The dispute centers on two digital billboard signs permitted in 1993. In 2018, a Georgia state court ruled that the original permits were unlawful under the 1982 code's restrictions on general advertising signs near freeways. Atlanta subsequently ordered the signs removed and issued arrest citations to company officials, which were stayed pending this federal litigation.
Chief Judge William Pryor, writing for a unanimous panel, held that the district court erred in finding the entire 1982 sign code content-based. The court focused on subsection (7), which limits signs advertising businesses not principally conducted on the premises where the sign is located.
Pryor wrote that regulations distinguishing between on-premises and off-premises signs are content neutral under Supreme Court precedent. The court relied heavily on the 2022 decision in City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising, rejecting Multimedia's argument that the Atlanta code was distinguishable.
The Eleventh Circuit also ruled that Multimedia lacked standing to challenge the entire ordinance. The court noted that the company suffered injury only under subsection (7) and therefore could not mount a facial challenge to other provisions of the 1982 code.
The appellate court declined to rule definitively on the ordinance's constitutionality. Instead, it remanded the case for the district court to apply the proper intermediate scrutiny standard for content-neutral regulations.