You would think in this economy, Arlington County would do all it could to get out of the way of entrepreneurs who seek to create jobs for themselves and others. But you’d be wrong.
Wag More Dogs is a new canine daycare and grooming business in Arlington’s Shirlington neighborhood that opened this past September. Through hard work, its owner, Kim Houghton, has created new jobs and brought a valuable new service to the D.C. metropolitan area. But rather than celebrate this success, Arlington officials have muzzled Kim by forcing her to choose between her right to speak and her right to earn an honest living.
Wag More Dogs is next to the Shirlington Dog Park, a destination for Arlington dog lovers that Kim has gone to for years. In March, Kim commissioned a local artist to paint a mural of happy cartoon dogs, bones and paw prints on Wag More Dogs’ rear wall. Her goals were to beautify the park she had enjoyed for so many years and create goodwill for her business.
Two months and $4,000 later, the artwork was complete. Patrons of the dog park repeatedly told Kim how much they liked the painting.
Keep in mind, Kim’s artwork doesn’t mention Wag More Dogs or have any lettering. Still, in August, Arlington County officials told Kim that her artwork was an “illegal sign” under the county’s zoning ordinance. Why? Well, according to Arlington’s Zoning Administrator, Kim’s art could not “show anything that has any relationship with [her] business.”
In other words, Wag More Dogs could paint flowers, dragons or ponies on its wall, but cartoon dogs were verboten.
Arlington would not let Wag More Dogs open until it hid its offending artwork away from the community. More than one year had passed since Kim first signed the lease for Wag More Dogs’ building.
Desperate to get her business up and running, Kim agreed to cover the painting with a series of ugly blue tarps. Those tarps have now been up for over three months; if Kim takes them down, Wag More Dogs will immediately be forced to close and will face hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in fines.
What has happened to Kim and Wag More Dogs is the inevitable result of a legal system that gives government officials absolute discretion to treat entrepreneurs with disdain. Arlington broadly defines a “sign” as anything that “is used to direct, identify, or inform the public.” This standard is both hopelessly vague and requires officials to rigorously inspect not only a painting’s message but the identity of the person who put it up.
This is flatly unconstitutional. The First Amendment does not let government officials play art critic or decide what speech to burden based on who is doing the talking.
Furthermore, Arlington’s investigation into who is saying what does not in any way promote public health or safety. An auto parts shop, for instance, could freely paint a mural of children playing on its wall, but not a nearly identical picture that featured race cars. And a mural on a child care center next door could depict cars, but not children.
Arbitrary and pointless distinctions like this are simply incompatible with the Constitution.
Thankfully for anyone fed up with bureaucratic bullying, Kim has chosen to fight back. Today, she and Wag More Dogs has joined with the Institute for Justice —- a national public-interest law firm that litigates on behalf of government-menaced entrepreneurs, which also happens to be based in Arlington —- to file a federal lawsuit that seeks to strike down this unconstitutional ordinance.
When she wins, Kim will have done more than just unveil her happy cartoon dogs to the world once more. She will have vindicated the right of entrepreneurs to speak out without being at the mercy of government bureaucrats who enforce arbitrary laws.
Robert Frommer is an attorney with the Institute for Justice and lead counsel on behalf of Wag More Dogs. For more information, visit www.ij.org/DogMural.
