Lauder, Inc. v. City of Houston, Texas

This appeal involves a First Amendment challenge to a newsrack ordinance enacted by the City of Houston in 2007. The ordinance requires newsracks on the City’s rights-of-way to meet certain material, size, and placement standards and requires publishers using newsracks to pay a permit fee. Lauder, Inc., the plaintiff, publishes a free monthly newspaper funded almost entirely by advertisements and uses newsracks to distribute the paper. The plaintiff alleged in its complaint that the ordinance violates the First Amendment because, among other reasons, it was not based on an established record…