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Orange Park man sues over inflatable Super Mario

An inflatable Super Mario is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

An Orange Park business owner is suing the town after he was forced to deflate the mustachioed mushroom-stomping, coin-grabbing video game character outside his store.

Scott Fisher believes the town’s sign ordinance violates his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

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“I just want to be able to display the Mario,” Fisher said.

Fisher first put the 9-foot inflatable Mario in front of Gone Broke Gaming because his business is hard to find.
It was an instant hit.

“There were a lot of families and kids taking pictures with the Mario,” Fisher said.

A few months later, he said the town of Orange Park threatened him with $100-a-day fines if he didn’t take Mario down.

“It was frustrating. First off, Mario was a lot of money. We budget for advertising and we decided to put our advertising dollars into that,” Fisher said.

Now the Institute for Justice is taking it to federal court.

“The government is not allowed to favor some messages over others,” Institute for Justice attorney Erica Smith said.

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Smith said the town’s sign ordinance violates freedom of speech because it allows inflatables as long as they’re not used for a commercial purpose.

“So any business could put up an inflatable Mario as long as they’re not selling Mario-related products. That doesn’t make any sense,” Smith said.

“He is an iconic video game character. There should be no reason that he should be censored from the public,” Fisher said.

Sarah Campbell, the town clerk and assistant town manager, said the town will not comment until its attorney reviews the lawsuit.