June 1, 2003 7:45 AM

Stoopid is as stoopid duz....

Political winds blow yard signs: Houstonian says civic group, deed rules harm free speech

So, when is free speech not OK? Well, how about when your political opinion runs afoul of the majority, and the majority happen to run your homewner's association? Michael Skadden is having trouble figuring out why one expression of political philosophy is acceptable and another is not. So much for the First Amenment, eh?

That's why he is perplexed that his neighborhood association wants him to remove the "Bill White / Get Houston Moving Sign" from his yard.

At the same time, the southwest Houston neighborhood is dotted with signs that say "We support President Bush and Our Troops."

The sometimes rancorous relations between individual residents and civic association leadership has sparked debate and even legislation in recent years, pitting individual property rights against efforts to maintain neighborhood character in a city without zoning.

But Skadden says his quarrel with the civic association is over free speech.

"It is clear that not only is the association trying to deprive us of our constitutional right to free expression, but also is doing it in a clearly partisan and discriminatory manner," Skadden recently wrote his neighborhood association.

White, a businessman and former Texas Democratic Party chairman, is running for election this fall. Bush, a Republican, is running for re-election next year.

What disturbed Skadden was a notice his wife received Tuesday from the Precinct 287 Civic Association telling her to remove the White sign from their house in the Post Oak Manor subdivision....

The letter, from civic association secretary Judith Jones, informed Skadden and his wife that new deed restrictions the neighborhood imposed last year prohibit "temporary signs, such as political signs" from being erected more than 90 days before a political event.

What is fascinating is that signs expressing support for Shrub are not defined as political in nature, but merely as a personal expression of support- never mind the fact that most of the signs were printed and paid for by the Harris County Republican Party.

"Political speech is the most important speech protected by the First Amendment," Skadden said. "This is what happens when people try to limit people's freedom of speech, which is exactly what the civic association is trying to do."

Even if the deed restriction is constitutional, he said, enforcing it against the White signs and not the Bush signs is wrong.

After the war began in Iraq, the Harris County Republican Party produced thousands of signs supporting Bush and the troops. The party requested a $1 donation for each sign.

Just because the signs also support American troops in Iraq does not mean they aren't politically motivated, Skadden said.

Jones, a GOP precinct judge who had a Bush sign up until two weeks ago when she "grew tired of it," said there is no comparison between a sign advocating White for mayor and one supporting Bush.

"The (Bush sign) doesn't say `Support Bush for re-election,' " Jones said. "If it did, I would say, `Uh-oh.'

"But it doesn't say that -- it is a statement of general public expression," she said. "I believe I could put a sign in my front yard 370 days a year saying George Bush is a communist, and no one could tell me to take it down."

This has PR nightmare written all over it, and if Ms. Jones hadn't been so stupidly and blindly partisan, she would have recognized the Pandora's Box she was opening. This whole episode would qualify as much ado about nothing, until you consider that some of the homeowner's associations in metropolitan Houston make Saddam Hussein's Iraq look positively benign. Ultimately, if they chose to take this issue to it's ridiculous extreme, the homeowner's association could foreclose on Skadden's home for violating the association's covenant.

Ms. Jones, there is a very simple solution here, and I'm surprised that you seem too cravenly partisan to see it. Either ban ALL signs of ANY political nature, or ban NONE of them. You cannot have it both ways- especially when your opponent is a lawyer AND an ACLU member. Nice choice of opponents, eh??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 1, 2003 7:45 AM.

Too true.... was the previous entry in this blog.

There's a time and a place for that, and it's called COLLEGE! is the next entry in this blog.

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