Madison, Wis., Digital Billboard Ban Passes Constitutional Test

Madison, Wisconsin’s ban on digital billboards was upheld by the Seventh Circuit, which applied a recent Supreme Court decision and rejected an advertising company’s First Amendment suit.

In 2009, the city prohibited digital displays on off-premises advertising signs. Adams Outdoor Advertising, which operates some 90 billboards in Madison, sued after the city denied its applications to convert some to digital displays.

The company contended that under the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, ordinances that distinguish between on-premises signs and off-premises signs draw content-based regulatory lines and therefore must satisfy strict scrutiny.

“Adams Outdoor ...