I-35 is the main artery of Austin; massive billboards on either side of it advertise a wide variety of goods and services to freeway drivers.
The City of Austin tried to block new digital billboards that related to "off-premise" activity (business conducted somewhere other than the location of the sign). The Fifth Circuit found this unconstitutional under the First Amendment as a content regulation.
In this episode, I follow the chain of hypotheticals that took this sign ordinance from "well-intentioned idea" to "unconstitutional law." Along the way, I consider how tricky it can be to distinguish "speech" itself (hard to regulate) from the "time, place, or manner" of that speech (much easier to regulate).