Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Today in Graffiti News

Fresh off his success yesterday obtaining a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a New York City graffiti-paraphernalia law, Marc Ecko has brought a claim in federal court in Florida challenging a Miami Beach law barring graffiti on the grounds that it "violates his freedom of speech and artistic expression." Story here. Meanwhile, according to the New York Daily News, Mayor Bloomberg said he had "wondered about the [New York City] law's constitutionality when it was passed" but added: "First Amendment rights are First Amendment rights. But you do not have the right to walk up and deface a subway car ... and the same thing is true of private property." The New York Press has a lengthy and interesting piece on the New York lawsuit.