Foti

Rossi Foti (“Foti”) and David Larsen (“Larsen”) regularly picket and leaflet on a public sidewalk in the City of Menlo Park (“City”) in front of a Planned Parenthood facility. They challenge the constitutionality of Menlo Park Ordinance No. 877, which regulates picketing, leafletting, and posting or displaying signs on public property. The district court denied their motion for a preliminary injunction, and this appeal followed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1), and we reverse in part and affirm in part.

BACKGROUND

Foti and Larsen carry out their picketing on a public sidewalk in Menlo Park several times a week. The sidewalk borders a four-lane arterial roadway that accommodates approximately 23,000 cars per day. When Foti and Larsen first began their protest, they carried signs as large as three feet by five feet. Some of these signs bore pictures of aborted fetuses; others displayed anti-abortion messages. In addition to carrying these signs, Foti and Larsen also placed numerous signs around a public bus stop bench and attached as many as fourteen signs on Foti’s car, which was legally parked in the street. Foti and Larsen’s other activities included…