Matthew Prensky
Matthew Prensky · January 13, 2025

ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) condemns the city of Germantown, Tennessee for its brazen violation of Americans’ free speech rights after it cited Alexis Luttrell, a Germantown resident, for violating the city’s sign code.  Her supposed crime: Incorporating Halloween decorations like skeletons into her Christmas yard display. You would think that only a grinch would look at Luttrell’s decorations and think they deserve a court summons. But IJ cases from over a decade show that officials across the country regularly abuse ordinary Americans by acting like the “speech police.” 

“The whole idea behind free speech is that you get to choose what you want to put up to celebrate,” said Robert Frommer, an IJ senior attorney. “Officials shouldn’t get to block you from expressing yourself just because they dislike your reason for the season.”

As WREG reported, Luttrell put a skeleton and a skeleton dog in her yard to commemorate Halloween. After Halloween passed, Luttrell repurposed the skeleton and skeleton dog so they could be integrated into her Christmas decorations. However, Germantown officials weren’t pleased and issued Luttrell a court summons, stating that her decorations violated city code. Germantown bans residents from installing holiday decorations more than 45 days before the date of the holiday and requires residents to remove seasonal decorations within 30 days after the holiday. Luttrell’s court date is set for Feb. 13. 

Germantown’s enforcement actions violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A core principle of the First Amendment is that the government generally can’t discriminate against speech based on what it says or who put it up. And here, that includes the decorations that someone puts up to celebrate. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2015 decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, made clear that those kind of content-based regulations must serve the most compelling of government interests. Installing holiday decorations “too early” or keeping them up “too late” simply doesn’t fit the bill. 

IJ has years of experience litigating across the country against similar violations of Americans’ free speech rights. IJ has sued several local governments including Conway, New Hampshire, where city officials ordered a local bakery remove a mural that was painted by some local high school art students because it featured some of the same baked goods that were sold inside. In another case, IJ sued Norfolk, Virginia, which tried to suppress a small business’ protest banner because it condemned the government’s unlawful attempt to seize the business’ property through eminent domain. After going to the Supreme Court in 2015, IJ won that case, and that small business, Central Radio Inc., is still alive and thriving.