File under "We would have felt stupider if we'd lost because we didn't make the argument":

Morrissette was convicted of violating the ordinance prohibiting signs �containing religious, educational or charitable messages or which advertise events for nonprofit organizations� that �exceed eight square feet in area and five feet in height.� Morrissette�s signs were 32 square feet. The county does not place such limitations on other categories of signs. Morrissette�s signs read,
�Welcome to Chesterfield
Where Government is Corrupt
Taxes Are High
and the Schools are Mobile� and
�Ed Barber, Renny Humphrey, Art Warren, Kelly Miller and Lane Ramsey, in their Official Capacity, are Corrupt, Self-Serving Liars. Challenge them to a Polygraph.�

The county argued that the signs were educational and therefore subject to size restrictions. Judge Cleo E. Powell ruled that Morrissette�s signs did not fall in the education category since they expressed his opinions rather than providing factual information.

From the ACLU of Virginia, which regards this as a half-victory because the judge refused to invalidate the entire ordinance as an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech.