JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Gov. Bob Holden plans to sign legislation restricting sexually oriented billboards along Missouri highways, the governor's legal counsel said.
SB 870, which was passed earlier this month by the General Assembly, would bar most new billboards promoting strip clubs and other adult businesses from within one mile of Missouri highways. Existing billboards would have three years to come down.
Eventually, an adult-oriented business located within one mile of a highway could have just two signs - one showing the business' name and operating hours, the other noting it is off-limits to minors.
Holden's chief legal counsel, David Cosgrove, said in a letter published May 24 in the Columbia Daily Tribune that the governor supports the bill and will sign it into law. Part of Cosgrove's job is reviewing bills for any legal troubles before Holden signs them.
Cosgrove's letter came after the newspaper published a three-page spread May 23 about the proliferation of sexually oriented businesses - and signs - along Interstate 70. In the story, some business owners repeated vows to challenge the new billboard restrictions on grounds they violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
Cosgrove said protecting people, particularly children, from sexually oriented highway signs "is the very form of societal interest the courts and Constitution consider adequate when permitting the regulation of commercial speech."
"This bill protects Missouri's families and landscape from the crowd of unavoidable obscene advertisements along our public highways," Cosgrove wrote.
Holden's office has not scheduled a signing date.
The House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation, despite some objections from lawmakers about limiting free speech.
More than 12,000 billboards line Missouri highways, according to the Department of Transportation, although no statistics are kept regarding content.
Missouri's legislation was patterned on a New Jersey law that allows just two signs - one for identification and one telling minors to stay out - for all sex-related businesses. The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld that law in 1998, saying the state had an interest in protecting the welfare of minors and reducing crime.
