Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION ROYCE C. LAMBERTH, Chief Judge. The Court considers whether the fourth iteration of the District of Columbia’s law regulating the posting of signs on lampposts passes First Amendment muster. The law’s most recent version treats signs relating to an “event” differently from “non-event” signs when determining how long the signs may remain posted. The District has amended the law twice since this Court’s last substantive opinion. While these amendments bring the law closer to constitutionality, the District has not properly explained the event/non-event distinction, and has added a definition of “event” that explicitly delegates broad administrative discretion to enforcement officers. Therefore the plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment. I. BACKGROUND A. Early History of the Case From 1980 until the filing of this suit in 2007, the rules for posting on the District’s lampposts exempted campaign and public safety signs from the generally-applicable durational limits, and required that campaign posters be removed within thirty days after the general election. At the time, the law stated: 108.5: A sign, advertisement, or poster shall not be affixed for more than sixty (60) days, except the following: (a) Signs, advertisements, and posters for individuals seeking political office in the District ...; and (b) Signs designed to aid in neighborhood protection from crime shall be exempt from the sixty (60) day time period. 108.6: Political campaign literature shall be removed no less than thirty (30) days following the general election. 108.7: Each sign, advertisement, or poster shall contain the date upon which it was initially affixed to a lamppost. 108.8: Each sign, advertisement, or poster shall be affixed securely to avoid being torn down or disengaged by normal weather conditions. 108.9: Signs, advertisements, and posters shall not be affixed by adhesives that prevent their complete removal from the fixture, or do damage to the fixture. 108.10: No more than three (3) versions or copies of each sign, advertisement, or poster shall be affixed on one (1) side of a street within one (1) block. 108.11: Within twenty-four (24) hours of posting each sign, advertisement, or poster, two (2) copies of the material shall be filed with an agent of the District of Columbia so designated by the Mayor. The filing shall include the name, address, and telephone number of the originator of the sign, advertisement, or poster. 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. § 108 (1980). In the summer of 2007, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition (“ANSWER”) — a “grassroots civil rights organization which seeks to engage the public in communications opposing war and racism, among other issues,” Affidavit of Brian Becker 1-2, Mar. 14, 2008, ECF No. 11-1 (“ANSWER Affidavit”) — posted signs advertising its September 15th “March to Stop the War” on public lampposts and electrical boxes throughout the city. The District cited ANSWER for numerous violations of § 108.9, the provision regarding the use of adhesives. See Ex. 1 to Def.’s First Mot. Dismiss, Feb. 6, 2008, ECF No. 8-1 (reproducing four Notices of Violation, all referencing § 108.9). ANSWER contested the tickets before the District’s Office of Administrative Hearings (“OAH”). In addition to its claims before the OAH, ANSWER challenged the District’s postering regulations in this Court. Compl., Aug. 21, 2007, ECF No. 1. Unlike in the administrative proceeding, ANSWER sued in federal court with a co-plaintiff, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation (“MASF”), which “focuses on empowering the Muslim-American community through civic education, participation, community outreach, and coalition building including First Amendment assemblies in opposition to war and in support of civil rights.” Affidavit of Imam Mahdi Bray, Mar. 14, 2008, ECF No 11-2 (“MASF Affidavit”). In their complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that the regulations were facially unconstitutional because they contained improper content-based distinctions in violation of the First Amendment, First Am. Compl. ¶¶ 7-8, Dec. 18, 2007, ECF No. 3; were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, id. ¶¶ 42-44; violated plaintiffs’ right to anonymous speech, id. ¶ 39; and imposed a strict liability regime that violated plaintiffs’ due process rights, id. ¶¶ 25-34. Both plaintiffs submitted affidavits explaining that they had refrained from posting signs on public lampposts in the manner they would prefer because of the regulations, and that they were suing on behalf of themselves and “all others engaged in civil rights advocacy” whose speech had been similarly “chilled.” MASF Affidavit 1-2; ANSWER Affidavit 1-2. The District moved to dismiss the complaint. Def.’s First Mot. Dismiss, Feb. 6, 2008, ECF No. 8. The District argued, among other theories, that MASF lacked standing because it suffered no injury from the regulations, id. at 14-20, and that the Court should abstain from adjudicating ANSWER’S claims under the doctrine of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), because ANSWER could present its constitutional claims through the administrative proceedings at the OAH. Def.’s First Mot. Dismiss 4-8. The Court agreed with both arguments and granted the District’s motion to dismiss. Act Now to Stop Racism and End War Coal. v. Dist. of Columbia (ANSWER I), 570 F.Supp.2d 72 (D.D.C.2008). Plaintiffs appealed. On November 2, 2009 — shortly before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments — the District’s Department of Transportation (“Department”) issued a Notice of Emergency and Proposed Rule-making revising the poster rules. D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 56, §§ 8759-60 (Nov. 6, 2009). The new rules allowed: all signs that are not lewd, indecent, or vulgar, or do not pictorially represent the commission of or the attempt to commit any crime to be posted on a structure in public space for sixty (60) days, and a sign, advertisement, or poster related to a specific event may be affixed any time prior to an event but shall be removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event for which it is advertising or publicizing. Id. at 8759. The Department explained that the emergency rulemaking was “necessitated by the immediate need to address the continuing threat to the public welfare posed by an unequal treatment of non-commercial advertising in the public space.” Id. The Department characterized the new regulations as “a technical amendment” that “removes a time limit distinction that exists between political and nonpolitical advertising that has raised First Amendment concerns.” Id. The revised provisions, which became final on January 8, 2010, D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 57, § 528 (Jan. 8, 2010), read as follows: 108.5: A sign, advertisement, or poster not related to a specific event shall be affixed for no' more than sixty days. 108.6: A sign, advertisement, or poster related to a specific event may be affixed any time prior to the event but shall be removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event to which it is related. 