Photo by T.D. Ford

Hate coming back to your car and finding a leaflet for a nightclub or lawn-cutting service tucked under the windshield wiper? Well, one D.C. legislator wants them outlawed.

Today Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced legislation that would ban the placement of commercial leaflets on parked cars, saying that those “annoying leaflets, flyers and other documents” contribute to litter throughout the city. Other cities have similarly implemented such bans—New York has one—but the courts have been split on whether they’re constitutional or not.

In 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that a ban in one Arkansas town was unconstitutional, writing that “the ordinances suppress considerably more speech than is necessary to serve the stated governmental purpose of preventing litter.” (In 2001, a Wisconsin District Court similarly knocked down a ban in Milwaukee.) In 2005, though, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a ban on windshield flyers imposed by a Kentucky town was legal because the town proved that it had it substantial interest in combating litter.

Graham admitted that the courts were split on the matter, but noted that the D.C. Circuit has not yet taken up the issue.