Background:
In a sign regulation case that arose in the town of Gilbert, Arizona, the US Supreme Court changed its threshold analysis in a way that makes more ordinances “content-based regulations” which in turn invokes strict scrutiny as the process for evaluating the constitutionality of the ordinance. Nearly all ordinances fail strict scrutiny analysis by the courts. The question since the Gilbert case has been does the new analysis apply beyond sign regulations? Since Gilbert, the courts have extended its scope to other types of ordinances, and, importantly, in 2019 the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit (includes Iowa) applied it to and struck down an ordinance similar to our two ordinances.
Des Moines, Dubuque, and Council Bluffs, who were contacted by the ACLU of Iowa, reached the same conclusion and have repealed their versions of these ordinances.
If the US Supreme Court someday revisits its Gilbert analysis in light of its vast, negative impact on many reasonable regulations and abandons it or otherwise constrains it, the City may then be able to put something else in place.