Union County's Board of Commissioners was wise to accept the prudent advice of State's Attorney Jerry Miller on Tuesday and back off on recent county efforts to force Hyperion foes to take down anti-refinery signs.
Those attempts appeared to be nothing less than a heavy-handed campaign directed only at a specific group of citizens. As a result, some of those county residents raised legitimate questions involving private property and freedom of speech.
At the recommendation of Miller, commissioners voted to suspend the section of the county's zoning code that was being used to require residents of the county to take down some 500 anti-Hyperion signs. The ordinance, Miller said following the board meeting, is not "constitutionally valid as written." The county's next step will be to draft a new signage ordinanace, Miller said.
In our view, it will be difficult (but not impossible) at this point for the county to write a new rule and not appear as if it still is singling out Hyperion foes. Bottom line: In the end, whatever the county adopts must seek to treat all manner of signs reasonably, fairly and equally, not simply target just the signs that get under the skin of elected and appointed county officials.