In this case, the ACLU submitted an amicus brief on behalf of a group called "Taxpayers for Vincent," who had posted signs on utility poles in Los Angeles in support of a candidate for election to Los Angeles City Council. Section 28.04 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code prohibits the posting of signs on public property. Abiding by Section 28.04, city employees removed the signs from public property. Taxpayers for Vincent alleged that the city ordinance restricted their First Amendment rights to free speech. The city justified this ordinance as being necessary in "preventing visual clutter, minimizing traffic hazards, and preventing interference with the intended use of public property." This case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, weighed the free speech needs of the defendants against the city's interests.

Dissenting judges write: "Because the Court's lenient approach towards the restriction of speech for reasons of aesthetics threatens seriously to undermine the protections of the First Amendment, I dissent."