Yesterday, the Cheyenne City Council voted to amend the Cheyenne Unified Development Code to conform to the preliminary injunction we secured against the city in our case Williams v. Cheyenne last week.
What does that mean? The Wyoming Tribune Eagle sums it up nicely:
As the story notes, the amendment to the UDC only passed by a 7-3 vote, and even council members who voted in favor of it are willing to revisit sign restrictions in the future. Some of these ideas would pass constitutional muster, but they're mostly silly. Residents can be trusted with speech, and civil society must be left to solve some of its own problems, such as annoying neighbors who put up "too many" signs or leave them out for "too long".
But what if future ordinances don't conform to the First Amendment? Well, that's exactly what happened less than two decades after our client Ron Williams won his lawsuit in 1996. Vigilance is key.
Our lawsuit is now winding down, and we were proud to represent Ron in "Williams II". We'll continue to monitor speech issues here in Cheyenne and throughout Wyoming, and lend a strong voice in court to citizens silenced by unconstitutional laws.