Institute for Justice – by Conor Beck
Last fall, August “Augie” Kersten, co-owner of the Lonesome Dove saloon in Mandan, North Dakota, decided to brighten up his building with a mural. Other businesses in town have murals, and Augie thought it would be just the thing to bring color and character to the otherwise drab and industrial area where his business faced the highway. He had no idea that, by doing so, he would be entering into a five-month bureaucratic nightmare where his own city would threaten him with court proceedings up to a thousand dollars in fines. Now, Augie, his business partner Brian Berube, and the Lonesome Dove have joined with the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice (IJ) to sue in federal court to protect both their mural and their right to free speech. Continue reading “Business Owners Bring Free Speech Lawsuit Against “Mural Police””