 2022, again denying the variance. Voters have since decided at Town Meeting to adopt a public art ordinance to regulate 'the installation of murals and also permits other art visible to the public on commercial and public property such as sculptures, street art, or other types of permanent artwork.' The Institute for Justice heard about Young's fight and sent Conway a letter in December 2022 urging officials to back off and to work with the institute to reform the town's unconstitutional sign code. When the town refused, Young and institute attorneys filed a federal lawsuit to protect his First Amendment rights. The mural has remained up while the suit was pending after a judge granted a temporary restraining order. 'Towns can certainly regulate signs. They can regulate the size of signs or the number of signs permitted, but what they can't do is pick and choose what signs to regulate based on what they depict,' institute attorney Betsy Sanz said in a statement. 'Today's ruling makes it clear that what Conway was doing was discriminating against certain signs based on what officials thought they depicted. And that's a clear First Amendment violation.' In the ruling, Judge Laplante wrote that, though the town said it had to regulate the Leavitt's mural to maintain safety and protect the natural beauty of the town, the town allows other murals to stay up unregulated. As Laplante wrote, the town's enforcement has 'no rational connection to any of its stated interests' such as safety and beauty and is therefore unconstitutional. An attempt to reach Conway officials for comment Monday was unsuccessful.
