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"Occupy Wall Street" Signs In Woman's Yard Sparks Lawsuit With City

Photo: Ucak, Photos.com

May 16, 2012 at 10:14 am

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. (AP) A Little Falls woman is suing the city after officials ordered her to remove the political signs in her yard.

Robin Hensel's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, says the city violated her constitutional right to free speech last fall by ordering her to remove the signs, which supported the Occupy Wall Street and peace movements.

A Little Falls administrator says the city received more than a dozen complaints that Hensel had too many signs in her yard in violation of the ordinance and that they had become a distraction.

The Brainerd Dispatch says Hensel's complaint to the city says it's ''wrongfully harassing'' her for expressing an unpopular opinion on her own property. The city's attorney, Toni Wetzel, did not immediately return a call for comment.