"A day after a Salem building official removed letters from a sign outside Givens Books sarcastically thanking city officials for a road construction mess at the East Main Street and Electric Road intersection, bookstore owner Chip Givens stood on a step stool Wednesday putting the message back up.

'Until we do some research, it's the best way to go,' City Attorney Steve Yost said after the city gave Givens the OK to return the letters to his sign.

Building Official and Zoning Administrator Charles Aldridge removed the sign's letters Tuesday after he determined that Givens was in violation of a city ordinance that limits commercial signs to advertising for business conducted on the site only.

After speaking with Aldridge on Tuesday, Givens contacted his attorney, Bob Rider, who began speaking with city officials about the legality of Aldridge's actions - mainly whether or not it was an infringement of Givens' First Amendment rights.

Kent Willis, executive director of Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union office in Richmond, said not only did it violate Givens' rights, but it was also a breach of Givens' right to due process.

On Wednesday the ACLU sent a letter to Salem officials objecting to their 'unlawful removal' of the letters on the bookstore sign. ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg also wrote, 'such a prior restraint on free speech was one of the prime evils that the country's founders sought to prevent when they enacted the First Amendment.'

'The main mistake the city is making is confusing commercial speech with non commercial speech,' Willis said. 'They have the right to regulate business signs, but this is not a business sign. It's a political sign in a business district.'

He added that the sign Givens posted is no different from patriotic, religious or congratulatory signs, which would also be illegal under the city's ordinance.

Rider said the removal of the letters by Aldridge was illegal because the city should have issued Givens a written notice and allowed him 10 days to remove the sign.

He and Yost had been working Wednesday to try to get the issue resolved within 24 hours, he said, but had the city not allowed the sign to be put back up, legal action was being considered.

'For the time being we've prevailed on getting it put back up,' Rider said.

Givens said he received supportive calls from more than a dozen area residents.

He also said he wants the city to pressure the Virginia Department of Transportation to complete the road project in a timely manner.

'Everyone's got an excuse for it,' Givens said. 'The city says it's not their fault and VDOT says it's not their fault. Then who's fault is it?'" (Tarah Holland, Roanoke Times, July 8, 2004)