"Graffiti-Whitewash Appeal Lands With Thud at 2nd Circuit"

It's sometimes a mistake to read too much into oral argument, but Courthouse News's Amanda Ottaway thinks things did not go well for the developer in the 5Pointz appeal last week.  Her story is here.  As she put it on Twitter, "the real estate developer who whitewashed the graffiti says the artists painted over each other's work all the time, so if he violated the law, they did too."  But (returning to the news story) "the appellate panel was quick ... to push back against [the] argument that ephemeral art might be less than deserving of federal protection.  'There are all kinds of galleries that perhaps you and I don’t go to that have temporary installations,' said U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker."  Background here.