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Johnson distributed to supporters 5,000 signs - which display the candidate's mug next to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama - to be put on poles along the street or in windows of homes and businesses. The law permits signs in windows.
Johnson's campaign manager, Hiram Ashantee, said in an affidavit filed with the court yesterday that two people told the campaign on Tuesday that they saw L&I crews removing Johnson's signs from poles.
The affidavit also attested that a voter putting a Johnson sign on a tree outside his home was "accosted" by an L&I employee and told to take down the sign.
L&I had told Johnson on March 26 to remove his signs "immediately" or they would be confiscated and he would be billed for the cost plus a $75 penalty.
Johnson's lawyer, Larry Otter, asked the court yesterday to reconsider the ruling, noting that removal of the signs days from the election was "outrageous" and constituted "irreparable harm."
U.S. Magistrate L. Felipe Restrepo told city lawyers to reply to Otter's filing by last night.
The legislative district includes the Point Breeze, Tasker, Wilson Park and Kingsessing areas.
The judge cited a 1983 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said that unicipalities could restrict protected speech as long as the restrictions didn't refer to content, were narrowly tailored and left open other means of communication.
"To the extent that [Johnson] has posted signs on public property which is prohibited by the ordinance," Restrepo wrote, "there has been no evidence that these signs have been removed."
Nicole Morris, a city lawyer, said the ban isn't unconstitutional since it was "narrowly tailored" and the city had an abiding public interest to promote aesthetics and public safety. *
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