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. §§ 108.5-108.6 (2011). The Court of Appeals decided the case on grounds that did not require consideration of these new rules. The Court first reversed on the issue of MASF’s standing. Judge Williams explained that MASF’s affidavit “plainly indicated] an intent to engage in conduct violating the 60-day limit” and that this qualified as the “credible statement by the plaintiff of intent to commit a violative act” that the D.C. Circuit had previously held to constitute standing in a First Amendment facial challenge. Act Now to Stop Racism and End War Coal. v. Dist. of Columbia (ANSWER II), 589 F.3d 433, 435 (D.C.Cir.2009) (quoting Seegars v. Gonzales, 396 F.3d 1248, 1253 (D.C.Cir.2005)). The Court of Appeals also remanded on some of the claims by ANSWER that this Court had initially declined to consider under the Younger abstention doctrine. Judge Williams explained that “the district court appropriately abstained” on the claims related to § 108.9, the adhesive provision, which ANSWER had directly challenged in the OAH. Id. But on the other claims, the Court of Appeals held that “consistent with Younger, ANSWER may raise constitutional challenges in federal district court that are completely independent of and severable from the violations it is facing in the District’s administrative proceedings.” Id. With the case back before the Court, plaintiffs updated their complaint to account for the revised regulations. Suppl. Pleading, May 5, 2010, ECF No. 22-1. They maintained the claims that they had previously asserted, including their principal allegation that the regulations draw an unconstitutional, content-based distinction between signs carrying a general political message and signs related to political campaigns. Id. ¶ 4. While the new regulations replaced the explicit exception for signs posted in support of “individuals seeking political office” with a more general category for signs “related to a specific event,” plaintiffs argued that the District had “simply substituted a new set of unconstitutional content-based distinctions for the prior set of unconstitutional content-based distinctions.” Id. Plaintiffs added two new counts in their supplemental pleading. First, in addition to facially challenging §§ 108.5-108.6 of the new regulations, they added an “as applied” challenge alleging that the provisions are improperly content-based and undefined. Id. ¶¶ 102-04. Second, ANSWER added a claim that the District had violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by issuing “baseless” citations “in retaliation for the ANSWER Coalition’s exercise of its lawful rights to free speech through lawful postering activities.” Id. ¶¶ 105-06. ANSWER based this claim on ninety-nine citations it received from the District in March and April 2010, which it alleges were issued “notwithstanding the fact that the Coalition had fully complied with the [amended] regulations.” Id. ¶ 44 (emphasis omitted). B. The Court’s July 2011 Ruling on Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss The District again moved to dismiss all of plaintiffs’ claims. Def.’s Second Mot. Dismiss, June 2, 2010, ECF No. 26. Thereafter, ANSWER voluntarily dismissed its prospective claims under Counts One and Two, leaving MASF to pursue those facial constitutional challenges alone. Stipulation of Dismissal, Oct. 25, 2010, ECF No. 35. On July 21, 2011, this Court granted in part and denied in part the District’s motion. Act Now to Stop Racism and End War Coal. v. Dist. of Columbia (ANSWER III), 798 F.Supp.2d 134 (D.D.C.2011). This Court ruled that MASF had standing to bring its facial challenge, but both plaintiffs lacked standing for their new “as applied” claims. Id. at 143. The Court then considered the merits of MASF’s First Amendment challenges. When determining whether the claims could survive a motion to dismiss, the Court “must accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint,” Atherton v. Dist. of Columbia, 567 F.3d 672, 681 (D.C.Cir.2009), and grant plaintiffs “the benefit of all inferences that can be derived from the facts alleged.” Kowal v. MCI Commc’ns Corp., 16 F.3d 1271, 1276 (D.C.Cir.1994). The Court found that the signs were “a form of expression protected by the Free Speech Clause.” Id. at 144 (quoting City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43, 48, 114 S.Ct. 2038, 129 L.Ed.2d 36 (1994)). Next, the Court found that the lampposts are “a textbook example of a limited or designated public forum, in which public property has been ‘opened for use by the public as a place for expressive activity.’ ” Id. at 145 (quoting Perry Educ. Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37, 46, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983)). The Court then considered whether the law could meet the standards for a designated public forum, which permits content-neutral regulations which are narrowly tailored to serve a significant public interest, and leave open ample alternatives for communication. Id. (citing Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S. 191, 197, 112 S.Ct. 1846, 119 L.Ed.2d 5 (1992)). While the law was viewpoint-neutral — applying equally to anti-war and pro-war posters — it was not necessarily content-neutral. “The guidelines provide substantially different treatment to two posters that are identical in every respect except that one contains content related to an event while the other does not.” Id. at 146. The Court also rejected the District’s arguments that “the regulations are content-neutral because they do not totally prohibit a type of expression or a specific message but rather merely regulate the manner in which the message may be conveyed” and “that the regulations should be judged content-neutral even if [they] have some incidental effect on speech because they promote a content-neutral purpose— reducing litter and blight.” Id. at 146-47 (citations omitted). The Court explained that restrictions that impose differential burdens on speech must still reviewed for content neutrality, id. at 146 (citing Turner Broad. Sys. v. F.C.C., 512 U.S. 622, 642, 114 S.Ct. 2445, 129 L.Ed.2d 497 (1994)), and that the regulations at issue did not clearly accomplish a content-neutral purpose in a content-neutral manner, id. at 147. The Court summarized its main concerns with the District’s regulations as follows: Viewed on its own, § 108.5, which limits posters “not related to a specific event” to a hanging time of sixty days, is unproblematic. An across-the-board durational restriction would limit litter by requiring posters of all types to be taken down after a certain number of days. Likewise, the provision of § 108.6 requiring posters related to events to be “removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event” is straightforward. A poster for an event that has already occurred is more likely to constitute litter and blight than a poster for a future event or a general political message. This Court’s concern arises from the other half of § 108.6, which allows posters related to a specific event to be “affixed any time prior to the event.” It is not clear how allowing posters to hang for an indefinite period of time before an event advances the District’s interest in reducing litter.... In the absence of an explanation for how this distinction between event and nonevent signs advances the District’s objective of litter prevention, the differential burdens imposed by §§ 108.5-108.6 present serious First Amendment concerns. City of Ladue, 512 U.S. at 52, 114 S.Ct. 2038 (“Exemptions from an otherwise legitimate regulation of a medium of speech may ... diminish the credibility of the government’s rationale for restricting speech in the first place.”). In particular, given that the District has announced that elections qualify as “events” under the new regulations, Pl.’s Notice, this distinction could be seen as a way of resurrecting the