Banner Time Shaun Martin

I don’t know about you, but when I pay thousands of dollars to take myself and my family to the beautiful beaches of Hawaii, I’m really not that interested in looking out over the glorious sand and wonderful surf and seeing a 100-foot long banner towed behind an airplane that contains graphic pictures of aborted fetuses.  Or anything else, for that matter.

Which is why Hawaii has long prohibited airplane banners — of any type — on its beaches.  And why Judge McKeown of the Ninth Circuit rightly upholds this prohibition against a First Amendment (and preemption) challenge in this opinion.  It’s a well-written, and entirely correct, decision.

Feel free to pass out your literature and post your pictures on the sidewalks, at City Hall, and on the internet.  Just leave the sky over the beaches alone, okay?  That doesn’t seem like it’s asking for much.  From anyone — both commercial advertisers and political activists alike.