CONWAY, N.H.—On Friday, Leavitt’s Country Bakery and the town of Conway, New Hampshire reached a settlement agreement resolving all the outstanding issues in the bakery’s First Amendment lawsuit against the town. This global settlement comes after a federal trial court ruled in May that the town’s enforcement of its sign code against Leavitt’s was unconstitutional, and officially ends the litigation. Leavitt’s Owner Sean Young and his attorneys from the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed the lawsuit in January 2023, after town zoning officials attempted to force Leavitt’s to take down the donut mural, painted on its facade by local high school art students.
“I’m happy to finally put this all behind me and that the mural will remain safe,” said Sean. “This case was always about protecting the students’ artwork and my First Amendment rights, and I’m thankful that IJ stepped in to obtain this victory.”
In Friday’s agreement, the town agreed to not enforce a public art ordinance passed in the wake of the lawsuit, to recommend a repeal of that ordinance to voters during next year’s town meeting, and to pay attorney’s fees for Leavitt’s.
“We tried to resolve this issue without litigation back in December 2022, when we sent the town a letter and offered to help officials re-write the sign code,” said IJ Attorney Betsy Sanz. “Had the town worked with us then to resolve the constitutional problems with their sign code and their approach to enforcing it, the town could’ve saved time and taxpayer money.”
The town’s application of its sign code against Leavitt’s began in June 2022. Within a few days of the mural being unveiled the town’s assistant building inspector saw a story about it in the Conway Daily Sun and cited Leavitt’s for violating the town’s sign code. Why? According to town officials, the mural was an illegal sign because it depicted something Leavitt’s sells: baked goods.
Sean applied for a variance to keep the mural up in September 2022 and had the backing of Conway residents with more than 1,000 people commenting positively on Leavitt’s Facebook page and scores of letters to the editor published in the Conway Daily Sun arguing that the mural should stay. Still, the Conway Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) voted unanimously against granting the bakery a variance. Then, in November 2022, the ZBA doubled down, again denying the variance.
In December 2022, IJ sent Conway a letter telling officials the enforcement was unconstitutional and offering to work with them to reform the sign code. But the town refused, and Sean and IJ were left with no other options, they filed the federal lawsuit the following month to protect Sean’s First Amendment rights. The mural remained up while the suit was pending after the town agreed to pause enforcement after Sean asked the court for a temporary restraining order. Then, in May 2025, the trial court ruled in favor of Leavitt’s, leading to Friday’s settlement, which marks the formal end of the litigation.
“We’re thrilled to have Sean’s First Amendment rights vindicated, and we’re hopeful that voters will formally repeal the public art ordinance come next year,” said IJ Senior Attorney Robert Frommer.