old rules that prioritized election-related speech — including the political communications of the government officials who make and enforce the rules— over general issue advocacy and political expression. Id. at 148. After considering whether the law could be narrowly tailored and leave alternative channels of communication open, the Court denied the District’s motion to dismiss Count One of the complaint. Id. at 149-50. The Court suggested that “an across-the-board durational restriction that applies without exceptions based on the content of the signs would address the constitutional concern while preserving the District’s interest in preventing litter.” Id. at 149. The Court also refused to dismiss MASF’s claim that that the law is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. MASF contends that the law does not adequately define which posters “relate to an event,” does not give adequate notice to potential speakers, and allows for arbitrary enforcement. Id. at 150-51. While “some of plaintiffs ... scenarios str[uck] the Court as a bit far-fetched,” the Court found “practical uncertainties ... raise[d] the possibility that the law Tail[s] to provide the kind of notice that will enable ordinary people to understand which conduct it prohibits.’ ” Id. at 151 (quoting City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41, 56, 119 S.Ct. 1849, 144 L.Ed.2d 67 (1999)). The Court dismissed plaintiffs’ claims that the registration requirement “represents an unconstitutional restraint on their right to anonymous speech,” and “that the District imposed a system of ‘strict liability’ enforcement in violation of the Due Process Clause.” Id. at 152-53. The Court found these claims legally meritless. Id. The Court also dismissed ANSWER’S § 1983 claim that the “District harassed it with a series of bogus and false notices of violation.” Id. at 153 (citations omitted). While ANSWER alleged a violation of its constitutional rights, it could not meet its “ ‘burden of pleading the existence of a municipal custom or practice that abridges [its] federal constitutional or statutory rights.’ ” Id. at 154 (quoting Bonaccorsy v. Dist. of Columbia, 685 F.Supp.2d 18, 27 (D.D.C.2010)). The Court dismissed all of ANSWER’S active claims, leaving only MASF’s facial constitutional challenges. The Court ordered the case to proceed to discovery to give the District “an opportunity to clarify the questions remaining about the meaning of the term ‘event’ and the relation of [the] event/non-event distinction in §§ 108.5-108.6 to the anti-littering interest it asserts.” Id. at 155. C. Current Regulations Following ANSWER III, the District twice amended its postering regulations. On August 26, 2011, the Department of Transportation amended the disputed regulations to read: 108.5: A sign, advertisement, or poster shall be affixed for no more than one hundred eighty (180) days. 108.6: A sign, advertisement, or poster related to a specific event shall be removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event to which it is related. This subsection is not intended to extend the durational restriction in subsection 108.5. D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 58, § 7688 (Aug. 26, 2011). The following month, the District further amended the regulations. D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 58, § 8410 (Sept. 30, 2011). First, the District required the person posting the sign, in their filing with the District, to designate the date of the event for event-related signs: 108.11: Within twenty-four hours of posting each sign, advertisement, or poster, two (2) copies of the material shall be filed with an agent of the District of Columbia so designated by the Mayor. The filing shall include the name, address, and telephone number of the originator of the sign, advertisement, or poster, and if the sign is for an event, the date of the event. Id. (new text in italics). Furthermore, the amendment added a subsection defining “event”: 108.13: For purposes of this section, the term ‘event’ refers to an occurrence, happening, activity or series of activities, specific to an identifiable time and place, if referenced on the poster itself or reasonably determined from all circumstances by the inspector. 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. § 108.13 (2012) (providing current 108.13 definition of “event”). These regulations are currently in effect. D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 59, § 273 (Jan. 20, 2012). On June 22, 2012, MASF and the District filed cross-motions for summary judgment. PL’s Mot. Summ. J, ECF No. 60; Def.’s Mot. Summ. J., ECF No. 59. The Court now considers these motions and will grant in part MASF’s motion, and deny in toto defendant’s motion. II. LEGAL STANDARD A. Summary Judgment “The court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The mere existence of any factual dispute will not defeat summary judgment; “the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505 (emphasis in original). A fact is material if, under the applicable law, it could affect the outcome of the case. Id. A dispute is genuine if the “evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Id. Because “Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge,” the “evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.” Id. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505. A nonmoving party, however, must establish more than “the existence of a scintilla of evidence” in support of its position. Id. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505. The inferences drawn from the evidence “must be reasonably probable and based on more than mere speculation.” Rogers Corp. v. E.P.A, 275 F.3d 1096, 1103 (D.C.Cir.2002) (citations omitted). In addition, the non-moving party may not rely solely on allegations or conclusory statements. See Greene v. Dalton, 164 F.3d 671, 675 (D.C.Cir.1999). The nonmoving party must present specific facts that would enable a reasonable jury to find in its favor. Id. If the evidence presented is “merely colorable, or is not significantly probative, summary judgment may be granted.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505. The filing of a cross-motion for summary judgment does not “concede the factual allegations of the opposing motion.” CEI Washington Bureau, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 469 F.3d 126, 129 (D.C.Cir.2006). Cross-motions for summary judgment are treated separately. See Sherwood v. Washington Post, 871 F.2d 1144, 1147 n. 4 (D.C.Cir.1989) (“[I]t does not matter that the District Court was faced with cross-motions for summary judgment. ‘The rule governing cross-motions for summary judgment ... is that neither party waives the right to a full trial on the merits by filing its own motion; each side concedes that no material facts are at issue only for the purposes of its own motion.’ ”) (quoting McKenzie v. Sawyer, 684 F.2d 62, 68 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.1982)). The court may—despite the parties’ stipulations that there are no disputed facts — find that material facts are in dispute, deny both motions, and proceed to trial. Id. at 1147 n. 4. B. Public Forum Doctrine The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.” U.S. Const., amend. I. The Supreme Court has long held that this restriction applies not only to Congress, but also to state and municipal governments. Lovell v. Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 450, 58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949 (1938). While the First Amendment “reflects ‘a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,’ ” Snyder v. Phelps, _ U.S. _, 131 S.Ct. 1207, 1215, 179 L.Ed.2d 172 (2011) (quoting N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964)), a municipal government “may sometimes curtail speech when necessary to advance a significant and legitimate state interest,” Members of the City Council of City of L.A v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 804, 104 S.Ct. 2118, 80 L.Ed.2d 772 (1984). Courts in this Circuit generally follow three steps in assessing a First Amendment challenge: “first, determining whether the First Amendment protects the speech at issue, then identifying the nature of the forum, and finally assessing whether the ... justifications for restricting ... speech ‘satisfy the requisite standard.’ ” Mahoney v. Doe, 642 F.3d 1112, 1116 (D.C.Cir.2011) (quoting Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 797, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985)). The first step here is undisputed. “[Sjigns are a form of expression protected by the Free Speech Clause[.]” City of Ladue, 512 U.S. at 48, 114 S.Ct. 2038. The Court will focus on the second and third steps: identifying the nature of the forum and determining the requisite standard. 1. Identifying the Nature of the Forum The second step is to determine the nature of the forum in which the protected speech occurs. Public forum doctrine “divides government property into three categories for purposes of First Amendment analysis.” Oberwetter v. Hilliard, 639 F.3d 545, 551 (D.C.Cir.2011). One category is the traditional public forum, which encompasses public areas that have “by long tradition or by government fiat ... been devoted to assembly and debate.” Perry, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948. A second category is the limited public forum or designated public forum, which comprises “public property which the State has opened for use by the public as a place for expressive activity.” Id. The final category is the nonpublic forum, which consists of government property that is “not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication.” Id. at 46, 103 S.Ct. 948. In determining which analysis to apply to a given means of expression, the “dispositive question is not what the forum is called, but what purpose it serves.” Boardley v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, 615 F.3d 508, 515 (D.C.Cir.2010). 2. Determining the Requisite Standard The next step is determining and applying the requisite standard. The test for a designated public forum is the same as that for a traditional public forum. Perry, 460 U.S. at 46, 103 S.Ct. 948. The key question is whether the law is a content-based or content-neutral regulation of speech. Content-based regulations are subject to strict scrutiny, and will only be upheld if “the regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and ... is narrowly drawn to achieve that end.” Burson, 504 U.S. at 197-98, 112 S.Ct. 1846. Content-neutral regulations are judged under a less rigorous “time, place or manner” test, which permits restrictions when “they are narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest” and “leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.” Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989). The “government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.” Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U.S. 564, 573, 122 S.Ct. 1700, 152 L.Ed.2d 771 (2002) (citations omitted). “Deciding whether a particular regulation is content based or content neutral is not always a simple task. We have said that the ‘principal inquiry in determining content neutrality ... is whether the government has adopted a regulation of speech because of [agreement or] disagreement with the message it conveys.’ ” Turner, 512 U.S. at 642, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (quoting Ward, 491 U.S. at 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746) (alterations in original). Generally, “laws that by their terms distinguish favored speech from disfavored speech on the basis of the ideas or views expressed are content based,” while “laws that confer benefits or impose burdens on speech without reference to the ideas or views expressed are in most instances content neutral.” Id. Laws that discriminate based on viewpoint are most odious. R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992); see also Hastings Christian Fellowship v. Martinez, _ U.S. _, 130 S.Ct. 2971, 3006, 177 L.Ed.2d 838 (2010) (‘We have never before taken the view that a little viewpoint discrimination is acceptable.”) (Scalia, J., dissenting). However, courts should be careful not to “conflate content neutrality with viewpoint neutrality.” ANSWER III, 798 F.Supp.2d at 146. “Regulation of the subject matter of messages, though not as obnoxious as viewpoint-based regulation, is also an objectionable form of content-based regulation.” Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 722, 120 S.Ct. 2480, 147 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000). Laws that distinguish “based only upon the manner in which speakers transmit their messages to viewers, and not upon the messages they carry” are content-neutral. Turner, 512 U.S. at 645, 114 S.Ct. 2445. Furthermore, a “ ‘regulation that serves purposes unrelated to the content of the expression is deemed neutral, even if it has an incidental effect on some speakers or messages but not others.’ ” Hastings, 130 S.Ct. at 2994 (quoting Ward, 491 U.S. at 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746). The “mere assertion of a content-neutral purpose will not be enough to save a law which, on its face, discriminates based on content,” Turner, 512 U.S. at 642-43, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (citations omitted) — “that distinction must actually advance the content-neutral purpose the city asserts,” ANSWER III, 798 F.Supp.2d at 147 (original formatting omitted). C. Substantial Overbreadth and Vagueness MASF also challenges the District’s law as unconstitutionally overbroad and vague on its face. In the First Amendment context, courts are especially concerned about overbroad and vague laws that may have a chilling effect on speech. See, e.g., Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844, 871-72, 117 S.Ct. 2329, 138 L.Ed.2d 874 (1997) (“The vagueness of such a regulation raises special First Amendment concerns because of its obvious chilling effect on speech.”) (citing Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 494, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965)). Courts are suspicious of “[b]road prophylactic rules in the area of free expression[,]” and therefore “[precision of regulation must be the touchstone in an area so closely touching our most precious freedoms.” NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 438, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed.2d 405 (1963) (citations omitted). The doctrines of substantial over-breadth and vagueness often overlap, and Courts frequently blend them together. See, e.g., Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 129, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992) (“[A] party [may] challenge an ordinance under the overbreadth doctrine in cases where every application creates an impermissible risk of suppression of ideas, such as an ordinance that delegates overly broad discretion to the decisionmaker, and in cases where the ordinance sweeps too broadly, penalizing a substantial amount of speech that is constitutionally protected.”); Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 358 n. 8, 103 S.Ct. 1855, 75 L.Ed.2d 903 (1983) (“We have traditionally viewed vagueness and overbreadth as logically related and similar doctrines.”); Hunt v. City of L.A., 601 F.Supp.2d 1158, 1167 n. 6 (C.D.Cal.2009) (“The doctrines of overbreadth, unbridled discretion, and vagueness overlap.”) (citing Smolla & Nimmer on Freedom of Speech §§ 6:1-6 (2008)). While noting the conceptual similarities, this Court heeds the warning not to “confuse vagueness and overbreadth doctrines,” Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 497 n. 9, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982), and explain each doctrine separately. 