Thursday, August 29, 2024
Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in favor of Jewish family in free speech dispute over anti-hate signs
A Jewish family had the free-speech right to blanket their yard with signs decrying hate and racism after their next-door neighbor hurled an antisemitic slur at them during a property dispute 10 years ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules.
The court decides Simon and Toby Galapo were exercising their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution when they erected protest signs on their property and pointed them squarely at the neighbor's house in the Philadelphia suburbs — a total of 23 signs over a span of years — with messages such as "Hitler Eichmann Racists," "No Place 4 Racism" and "Woe to the Racists. Woe to the Neighbors."
"All homeowners at one point or another are forced to gaze upon signs they may not like on their neighbors' property — be it ones that champion a political candidate, advocate for a cause, or simply express support or disagreement with some issue," Justice Kevin Dougherty writes for the court's 4-2 majority. He says suppressing such speech would "mark the end to residential expression."
In a dissent, Justice Kevin Brobson says judges have the authority to "enjoin residential speech… that rises to the level of a private nuisance and disrupts the quiet enjoyment of a neighbor's home."
The neighbors' ongoing feud over a property boundary and "landscaping issues" came to a head in November 2014 when a member of the Oberholtzer family directed an antisemitic slur at Simon Galapo, according to court documents. By the following June, the Galapo family had put up what would be the first of numerous signs directed at the Oberholtzer property.
The Oberholtzers filed suit, seeking an order to prohibit their neighbors from erecting signs "containing false, incendiary words, content, innuendo and slander." Simon Galapo testified that he wanted to make a statement about antisemitism and racism, teach his children to fight it, and change his neighbors' behavior.
Comments:
Post a Comment
