Federal Court Refuses to Hear News Rack Suit

Glendale’s news rack ordinance governing the height, placement and content of newspaper vending machines throughout the city has withstood a challenge in federal court.

In a written decision received by the city this week, U.S. District Judge Francis C. Whelan abstained from hearing a suit filed by distributors of sexually explicit or counterculture publications who had charged that the Glendale law is unconstitutional. Whelan said the case already had been heard and the law upheld by the state Supreme Court.

In a separate action, the district court also ruled that Glendale has the right to restrict the height of news racks to 48 inches for safety and aesthetics, an ordinance that the city adopted last March, said Scott Howard, senior assistant city attorney.

The federal suit was filed last January by Ralph Fishel and Federico Franco, both distributors, after the state court upheld the city’s news rack ordinance, adopted in 1975 to curtail the proliferation of sexually oriented newspapers sold in the city.

Howard said the city will order distributors to either remove illegal racks or bring them into compliance with the law.