Also known as: monuments · boundary marker · monumentation
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
2 senses
A physical object fixed permanently in land and used to mark boundaries in a metes and bounds description. Natural monuments include trees or rivers while artificial monuments include spikes or pipes set by surveyors. When a monument conflicts with a course or distance in the description the monument controls.
A physical object fixed permanently in land and used to mark boundaries in a metes and bounds description. Natural monuments include trees or rivers while artificial monuments include spikes or pipes set by surveyors. When a monument conflicts with a course or distance in the description the monument controls.
1 common questions
Monuments serve as fixed reference points that control over conflicting courses or distances. When a description refers to a monument the actual location of that monument governs the boundary even if the stated distance or bearing would lead elsewhere.
A permanent structure or display placed in a public park that constitutes government speech even when privately donated. Selection and content of such monuments receive no Free Speech Clause scrutiny and the government may reject additional monuments whose messages it does not endorse.
The State Parks Agency maintains Riverton Industrial Heritage Park featuring donated factory machines with plaques praising production. GreenEarth Alliance proposes a permanent sculpture criticizing factory pollution. The agency refuses the proposal. Because the existing machines and plaques are government speech the refusal does not trigger Free Speech Clause review and the agency may decline the new monument.
A permanent structure or display placed in a public park that constitutes government speech even when privately donated. Selection and content of such monuments receive no Free Speech Clause scrutiny and the government may reject additional monuments whose messages it does not endorse.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
The City of San Diego maintains a public monument honoring local veterans in a highway rest area. A company seeks to erect a large political sign immediately adjacent to the monument. The city denies the permit. The ordinance treats the proposed sign as private speech subject to time place and manner rules while the existing monument remains government speech immune from the same scrutiny.
San Diego enacted Ordinance No. 10795 prohibiting outdoor advertising display signs. The California Supreme Court defined such signs as rigidly assembled signs permanently affixed to the ground or attached to buildings or other permanent structures and used for displaying a commercial or other advertisement to the public. The ordinance created exceptions for onsite signs designating the name of the owner or occupant or advertising goods manufactured or services rendered on the premises. It also exempted twelve additional categories that included government signs, signs at public bus stops, commemorative historical plaques, religious symbols, for-sale and for-lease signs, signs on public and commercial vehicles, time-temperature-news signs, approved temporary off-premises subdivision directional signs, and temporary political campaign signs. Appellants Metromedia, Inc. and other companies engaged in the outdoor advertising business owned approximately 500 to 800 billboards within San Diego. All were located in areas zoned for commercial and industrial use, and most were situated on property leased specifically for maintaining the signs. Each billboard had a remaining useful income-producing life exceeding 25 years and a fair market value between $2,500 and $25,000. Space on the signs was made available to all comers, with copy changed regularly, usually monthly. The billboards had been used to convey both commercial messages and a broad range of noncommercial political and social messages. The parties entered a stipulation of facts stating that enforcement of the ordinance as written would eliminate the outdoor advertising business in San Diego. The stipulation also stated that outdoor advertising increases sales of products and produces numerous public benefits, that valuable commercial, political, and social information reaches the public through such displays, and that many businesses and politicians rely on outdoor advertising because other forms are insufficient, inappropriate, and prohibitively expensive. Appellants brought suit in state court to enjoin enforcement of the ordinance. After extensive discovery the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The trial court held the ordinance unconstitutional as an exercise of police power and an abridgment of First Amendment rights. The California Court of Appeal affirmed on the police power ground alone. The California Supreme Court reversed, upholding the ordinance as a proper exercise of municipal zoning authority. Appellants sought review in the United States Supreme Court, which noted probable jurisdiction.
View caseThe City of Pleasant Grove maintains a donated monument in its central park. IndieWave Records proposes an additional monument containing an ethnic slur used ironically to protest discrimination. The city refuses the proposal. Because the existing monument is government speech rather than private speech the refusal does not constitute unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment.
Simon Tam serves as the lead singer of the rock group The Slants, whose members are Asian-Americans. He chose the name in an effort to reclaim the term and drain its denigrating force as a derogatory reference to Asian persons. The group has incorporated childhood slurs into its lyrics and titled albums including The Yellow Album and Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts. Tam filed an application with the Patent and Trademark Office seeking registration of THE SLANTS as a trademark. The PTO examining attorney rejected the application after applying a two-part analysis and concluding that a substantial composite of persons of Asian descent would find the mark offensive. The attorney cited dictionary definitions labeling the term as derogatory and evidence that the band's name had prompted cancellation of a performance along with negative comments from online readers. Tam appealed the denial first to the examining attorney and then to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which upheld the refusal. Tam then brought the case before the Federal Circuit. Sitting en banc, that court reversed the Board. The Government petitioned for certiorari, and the Supreme Court granted review.
View case2 common questions
Permanent monuments in public parks constitute government speech even when privately donated. The government may therefore select which messages to endorse and may refuse additional monuments whose messages it does not wish to convey without triggering Free Speech Clause scrutiny.
Longstanding religious monuments on public property receive a presumption of constitutionality when they have historical significance and the secular context predominates. A large cross memorial and a Ten Commandments display among other historical markers have been upheld under this approach.
…of the communications market. Archaeologists use the term “graffiti” to describe informal inscriptions on tombs and ancient monuments. The graffito was familiar in the culture of Egypt and Greece, in the Italian decorative art of the 15th century, and it survives today in some subways and on the walls of public buildings.…