Photo by gerdaindc.

Before today, if you wanted to hang a sign on a District lamppost advocating for a particular candidate looking to run for office in 2020, that was fair game. But if the sign merely tried to make a point or express an opinion, it had to come down after 60 days. But a new set of emergency rules changes that, instead applying a blanket 180-day time limit on all signs hung on public lampposts throughout the District.

The change comes in the wake of a recent court ruling in which U.S. District Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth found that differentiating between the two types of signs — those that were event-specific, which could stay up longer, and those simply trying to express an opinion or advertise a product, which could only stay up for 60 days at a time — was unconstitutional. Instead of forcing him to act for them, Lamberth wrote, “[City officials] can revise the regulations to include a single, across-the-board durational restriction that applies equally to all viewpoints and subject matters.”

And they did. The emergency rules published in the D.C. Register simply say that any and all signs hung on lampposts can only stay up for 180 days. Event-specific signs still have to come down within 30 days of the actual event.

While this really won’t affect most people, it does change the dynamic for candidates running for elected office. Politicians gunning for the April 2012 primary will have to more carefully track when and where they hang signs — any going up now will have to come down before any they hang in, say, November. For a small campaign with limited resource, that’s going to be a huge logistical task.

Of course, all of these regulations are premised on them actually being enforced. Though most campaigns have been good about removing their signs, there’s still random 2010 and 2011 electoral detritus scattered on lampposts throughout the city. While the city is supposed to be able to fine the violators, I haven’t really ever heard that they do. (Sadly, none of these rules apply to ads on Metrobuses from 2008.)