1. Vagueness and Standardless Delegation of Administrative Discretion “Vagueness may invalidate a criminal law for either of two independent reasons. First, it may fail to provide the kind of notice that will enable ordinary people to understand what conduct it prohibits; second, it may authorize and even encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41, 56, 119 S.Ct. 1849, 144 L.Ed.2d 67 (1999). Vague laws violate the Due Process clause of the Constitution, and this doctrine is not limited to laws regulating speech. See Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 162, 92 S.Ct. 839, 31 L.Ed.2d 110 (1972) (vagrancy statutes void for vagueness under Due Process clause). Requiring some precision in the law vindicates the “underlying principle that no man shall be held criminally responsible for conduct which he could not reasonably understand to be proscribed.” United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 617, 74 S.Ct. 808, 98 L.Ed. 989 (1954). Perhaps more importantly, this doctrine reigns in the discretion of enforcement officers: [T]he more important aspect of the vagueness doctrine “is not actual notice, but the other principal element of the doctrine — the requirement that a legislature establish minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement.” Where the legislature fails to provide such minimal guidelines, a criminal statute may permit “a standardless sweep [that] allows policemen, prosecutors and juries to pursue their personal predilections.” Kolender, 461 U.S. at 358, 103 S.Ct. 1855 (quoting Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 574-75, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974)). “[T]he Supreme Court has stated that the vagueness doctrine should be applied with special exactitude where a statute might impinge on basic First Amendment freedoms.” Sharkey’s, Inc. v. City of Waukesha, 265 F.Supp.2d 984, 990 (E.D.Wis.2003) (citing Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 109, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972)); see also F.C.C. v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., _ U.S. _, 132 S.Ct. 2307, 2317, 183 L.Ed.2d 234 (2012) (“[T]he void for vagueness doctrine addresses at least two connected but discrete due process concerns: Regulated parties should know what is required of them so they can act accordingly; and precision and guidance are necessary so that those enforcing the law do not act in an arbitrary or discriminatory way. When speech is involved, rigorous adherence to these requirements is necessary to ensure that ambiguity does not chill protected speech.”). Courts in this circuit have strictly enforced the vagueness doctrine. See Armstrong v. D.C. Public Library, 154 F.Supp.2d 67, 77, 81 (D.D.C.2001) (“[W]hen a regulation lacks terms which can be defined objectively, a court will strike it down for vagueness.”; “[T]his Circuit has ruled that officials must have explicit guidelines in order to avoid arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”) (citations omitted). The vagueness doctrine does not require “perfect clarity and precise guidance ... even of regulations that restrict expressive activity.” Ward, 491 U.S. at 794, 109 S.Ct. 2746. “Condemned to the use of words, we can never expect mathematical certainty from our language.” Grayned, 408 U.S. at 110, 92 S.Ct. 2294. Regulations “cannot, in reason, define proscribed behavior exhaustively or with consummate precision.” United States v. Thomas, 864 F.2d 188, 195 (D.C.Cir.1988). Courts “must be careful not to go beyond the statute’s facial requirements and speculate about ‘hypothetical’ or ‘imaginary’ cases.” Washington State Grange v. Washington Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 449-50, 128 S.Ct. 1184, 170 L.Ed.2d 151 (2008) (citing United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 22, 80 S.Ct. 519, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960)). 2. Substantial Overbreadth A Court may facially invalidate a law if there is “no set of circumstances under which the law would be valid.” United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987). “In the First Amendment context, however” the Supreme Court “recognizes ‘a second type of facial challenge,’ whereby a law may be invalidated as overbroad if ‘a substantial number of its applications are unconstitutional, judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.’ ” United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460, 130 S.Ct. 1577, 1587, 176 L.Ed.2d 435 (2010) (quoting Washington State Grange, 552 U.S. at 449 n. 6, 128 S.Ct. 1184). Courts require that the overbreadth of the law be substantial “not only in an absolute sense, but also relative to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.” United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 292, 128 S.Ct. 1830, 170 L.Ed.2d 650 (2008). The Supreme Court has established a two-step test for analyzing substantial overbreadth. First, a court must “construe the challenged statute; it is impossible to determine whether a statute reaches too far without first knowing what the statute covers.” Id. at 293, 128 S.Ct. 1830. Second, a court must consider “whether the statute, as [the court has] construed it, criminalizes a substantial amount of protected expressive activity.” Id. at 297, 128 S.Ct. 1830. While this test is considerably less stringent than the Salerno test, the Supreme Court warns that “[invalidation for overbreadth is strong medicine that is not to be casually employed.” Id. at 293, 128 S.Ct. 1830 (citations omitted). III. DISCUSSION The District’s sign regulations are unconstitutional for two reasons. First, the law is an unconstitutional regulation of protected speech in a designated public forum. The District has not properly justified the distinction it draws between events and non-events. The District has not offered any admissible evidence explaining how its regulations further any content-neutral purposes. See Def.’s Statement of Material Facts, June 22, 2012, ECF No. 59-1 (“Def.’s SMF”) (providing nothing how regulations achieve content-neutral purposes). The Court cannot accept the District’s inadmissible ipse dixit that the law’s event/non-event is narrowly tailored to promote esthetics and litter control, and the District has provided no admissible evidence about how the law accomplishes those interests. Thus, the law fails intermediate scrutiny' — the lowest level applicable to a law regulating speech in a public forum. Secondly, the regulations fail because they explicitly delegate administrative discretion to enforcement officers. A sign could be related to an event if “reasonably determined from all circumstances by the inspector.” 