Back in January, we looked at some of the recent ramifications of the Reed v. Town of Gilbert Supreme Court decision, in which the Court ruled that “placing limits on temporary directional signs that were more stringent than these other types of temporary signs was a content-based regulation of speech—a violation of the First Amendment.” That 2015 SCOTUS decision has forced many municipalities to review their sign codes—the regulations that impact the type, placement and often design of signage—and has opened up a variety of cans of worms. Now, another court decision—this time from a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and not SCOTUS (yet, perhaps)—has further muddied the waters of sign regulation.

In Thomas v. Bright, a case that originated in Tennessee, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of the federal district court that the government cannot distinguish between on-premise and off-premise signage because it is an unconstitutional content-based distinction. The decision, said David Hickey, VP Advocacy, of the International Sign Association (ISA), “could possibly change the way that signs are regulated and the way that the sign industry does business.”

So...some serious implications.