A. Dwight Pettit; Barbara Pettit; Plaintiff-appellant, v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore; Defendant-appellee, 818 F.2d 861 (4th Cir. 1987)

Annotate this Case
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - 818 F.2d 861 (4th Cir. 1987) Submitted March 23, 1987. Decided May 15, 1987

Before WIDENER and SPROUSE, Circuit Judges, and BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.

A. Dwight Pettit, Barbara Pettit, appellants pro se.

Eugene A. Seidel, for appellee.

PER CURIAM:


A. Dwight Pettit, a citizen of Baltimore, property owner, and filed candidate for Congress, and Barbara Pettit, his wife, brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, alleging that Ordinance 618, entitled "Political Campaign Signs", violates their constitutional rights under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court denied the Pettits a preliminary and a permanent injunction, and granted judgment in favor of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

We affirm the district court's decision. Ordinance 618 is a reasonable 'time, place and manner' restriction which furthers the City of Baltimore's aesthetic interest in limiting "visual clutter." See Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748, 771 (1976); City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 804-05 (1984). The classifications that the ordinance establishes bear a rational relationship to this interest. See Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 216-18 (1982).

We dispense with oral argument because the dispositive issues recently have been decided authoritatively.

AFFIRMED.

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.