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. § 108.13 (2012); Pl.’s Statement of Material Facts ¶ 8, June 22, 2012, ECF No. 60-1 (“Pl.’s SMF”). The Court recognizes that language is imprecise, and it cannot expect definitions to cover every imaginable scenario. Yet, when a law touches on the sensitive area of free speech, more specificity is required. A legislature cannot explicitly delegate ambiguous cases to the rudderless “reasonable” judgment of individual enforcement officers. MASF has “show[n] that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a), and MASF is entitled to summary judgment. Since the District’s cross-motion seeks summary judgment on identical issues, granting MASF summary judgment logically precludes granting the District’s motion. MASF also challenges the sign regulations on the grounds that they are unconstitutionally overbroad — although the law may be applied in some instances without offending the First Amendment, its overly-broad sweep penalizes a significant amount of constitutionally-protected speech. Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 38-40. MASF relies heavily on cases that conflate overbreadth with vagueness; the Court strives to treat those doctrines separately. The problem with the sign regulations isn’t that they regulate too much speech, or regulate certain categories of speech that the District cannot touch. A law that imposes an across-the-board durational limit on all signs, or properly explains the fit between the event/non-event distinction and content-neutral interests, could be constitutional. The real problems are the lack of justification for the event/non-event distinction, and the explicit delegation of administrative discretion to individual decisionmakers. A. MASF’s Challenge that the Law is Unconstitutionally Content-Based There are three steps in this kind of First Amendment challenge: determining whether the First Amendment protects the speech, determining the forum in which the speech occurs, and then assessing whether the regulations meet the requisite standard. See Part III.B supra; Mahoney, 642 F.3d at 1116. The District’s latest amendments do not change how the Court would assess the first two steps; therefore, the Court will re-state and adopt, in the following two sections, its analysis in ANSWER III, 798 F.Supp.2d at 144-45. 1. Do the Regulations Implicate Protected Speech? The first step here is clear. “[S]igns are a form of expression protected by the Free Speech Clause[.]” City of Ladue, 512 U.S. 43, 48, 114 S.Ct. 2038, 129 L.Ed.2d 36 (1994). That is particularly true given the subject of the signs plaintiff seeks to post — political opinions on public issues such as war and racial profiling. Snyder, 131 S.Ct. at 1211 (“[S]peech on public issues occupies the ‘highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values’ and is entitled to special protection.”) (quoting Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 145, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983)); City of Ladue, 512 U.S. at 54, 114 S.Ct. 2038 (characterizing antiwar speech as “absolutely pivotal”). Plaintiffs desire to post signs bearing political messages easily qualifies as protected speech. 2. What is the Nature of the Forum? The second step is to determine the nature of the forum where the protected speech occurs. This is slightly more complicated than the first step, but still raises no serious doubt. The “lamppost[s] and appurtenances” referenced by the regulations, 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. § 108.1 (2012), are government property. The District’s lampposts are not a traditional public forum; their purpose is not to serve as a means of expression. Unlike streets and parks, the quintessential public fora, they have not “immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind ... been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions.” Hague v. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496, 515, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939). On the other hand, the District’s lampposts cannot be considered a nonpublic forum. While the Supreme Court found Los Angeles’s utility poles to be a nonpublic forum in Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. at 815, 104 S.Ct. 2118, there is an important distinction between that case and this one. The Los Angeles ordinance banned all signs on utility poles. Id. Here, the District explicitly permits a wide array of postings on public lampposts. The District’s lampposts cannot constitute a nonpublic forum given that the regulations designate them as a lawful place for posting. 24 D.C. Code Mun. Regs. § 108 (2012). Instead, the District’s lampposts are a textbook example of a limited or designated public forum, in which public property has been “opened for use by the public as a place for expressive activity.” Perry, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948. 3. Are the Regulations Content-Neutral or Content-Based? The next step is determining whether the regulations are content-neutral or content-based, and determining whether strict or intermediate scrutiny applies. The District has amended its regulations in response to the Court’s July 2011 opinion. While these amendments do not solve all the regulations’ constitutional problems— see Part III.A.5 infra — the Court will reexamine the content-neutrality of the regulations and not simply rely on its analysis in ANSWER III. a. Content-neutral justifications for laws with incidental effects on content— legal standard and burden of proof The District argues that its regulations are content-neutral because they are “justified- without reference to the content of the regulated speech.” Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 9 (quoting Ward, 491 U.S. at 789, 109 S.Ct. 2746). But the “mere assertion of a content-neutral purpose will not be enough to save a law which, on its face, discriminates based on content.” Turner, 512 U.S. at 642-43, 114 S.Ct. 2445. Simply by pointing to the words of the regulations and asking the Court to apply the controlling law, MASF has met its initial summary judgment burden. It has shown that the sign regulations regulate protected speech in a designated public forum, and places differential burdens on different types of -speech. See Pl.’s SMF ¶ 8; Def.’s SMF ¶¶ 5-6; Def.’s Opp’n to Pl.’s SMF 3, July 17, 2012, ECF No. 62-1 (“The District does not dispute paragraph 8 of the [plaintiffs] SMF, as the quoted text is contained in the current regulations.”). The burden then shifts to the District to show how its law is narrowly tailored to achieve a significant, content-neutral interest. See ANSWER III, 798 F.Supp.2d at 148 (“In the absence of an explanation for how th[e] distinction between event and non-event signs advances the District’s objective of litter prevention, the differential burdens imposed by [the sign regulations] present serious First Amendment concerns.”). The District asserts in its briefs, without reference to any legislative history or supporting affidavits, that the regulations promote esthetics and reduce litter. Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 11-12. At this stage, such conclusory statements are insufficient. The Supreme Court held in City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, 507 U.S. 410, 113 S.Ct. 1505, 123 L.Ed.2d 99 (1993), that the burden is on the government to explain how its law furthers its interests. Cincinnati prohibited the distribution of “commercial handbills” through newsracks installed on public property. The city did not completely ban newsracks and allowed the distribution of newspapers. Id. at 412-15, 113 S.Ct. 1505. Cincinnati claimed that its interests in “ensuring safe streets and regulating visual blight” justified this distinction. Id. at 415, 113 S.Ct. 1505. The Court held the law unconstitutional, as the city did not properly justify its law: “It was the city’s burden to establish a reasonable fit between its legitimate interests in safety and esthetics and its choice of a limited and selective prohibition of newsraeks as the means chosen to serve those interests.” Id. at 416, 113 S.Ct. 1505. Although Discovery Network challenged the law, the Court did not require Discovery to prove that Cincinnati had an impermissible or insufficient interest; instead the Supreme Court put the onus on the city to defend its law: In the absence of some basis for distinguishing between “newspapers” and “commercial handbills” that is relevant to an interest asserted by the city, we are unwilling to recognize Cincinnati’s bare assertion that the “low value” of commercial speech is a sufficient justification for its selective and categorical ban on newsraeks dispensing “commercial handbills.” Our holding, however, is narrow. As should be clear from the above discussion, we do not reach the question whether, given certain facts and under certain circumstances, a community might be able to justify differential treatment of commercial and noncommercial newsraeks. We simply hold that on this record Cincinnati has failed to make such a showing. Because the distinction Cincinnati has drawn has absolutely no bearing on the interests it has asserted, we have no difficulty concluding, as did the two courts below, that the city has not established the “fit” between its goals and its chosen means that is required[.] Id. at 428, 113 S.Ct. 1505. The Court also distinguished between content and viewpoint-discrimination. The Court rejected a need for “evidence that the city has acted with animus toward the ideas contained in respondents’ publications,” id. at 429, 113 S.Ct. 1505, and the argument that “ ‘discriminatory ... treatment is suspect under the First Amendment only when the legislature intends to suppress certain ideas’ ” id. (quoting Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of N.Y. State Crime Victims Board, 502 U.S. 105, 117, 112 S.Ct. 501, 116 L.Ed.2d 476 (1991) (also rejecting argument)). b. Content-neutral justifications for laws with incidental effects on content — the District’s failure to explain with admissible evidence The District has failed to meet its burden and introduce any admissible evidence explaining how District’s regulations achieve content-neutral interests. It does not introduce any relevant legislative history, municipal regulation, or affidavit. The District’s attorneys simply assert that the District’s regulations promote esthetics and reduce litter. See Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 11-12. Such unsworn ipse dixit is evidence of nothing. See, e.g., Schoch v. First Fidelity Bancorporation, 912 F.2d 654, 657 (3d Cir.1990) (“unsupported allegations in [a non-movant’s] memorandum and pleadings are insufficient to repel summary judgment”); Int’l Distrb. Corp. v. Am. Dist. Tel. Co., 569 F.2d 136, 139 (D.C.Cir.1977) (“[A] party may not avoid summary judgment by mere allegations unsupported by affidavit.”); see also Akers v. Liberty Mut. Group, 744 F.Supp.2d 92, 96 (D.D.C.2010) (“Because the objective of summary judgment is to prevent unnecessary trials, and because ‘[vjerdicts cannot rest on inadmissible evidence/ it follows that the evidence considered at summary judgment must be capable ‘of being converted into admissible evidence/”) (quoting Greer v. Paulson, 505 F.3d 1306, 1315 (D.C.Cir.2007)). The District points to other cases where courts recognized that sign regulations were motivated by significant interests in reducing visual clutter. Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 13-16 (citing Covenant Media of S.C. v. City of N. Charleston, 493 F.3d 421 (4th Cir.2007); Wag More Dogs, Ltd. Liability Corp. v. Cozart, 680 F.3d 359 (4th Cir.2012); Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Ariz., 587 F.3d 966 (9th Cir.2009)). These cases show that litter control and esthetics can act as significant content-neutral interests. Covenant Media, 493 F.3d at 434 (“North Charleston’s interests in regulating signs were completely unrelated to the messages displayed: They were to “eliminate confusing, distracting and unsafe signs, assure the efficient transfer of information; and enhance the visual environment!/]”); Wag More Dogs, 680 F.3d at 368 (“Arlington enacted the ordinance to, among other aims, promote traffic safety and the County’s aesthetics, interests unrelated to messages displayed.”); Reed, 587 F.3d at 981 (city has “significant interests in aesthetics and traffic safety”). These cases also show that sign regulations are not content-based simply because they distinguish between different types of signs. Covenant Media, 493 F.3d at 434 (although “the Sign Regulation required looking generally at what type of message a sign carries to determine where it can be located, this ‘kind of cursory examination’ did not make the regulation content-based.”) (quoting Hill, 530 U.S. at 721, 120 S.Ct. 2480); Wag More Dogs, 680 F.3d at 365 (rejecting “wooden logic” that all laws imposing different requirements are content-based; embracing “a practical analysis of content neutrality, requiring that a regulation do more than merely differentiate based on content to qualify as content based”); Reed, 587 F.3d at 978 (“[T]his regulation is a good example that the ‘officer must read it’ test is not always determinative of whether a regulation is content based or content neutral.”). They show how municipalities may treat different kinds of signs differently without violating the Constitution. The holdings in Covenant Media, Wag More Dogs, and Reed would support arguments the District could make to defend its sign regulations. The cases cannot, however, replace the need for the District to make its own arguments. As Cincinnati holds, the District has “the burden to establish a reasonable fit between its legitimate interests ... [and] the means chosen to serve those interests.” 507 U.S. at 416, 113 S.Ct. 1505; see also Bd. of Trustees of State Univ. of New York v. Fox, 492 U.S. 469, 480, 109 S.Ct. 3028, 106 L.Ed.2d 388 (1989) (“[T]he State bears the burden of justifying its restrictions ... and must affirmatively establish the reasonable fit we require.”). The Court must determine whether the District’s event/non-event distinction is narrowly tailored to achieve its interests. This is a case-specific inquiry. Covenant Media, Wag More Dogs, and Reed may show that, in other instances, cities have justified differential treatment of signs to further esthetics. But the laws in those cases deal with different kinds of sign regulations; none are sufficiently similar to prove that the kinds of differential burdens the District places on event and non-event signs would be similarly justified. Covenant Media, 493 F.3d at 424-25 (regulation exempted signs “identifying or advertising a business ... located on the premises where the sign is installed” from size and zoning requirements applicable to other “billboards”); Wag More Dogs, 680 F.3d at 363-64 (petitioner objects to differential permit requirements placed on business signs); Reed, 587 F.3d at 971-78, 981-83 (considering requirements placed on “Temporary Directional Signs Relating to a Qualifying Event"-signs placed outside of event site for less than a day — and distinctions between commercial and noncommercial speech). Reed presents the most analogous case, but there are still important differences. The law in Reed regulates the placement of signs on private property, not in a designated public forum. 