Fed's Judge Says Ban on Banner-Towing is OK

The judge said it's OK for a law to be unconstitutional part of the time, apparently even most of the time. In fact, he said, for the banner-towing plaintiffs to win, they have to show that the FAA's ban on their business is always a restriction of free speech.

The FAA's lawyer said his client regulates airspace, not speech. That argument was good enough for U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young, who said earlier in the week said that the banner tower's problem with being forced out of business by the Department of Homeland Security's paranoia about banner-towing airplanes wasn't a 'free speech' problem. Honest -- that's what he said, in a ruling in Evansville (IN).

The 'public interest' outweighs 'hardships' suffered by aerial advertising companies following air traffic restrictions around sites that could be terrorist targets, Young wrote in the ruling.

Apparently the government's judge doesn't think there's any 'public interest' in the Bill of Rights.

The ruling will be appealed.

FMI: www.dhs.gov