Latest news with #Leavitt'sCountryBakery
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.'
Toronto Sun
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
A town tried to take down a bakery's mural of pastries. A judge ruled it can stay.
Published May 21, 2025 • 4 minute read Sean Young's bakery, Leavitt's Country Bakery in Conway, New Hampshire, has a colorful mural above its entrance. MUST CREDIT: Institute for Justice jpg The debate that had consumed Sean Young's life for nearly three years revolved around a painting of doughnuts, cookies, a cinnamon roll, a raspberry turnover and a blueberry muffin. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. 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Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Students at a high school near Young's New Hampshire bakery created the mural above the shop's front door in June 2022. But the town of Conway told Young the painting wasn't a mural, it was a sign that exceeded the town's legal size limit and would need to be taken down. Young left the mural up, and sued the town the next year, claiming its ordinance violates the First Amendment. On Monday, the legal battle resulted in a sweet ending for Young, 54. A judge wrote in an order that Conway's enforcement of its ordinance against the painting is 'unconstitutional' and 'operationally illogical,' ruling that the mural can remain in front of the shop, Leavitt's Country Bakery. For Young and Ashton-Rose Gallant, one of the student painters, the news brought relief. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As Conway fought to remove the mural, Gallant, 19, said he sometimes wished he 'had never painted the mural' because of the town's backlash. 'But in the end,' he said, 'I'm really glad I painted it.' After Young bought Leavitt's Country Bakery in the spring of 2021, it became known as one of New Hampshire's top doughnut shops. Its most popular pastries include handmade apple fritters, honey-dipped doughnuts and chocolate frosted doughnuts. For years, the front of the shop was red and featured the bakery's logo, an image of a blackbird sitting atop a pie. But in the spring of 2022, an art teacher from Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire, was looking for a place in the community where her students could start a project. Young offered the front of his bakery. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Students wanted to create something that reflected the east New Hampshire region, where skiers flock in the winter and hikers and water tubers come in the summer. They never thought people would interpret the mural as a sign, Gallant said. The result showed a line of pastries – including a chocolate frosted doughnut with colourful sprinkles, a meringue cookie, a chocolate chip cookie, a strawberry frosted doughnut, a sugar cookie and a Boston crème – that represented the nearby Mount Washington Valley mountains. In the mural, a sun rises over the pastries, creating bright rays. Young bought Leavitt's Country Bakery in the spring of 2021. (Institute for Justice) jpg Students, their families and community members attended the mural's unveiling in June 2022. Gallant said the mural was 'brightening up the valley.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That changed about a week later, when a municipal code enforcement officer who had seen the mural in a local newspaper told Young that the painting was a sign because it advertised the bakery's products, and at about 91 square feet, it was roughly four times as big as what the town allowed. Young could be fined $275 every day that the mural was on the building and face a misdemeanor for violating the code. 'I thought right from the beginning, 'Something's not right here,'' Young said. If the painting didn't show products sold in the store or was placed outside the bakery's property, it would be classified as a mural and could remain, according to Monday's order. In the months after Young received the initial notice, Conway's zoning board denied Young's appeal of the enforcement officer's assessment and his efforts to keep the painting. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It's a zoning ordinance, which was enacted by the legislative body, which are the voters of the town who are here,' John Colbath, the zoning board chair, said at a meeting in August 2022, according to a recording of the meeting. 'And there is a process for changing it if they don't like it.' Gallant, who began working as a server at the bakery in August 2022, said he felt pride every time he walked under his mural to start work. He said customers encouraged the bakery to keep the painting. Near the end of 2022, the town told Young that they would begin fining him if he didn't remove the painting, according to Young's attorneys. Young refused and began working with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that sent a letter to Conway in November 2022 asserting that the ordinance is vague and unconstitutional. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In January 2023, Young filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire that argued that the town violated his free-speech rights. He requested $1 in damages, saying he mainly wanted the town to stop attempting to remove the mural. A judge granted a temporary restraining order that allowed the mural to remain until the case finished. Attorneys representing Conway argued in court that the town restricts the size of signs to preserve the town's safety and 'natural beauty' and enforce 'equal treatment' to all residents. But Judge Joseph Laplante wrote in his order Monday that the town's enforcement of its ordinance had 'no rational connection to any of [the town's] stated interests' and 'would not pass any level of scrutiny.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Brooke Shilo, an attorney representing Conway, wrote in an email to The Washington Post that the town was 'disappointed' by the ruling. 'The Town will continue to work conscientiously and in good faith to ensure that the constitutional rights of all are not infringed,' Shilo wrote, 'while maintaining public safety and Conway's natural beauty.' After his attorneys informed him of the decision Monday afternoon, Young said he called his staff and his wife to rejoice. He also called Gallant, who said he hopes the mural won't remind people about the debate, but will simply make them happy. The project partly inspired Gallant's dream to become a tattoo artist, which he is pursuing while studying liberal arts at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts. Young said the bakery will celebrate the ruling later this week – maybe by giving a free doughnut to anyone who walks under the mural. Canada Columnists Sunshine Girls Toronto Maple Leafs Basketball
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.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge Rules in Favor of New Hampshire Bakery in Fight Over Donut Mural
A New Hampshire bakery has won a crucial victory in its fight to preserve a mural of donuts and other baked goods above its storefront. While town officials have attempted to force the bakery to remove the mural, citing zoning regulations, a federal court ruled on Monday that the city cannot enforce its sign rules against the bakery. In 2022, Sean Young, the owner of Leavitt's Country Bakery, a popular bakery in Conway, New Hampshire, collaborated with a local high school art class to paint a mural for the bakery's storefront. The students' mural depicted baked goods forming the shape of a mountain range, with a multicolored sunrise in the background. Initially, the mural didn't cause any controversy—and it was even covered positively by local media. However, about a week after being installed, Conway's Code Enforcement Officer Jeremy Gibbs told Young that the mural violated town zoning rules. According to the town, the mural violated local laws that regulate signs. Because the mural depicted baked goods—which the bakery obviously sells—it was deemed a "sign," not a mural, and signs are subject to rules limiting their size. While the town's rules define a sign incredibly broadly, in practice, the town only enforces its sign regulations on speech it perceives as commercial in nature. If Leavitt's Country Bakery had erected a mural of just a sunrise, for example, the town would have no problem with it, even though the rules on the books would apply to both. "Imposing different burdens on speech depending on who is speaking and what is being said is content based and speaker based restriction on free speech," reads a 2023 complaint from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law group, which represented the bakery in its lawsuit against Conway. On Monday, a judge agreed. While the judge noted that the town's sign rules, as written, don't necessarily violate the Constitution, the selective nature of the town's enforcement does. "The court rules only that Conway's application of its sign code, and specifically its enforcement of the sign code to the Leavitt's sign in the particular manner it employed in this case, does not withstand any level of constitutional scrutiny," reads a ruling from District Judge Joseph N. Laplante enjoining the town from forcing Young to remove the mural. "Although the display may have violated the sign code because of its size, Gibbs' determination was based on a rationale with no textual basis in the sign code, which does not distinguish between displays based on content." The ruling is a major victory for the bakery's ability to paint a mural on its own property—without government meddling. "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 for Justice Attorney Betsy Sanz said in a Monday press release. "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." The post Judge Rules in Favor of New Hampshire Bakery in Fight Over Donut Mural appeared first on
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.