587 F.3d at 976-77 (law specifically prohibits placing signs “[o]n fences, boulders, planters, other signs, vehicles, utility facilities, or any structure”). The signs in Reed direct someone to the place of a particular event, and are not used to broadly advertise future events. Id. at 979-80. The sign regulation in Reed is very limited; it only allows signs to be displayed “up to 12 hours before, during, and 1 hour after the Qualifying Event ends.” Id. at 977. This kind of ordinance does not address the kinds of signs at issue in the present case — campaign signs posted months before the election; signs advertising political marches and rallies weeks in advance. The present case is not like Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Gov’t PAC, 528 U.S. 377, 120 S.Ct. 897, 145 L.Ed.2d 886 (2000), where the Supreme Court found that Missouri’s law was so similar to the campaign finance regulations approved in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), and its progeny that Missouri need not introduce extensive empirical evidence in support of its law. Nixon, 528 U.S. at 391, 120 S.Ct. 897 (“The quantum of empirical evidence needed to satisfy heightened judicial scrutiny of legislative judgments will vary up or down with the novelty and plausibility of the justification raised.”). There is no evidence that the District relied on the experiences of the municipalities referenced in Covenant Media, Wag More Dogs, and Reed when passing its regulations. The District’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Turner, Nixon and Renton is misplaced. The District argues: [T]he government need not produce affirmative evidence that the challenged regulations are having the intended effect. See Turner, 512 U.S. at 666, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (“[W]hen trenching on first amendment interests, even incidentally, the government must be able to adduce either empirical support or at least sound reasoning on behalf of its measures”) (emphasis added) (quoting Century Communications Corp. v. FCC, 835 F.2d 292, [304] 391 (D.C.Cir.1987)). The reasoning contained herein is more than sufficient to demonstrate the constitutionality of the District’s postering regulations .... In Nixon, the Supreme Court upheld a Missouri campaign-finance law against a First Amendment challenge, despite the fact that the state does not preserve legislative history. Nixon, 528 U.S. at 393, 120 S.Ct. 897. The “evidence” itroduced by the government there included a single affidavit from a state legislator and numerous newspaper articles. Id. (citing, inter alia, City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, 457 [475] U.S. 41, 51—52[, 106 S.Ct. 925, 89 L.Ed.2d 29] (1986) (“The First Amendment does not require a city, before enacting ... an ordinance, to conduct new studies or produce evidence independent of that already generated by other cities, so long as whatever evidence the city rests upon is reasonably believed to be relevant to the problem that the city addresses”)). Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 11, n. 7. The Court agrees that the District need not introduce extensive evidence that its regulations promote esthetics or reduce litter. See Turner, 512 U.S. at 666, 114 S.Ct. 2445. But the Court cannot accept “mere conjecture as adequate to carry a First Amendment burden.” Nixon, 528 U.S. at 392, 120 S.Ct. 897. In all three cases cited, the government provided some evidence — outside of the unsworn statements of counsel — to show how the law would further content-neutral interests. In Turner, “Congress enacted the 1992 Cable Act after conducting three years of hearings on the structure and operation of the cable television industry. The conclusions Congress drew from its factfinding process are recited in the text of the Act itself.” 512 U.S. at 632, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (citations omitted). In Renton, the “resolution contained a clause explaining that” businesses which have as their “primary purpose the selling, renting or showing of sexually explicit materials ... would have a severe impact upon surrounding businesses and residences.” 475 U.S. at 44, 106 S.Ct. 925 (internal quotation marks omitted). Renton’s City Council, prior to enacting the law, “referred the matter to the city’s Planning and Development Committee” who “held public hearings, reviewed the experiences ... of other cities, and received a report from the City’s Attorney’s Office advising as to developments in other cities.” Id. And while the District points out that an affidavit and some newspaper articles were sufficient to meet the government’s burden in Nixon, 528 U.S. at 393, 120 S.Ct. 897, at least Missouri provided something. The District emphasizes Turner’s statement that “ ‘when trenching on first amendment interests ... the government must be able to adduce either empirical support or at least sound, reasoning on behalf of its measures.’ ” 512 U.S. at 666, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (quoting Century, 835 F.2d at 304) (emphasis added). The District may argue that its filings — and the arguments contained therein — constitute the ‘sound reasoning’ needed to defend the sign regulations. Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. 10-12. However, even if ‘sound reasoning’ could suffice, that reasoning cannot rest solely on lawyers’ arguments. Directly before quoting Century, the Turner Court stated: “Th[e] obligation [of the Court] to exercise independent judgment when First Amendment rights are implicated ... assure^] that, in formulating its judgments, Congress has drawn reasonable inferences based on substantial evidence.” 512 U.S. at 666, 114 S.Ct. 2445. Therefore, while the Court may defer to the “sound reasoning” of the government — and not require extensive empirical evidence — it must have some way to independently test the government’s reasoning. Relying on the unsupported, unsworn ipse dixit of counsel is the opposite of “exercis[ing] independent judgment when First Amendment rights are implicated.” Id. It would be ironic if Turner held that the government need not introduce any evidence to defend its law under the First Amendment, and may simply rest on unsworn conclusory statements. The Turner Court did not find the government’s ‘sound reasoning’ — supported by properly submitted statistics, studies, and legislative history — sufficient to defend the law, and remanded the case to develop an even “more thorough factual record.” Id. at 668, 114 S.Ct. 2445. The District also cites, in its Reply, City of L.A. v. Alameda Books, Inc., 535 U.S. 425, 439, 122 S.Ct. 1728, 152 L.Ed.2d 670 (2002), which states: “In effect [the dissenting Justices ask[] the city to demonstrate, not merely by appeal to common sense, but also with empirical data, that its ordinance will successfully lower crime. Our cases have never required that municipalities make such a showing, certainly not without actual and convincing evidence from plaintiffs to the contrary.” (presented as quoted in Def.’s Reply 8). As with Turner, Nixon and Renton, the District presents language out of context to try to show that the government may rely solely on lawyers’ arguments to demonstrate the proper “fit” between the law and the government’s interests. Alameda Books concerned an ordinance, similar to the one in Renton, regulating the siting of adult entertainment establishments. Id. at 433-34, 122 S.Ct. 1728. Los Angeles submitted relevant legislative history and a 1977 report from the Depar