The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tossed the Chicago Cubs a curve when it ruled to uphold a city ordinance banning all peddling including print around Wrigley Field with the collateral damage of benching the Cubs’ sales of merchandise in the area. The team had been sued by Left Field Media who was prevented from selling their $2 game day magazine Chicago Baseball on the streets around Wrigley. (Chicago Tribune, May 25, 2016, by Noah Feldman of Bloomberg News)
The Chicago law was enacted for safety reasons since swarms of peddlers on game day blocked sidewalks around the stadium forcing pedestrians to walk on the streets. “Because the ordinance is neutral with respect to speech (both the fact of speech and the content of speech), the City need not bear any burden beyond supplying a rational basis – and the need to curtail activity that delays entry and induces crowds to spill into the streets is more than enough,” Frank Easterbrook wrote for the three-judge panel. (Courthouse News Service, May 25, 2016, by Jack Bouboushian)