Baldwin Park Free Speech Coalition v. City of Baldwin Park

I. INTRODUCTION

This case raises the latest challenge to defendant City of Baldwin Park’s (“City’s”) sign ordinance, which this Court enjoined in July 2017, and which the City subsequently amended in November 2017. Plaintiff Baldwin Park Free Speech Coalition, an association that seeks to promote transparency in local government, and one of its members, plaintiff Richard Ehlers (together “FSC”), filed this action against the City on November 18, 2019 to challenge the constitutionality and prevent the enforcement of the City’s amended sign ordinance, Baldwin Park Municipal Code (“BPMC”) § 153.170.040 et seq. (the “sign ordinance”). See ECF No. (“Compl.”). As in the first action, the complaint alleges that (1) the sign ordinance violates plaintiffs’ rights secured by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as the First Amendment to the California Constitution, by imposing: (a) an unlawful content-based restriction on protected speech; (b) an unlawful prior restraint on protected speech; and (c) an unlawful tax on protected speech. Id. at J 33- 42. The complaint also alleges that the sign ordinance (2) violates plaintiffs’ rights…