Norton Outdoor Advertising Inc v. Village of St Bernard OH: Date Argued: February 18th, 2026; Docket Number: 25-3265

Case Summary:In the case of Norton Outdoor Advertising, Inc. v. Village of St. Bernard, OH (Docket No. 25-3265), argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on February 18, 2026, the relevant facts are as follows:The litigation centers on a First Amendment challenge by Norton Outdoor Advertising, which has operated billboards in the Village of St. Bernard for decades.The dispute was triggered when the Village revoked a permit for two billboards located at 130 West Ross Avenue after Norton converted them from static displays to variable-message LED signs.The Village justified the revocation by citing a specific section of its municipal code that prohibits "multiple-message or variable-message" displays for off-premises advertising signs.Norton filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Village's sign ordinance was unconstitutional because it treated "on-premises" signs more favorably than "off-premises" signs and contained content-based exemptions.In a prior phase of the case, the Sixth Circuit determined that while on/off-premises distinctions are generally content-neutral, the Village’s ordinance included a "public service" exemption that required officials to examine the content of a sign to determine its legality.The appellate court previously ruled that this specific exemption rendered the ordinance content-based, thus triggering strict scrutiny, the highest level of judicial review for speech restrictions.The current appeal, docketed as 25-3265, follows a remand to the district court to determine whether the unconstitutional "public service" exemption can be severed from the rest of the sign code.The factual record involves a debate over legislative intent: the Village argues the code should remain enforceable without the exemption, while Norton contends the entire regulatory scheme is so intertwined with content-based distinctions that it must be struck down in its entirety.During the oral arguments on February 18, 2026, the Sixth Circuit panel examined whether severing the exemption would fundamentally alter the Village's original goal of balancing traffic safety and aesthetics with free speech rights.The court also scrutinized whether the remaining ban on digital billboards can stand independently if the underlying definitions used to categorize those signs are found to be constitutionally flawed.