Bio: John Baker is one of the founding partners of Greene Espel PLLP, an seventeen-member law firm in Minneapolis with a tradition of advising and representing public bodies and officials. A former federal law clerk, John is an experienced advocate, author, and lecturer on constitutional law, land-use litigation, appellate practice, telecommunications law, defamation, and the law of lawyering. While carrying a full case load, John also serves as an Adjunct Professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, teaching land-use law. In 2006, in Advantage Media LLC v. the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, he established an important precedent regarding the authority of municipalities to deny sign permints. He represented Minnetonka, Minnesota, in defense of its authority to block operation of digital LED billboards in a community that generally disallows illuminated signs that vary in color or intensity. He also represented Arden Hills, Minnesota, which successfully established that conversion of a static sign to a digital LED sign constitutes an "expansion" of the use, thus requiring city approval. He is a co-author of amicus briefs filed on behalf of the APA and other organizations in the following federal appeals: Naser Jewelers v. City of Concord NH (1st Cir.), Tanner Outdoor Advertising v. Fayette County, GA (11th Cir.), Prime Media v. City of Brentwood, TN (6th Cir.) and Get Outdoors II v. City of San Diego CA (9th Cir.). He was also the principal author of amicus briefs filed with the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court in Gerling Global Reinsurance Co.v. Garamendi, on behalf of National League of Cities, International Municipal Lawyers Association, New Jersey State League of Municipalities, League of California Cities, and California State Association of Counties.
Education: As a political science major in the honors program at the University of Iowa, he graduated with high distinction in 1983. He graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1986.
Key Publications: "The Modern Tower of Babel: Defending the New Wave of First Amendment Challenges to Municipal Billboard and Sign Regulations," 58 Planning and Environmental Law No. 10 at 3 (2006)(with Robin M. Wolpert); "Debunking the Urban (Planning) Legends About Kelo," 57 Planning and Environmental Law No. 9 at 11 (2005)
Other Publications: "Dr. Strangebill (or How the Last Congress Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Substantive Due Process)," 54 Fed. Lawyer 40 (Oct. 2007); "'Drawn from Local Knowledge . . . and Conformed to Local Wants': Zoning and Incremental Reform of Dormant Commerce Clause Doctrine," 38 Loy. U. Chi. L. J. 1 (2006)(with Mehmet Konar-Steenberg); "The Minnesota Constitution as a Sword: The Evolving Private Cause of Action," 20 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 313 (1994); "The Shrinking Role of the Jury in Constitutional Litigation," 16 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 697 (1990).
Past Assignments: “Signs and Electronic Billboards,” for “Planning, Zoning, and Eminent Domain for Lawyers, Planners and Public Officials,” Center for American and International Law, Plano, Texas, November 2009; 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 APA National Conferences, "Protecting Your Sign Code Against Attack"; Bettman Symposia, 2006, 2008 and 2009 APA National Conferences; “Dormant Commerce Clause Attacks on Local Zoning,” International Municipal Lawyers Association Mid-Year Seminar (April 2004); Debates before the University of Minnesota's Federalist Society Chapter regarding Kelo v. City of New London, against Dana Berliner of the Institute for Justice (February 2005) and Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute (September 2005).
Bio: Stamper Professor of Law, Washington University
Education: LL.B., University of Wisconsin, J.S.D. Yale University
Key Publications: Street Graphics and the Law, Planning Advisory Service Report No. 527 (2004)
Other Publications: Land Use Law (5th Ed. 2003)
Past Assignments: Various
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