New Hampshire Bakery's Pastry Mural at Center of Federal Free Speech Trial

The trial will determine whether Conway's zoning board violated First Amendment rights by classifying the mural as an oversized commercial sign.

Leavitt's Country Bakery in Conway, New Hampshire, is suing the town over a 90-square-foot mural painted by local high school students, depicting pastries as a mountain range.
The town's zoning board classified the mural as a commercial sign, citing its depiction of baked goods sold at the bakery and its size exceeding local sign code limits.
Bakery owner Sean Young argues that the town's enforcement of the sign code amounts to censorship and violates his First Amendment rights.
The town maintains that the sign code aims to preserve aesthetics, safety, and fairness, and has enforced similar restrictions on other businesses in the past.
A federal judge will now decide whether the mural constitutes protected speech or a commercial advertisement subject to regulation.